Quote:
Originally Posted by DiapDealer
My problem with "acceptable" is that it's the wrong word. No person of conscience ever believed it was acceptable to hate people because of the color of their skin. What people who use the word "acceptable" really mean to say is that it was more commonplace for racists to be open about their tendencies back then. And that it was less common for them to be called to task for their views. It's a huge distinction in my eyes. "Acceptable" implies that it was OK to hold such views.
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Hate people because of the colour of their skin? Likely not. I suspect that if you were able to talk to an antebellum slaveowner in the southern states, he would not have hated blacks any more than he would have hated his horses or his dogs based on the colour of their coats.
Believe that someone was inferior based on the colour of their skin? Extremely likely.
I also try to remember that racism is not exclusive to whites -- one of the worst racists I knew believed very fervently that her ancestry made her superior to any other race (white, black, Ainu, etc.).