The United Nations General Assembly has voted to recognise the enslavement of Africans during the transatlantic slave trade as “the gravest crime against humanity”, a move advocates hope will pave the way for healing and justice.

The resolution - proposed by Ghana - called for this designation, while also urging UN member states to consider apologising for the slave trade and contributing to a reparations fund. It does not mention a specific amount of money.

The proposal was adopted with 123 votes in favour and three against - the United States, Israel and Argentina.

Countries like the UK have long rejected calls to pay reparations, saying today’s institutions cannot be held responsible for past wrongs.

  • geneva_convenience@lemmy.mlOP
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    4 hours ago

    The slavery was only possible because they were armed and agitated by the Europeans. Get out of here with your filthy victim blaming revisionism

    • MasterNerd@lemmy.zip
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      4 hours ago

      Uhhhh

      I feel like I’m just constantly doing an umm actually here because nuance seems lost on you.

      Slavery was only possible because of European agitators? It existed all throughout Africa for thousands if years. In all fairness, it was nowhere near as bad as chattel slavery, and you could probably make an argument that a lot of if the africans selling the slaves didn’t realize what chattel slavery entailed, but it seems like the revisionism is not happening on my side. I’m not trying to excuse European atrocities here, just call out reductionist rhetoric.

        • MasterNerd@lemmy.zip
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          15 minutes ago

          Africa and Europe were jointly involved in the trade. Yet it is also true that Europe dominated the connection, vastly enlarged the slave trade, and continually turned it to European advantage and to African loss.

          Pretty much exactly what I’ve been arguing?