Quote:The key question in my reply, and the one you didn't answer, is whether white people just instantly started hating black people the second the Civil War ended. How else does one explain the emergence of the KKK, racial segregation laws, lynchings, etc., if not for hate? And if hate is the reason, are you suggesting that white people were perfectly fine with black people as long as they were just horses and cows to them? Or was there maybe some deep-seated hatred present right along with that air of superiority, and once slavery was ended and the superiority was stripped, hatred was all that was left?

 

It seems like you're saying that animosity between the races was limited exclusively to whites hating blacks in America. The emergence of those institutions was an attempt to preserve the culture during Reconstruction. It's no secret that America was not kind to the freed slaves or to minorities in general through the mid-20th century, but I still don't think hate is the right word. Sure, some folks hate others because of their race, but blacks in America were suffering a class war, and poor (especially southern) whites were just as likely to be abused. Yes, whites were fine with blacks as a component of their farm equipment. Hating them makes no more sense than me hating my Dell. I think it was very rare for a guy to say "I really hate them Negroes, I'm gonna go buy me some so I can abuse 'em." Now, contrast that to Nazis who rounded up all the Dells they could find and stuffed them in an incinerator. THAT is the definition of hate in my book.  

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