[flybigjet]

For frell's sake.....

CONTEXT.

People need to learn to apply it.

Were Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, *insert name here*, etc. racist?

The answer is "probably to undoubtedly"...... IF you judge by 21st century mores.

However..... FOR THEIR DAY AND AGE..... they were extremely enlightened individuals in comparison to their contemporaries.

I'm so, so, SO sick of people using the lens of their beliefs of today to judge people in the past.

It's all about the context. Would Lincoln be considered racist today? yes. Would Lincoln be considered racist in the 1860's? He would have been (and was) judged to be a progressive and thought that slavery was abhorrent enough to risk the fate of the entire Union on that belief.

He was also a realist to know how far he could successfully push, and at what point he'd lose the backing of the public/Congress/financiers, etc. who's support he needed to achieve his vision of freeing the slaves.

He knew he could only push so far, and had to compromise on a lot of things he probably didn't want to in order to be successful in his quest.

But, let's cancel and denigrate him because he wasn't "woke" enough from a 21st century perspective and offends 21'st century sensibilities, ok?

Context. It's what history is made of.

Sheesh.

R.