Pam,

I agree to a point. However, if we are going to have a national conversation about race, as Barack stated. Then African Americans have to allow Whites, Hispanics and others to share their views without being labeled or called a racist.

If we want to move beyond this conversation, then both sides of the table need to be free to talk without being attacked.

African American were slaves during 1619-1865 in this country. But, they were not the first, the Irish was the first slaves dating back to 1607.

Pam, I've often wondered, what would of happen to those 600,000 African American, if they would have stayed in Africa. Realizing other countries had slavery at the time, Britain, France etc.. Speaking only for our history, what would of happen to those people, had not been sold. Perhaps you know the answer?

Thanks Pam!

Those guys are awful and it's not very surprising that Buchanan would think (and say) such things. He's an anachronism and needs to be retired .
But I wanted to say that for me (a 30yr old gay white boy from Ky) I don't get scared when I see a group of Black men on the street. Let me amend that , I don't get scared when I see a group of gay men on the street , but if I walk up on a group of more than a few obviously straight guys (of any age or race), I get nervous and try to shuffle past quickly . I'm not denying that I likely have some inherent racism in me that I've picked up over the years, but in all honesty, I've never been beaten up by "black men" I've been gay bashed by "straight men" more than once in my life . Anytime I see a group of obviously straight white teenage boys just hanging out, I try to walk past quietly or even avoid them altogether . I think when discussing which groups make us uncomfortable , we also have to take into account personal history , as well as cultural history.
Kristol and Buchanan are jackasses of the hightest caliber, btw.

If for purposes of this national discussion, racism is defined as only white anti black discrimination, then further discussion is pointless. White anti black discrimination is not a significant cause of the black socioeconomic disparity.

As a regular viewer of "McLaughlin Group" on PBS, I've often been amazed how Buchanan can mix intelligent statements with insipid ones inside the same paragraph.

Above, we see how African descendants in America should be grateful that their ancestors were forcibly abducted, their African identities wiped out and their African religions rubbed into extinction. It may be true that African-Americans make up the wealthiest black population on earth, but this is hardly because white men planned it that way: for the most part, with occasional exceptions, white America did everything it could to "keep the [Negroes] in their place" while advancing and compounding white wealth in every way conceivable.

Any LGBT reader does well to note how Buchanan's doubletalk-doublethink can be applied to issues re homosexuality as well. In a recent McLaughlin installment, Buchanan referred to the Roman Catholic pedophile scandal as being perpetrated by "gay priests" --- as if none of the pedophile victims were female, and as if there is no meaningful distinction between a priest who is openly GLBT-affirming and one who is secretly molesting altar boys (and maybe altar girls, too).

Finally, we must recall how Buchanan foamed at the mouth at the 1988 Republican National Convention. His vitriol at the convention podium against gays and lesbians then was so extreme that even middle America was made to wince. Apparently it is true: you can't teach an old, rabid dog new tricks.

Logan,

Slavery has been rife throughout all of ancient history. Most, if not all, ancient civilizations practiced this institution and it is described (and defended) in early writings of the Sumerians, Babylonians, and Egyptians. It was also practiced by early societies in central America and Africa.

Africans were subjected to several forms of slavery over the centuries, including chattel slavery under both the Muslims with the trans-Saharan slave trade, and Europeans through the trans-Atlantic slave trade.

Even after the abolition of the slave trade in Africa, Colonial powers used forced labor – such as in King Leopold's Congo Free State (which was operated as a massive labor camp) or as libertos on the Portuguese plantations of Cape Verde or San Tome.

To answer your question Logan, what would of happen to those 600,000 transported into our country. Those people would have been sold into another slave trade, to the Spanish, Europeans, Russian, Arabic countries, used in labor massive camps in their own country, or murdered.

The European colonization movement of the second half of the 19th century put an end to slavery in many parts of Africa..." and that "the British turned their attention back to Africa. They moved onto the continent, took control of those governments that were thriving on slavery, and attempted to abolish the institution."

Further "in the 1870's British missionaries moved into Malawi, the place of origin of the Indian Ocean Islamic slave trade, in an attempt to interdict it at its source... In Dahomey the French abolition of slavery resulted in the cessation of ceremonial human sacrifice."

Unfortunately this was not enough for "some parts of Africa and much of the Islamic world retained slavery at the end of World War I. For this reason the League of Nations and later the United Nations took the final extinction of slavery to be one of their obligations. The League had considerable success in Africa, with the assistance of the colonial powers and by the late 1930's slavery was abolished in Liberia and Ethiopia". The problem was such that "After World War II the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights ... proclaimed the immorality and the illegality of slavery. Slavery was abolished in most Islamic countries, although it persisted in Saudi Arabia into the 1960's. It finally was made illegal in the Arabian Peninsula in 1962."

As a footnote to Oliver, it is my understanding that slavery is practiced to this very day in Sudan. The Sudan elite, who are themselves black, have black slaves. This black-on-black slavery is relatively humane: in fact, many Sudanese bushland people offer their children, especially their daughters, up for slave service because the slaves live a more affluent life than the "free" but impoverished tribes-people do in the bushlands.