Some dude in 2020: You should not judge a historical figure, a man from the past, by the modern ethics! He was a product of his time. 500 years ago his actions were completely normal! It’s present-ism, we can’t judge… bla-bla-bla…
People from 500 years ago: Oh my, this guy is such a bastard, a genocidal butcher, a total piece of garbage. Let’s keep records of this douche so people from the future shall hate him too.
Columbus’s crew were writing about what a genocidal monster he was. There were mutinies and uprisings by his crews and colonists constantly. If his contemporaries were willing to risk the ire of the queen of Spain to oppose him, we have every right to call him out on it too.
My fave professor always says “there have always been antiracist people doing antiracist work”. So yeah, I can hold historical peeps to a higher standard because there were good, ethical people who knew better
Saying “you can’t judge the founding fathers on slavery” because “they didn’t know any better” or “that’s just how it was back then” is a cop out. It’s a standard whitewash that is still used to excuse racists today.
And I can promise you that there absolutely positively were people back then who knew slavery was wrong, and voiced their opinion that slavery was evil. Starting with the slaves themselves.
And if the words of the slaves somehow isn’t good enough, then listen to what one of the founding fathers had to say about the evils of slavery: (x)
Saying people didn’t know any better is whitewashing history, and perpetuating a false image of white purity and innocence. Slavers knew exactly what they were doing. All in the name of free labor and profit. The exploitive nature of capitalism hasn’t changed very much. I’ll bet 100 years from now people will argue that Jeff Bezos didn’t know he was risking the lives of his employees in the middle of a pandemic. Because “times were different back then.”
So yeah, people who insist that “times were just different back then” are racism apologists, whether they realize it or not. That worn out excuse is as old as slavery itself. Call those fuckers out.
