It depends on who you are talking to, and their motivations for making this assertion, often it’s not because they are ignorant of history, or that they even give a fuck about the atrocities our ancestors endured, they say this shit to heap the blame for the Maafa or the African Holocaust on the victims. There’s really no point in trying to enlighten these victim blamers, their positions are not based on history, but on indoctrination and Racism.
Prof. William Mackey said that he responds to this assertion by stating; “fine, what did Africans do with the money?”
All nations, and White ethnic groups who participated in the Slave trade and Colonization of Africa became immensely wealthy. The First World was established on the wealth and labor of Africa, the wealth of Europe and its settler colonies is rooted in slavery and the colonization of Africa. So, if Africans were participants in the Slave Trade, if they were partners with the Whites, if the Africans sold other Africans, where is the money, the wealth, what did they do with the money? Why aren’t the African nations as rich as the European nations that participated in the Slave trade?
Understand, the Europeans made the Slave trade an institution, a global enterprise, they set up many institutions, from shipping, to schools, to agriculture, to defense that were all tied to the slave trade. When something becomes institutionalized it envelops all people it touches. Then Europeans, through relentless attacks disrupted African societies and systems; so what was left for our ancestors?
Africans were looped into a system we didn’t create, that was not created by us, that we didn’t control, or direct. I’m not excusing Africans, but we can’t blame them either. The Europeans are to blame for the TAST (Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade), just as the Arabs are responsible for the AST (Arab Slave Trade) that proceeded the TAST.
We were the victims, and still are, there is no shame in being a victim, only shame in being a victimizer. You don’t have a victim mentality just because you refuse to allow people to shunt the blame for their crimes on you or your ancestors. Fuck people who talk that “victim mentality,” bullshit, they are just boosting White propaganda.
Many Jews cooperated with the Nazis. Check out “Hitlers Jewish Soldiers,” which gives just a small glimpse of the level many Jews cooperated with the Nazis. Do Jews share the blame for the German Holocaust?
Many Native Americans signed treaties and fought along side the European Settlers in their efforts to take this land. Do Natives share the blame for their own Genocide?
The Irish worked with the British over the 800+ the British colonized Ireland. Are the Irish responsible for the Potato Famine or the many other atrocities the British committed against them?
I could go on and on. All Races have sell-outs, compromises, and traitors; that doesn’t excuse the atrocities committed against their people, or make them responsible for what invaders do to them and their nations.
People pull that “Blacks sold each other into slavery,” BS because they seek to dehumanize us and excuse crimes committed against us, but you don’t find them doing that to other groups that have suffered atrocities, lesser atrocities than we have.
So, you can run all that down. Or you could just say, “fuck you!” to the Whites and New Negros who talk that shit.