for those that don't know

Racism annoys me in all forms, I think every person should have equal rights and opportunities.

It annoys me when races are blatantly discriminated against, for example Australias treatment of the Aboriginal people is just wrong and only being righted very recently. However it also annoys me how a person can get into university ahead of another person simply because their skin is darker, even if they are less deserving of the place academically.

Okay Dude. So prejudice is merely a pre-judgement. A racist is a bigot who is prejudiced. It doesn't work automatically the other way around. So I can say someone can be prejudiced without being racist. For instance some men hold many prejudices about women. That doesn't make the men racists. Bigotry doesn't necessarily mean racism. I could have the opinion that all Americans are loud, pushy, obnoxious and arrogant, and that would make me bigot. It would not make me a racist.

So I thought you were saying prejudice and bigotry are types or sub-classes of racism, and I obviously misunderstood you. Sorry, I apologize if that's the mistake I made.

I agreed with everything you said in the 2nd paragraph so I deleted it. Our sensibilities are pretty close dude. It might be because we have the same ancestors. Who were your royal ancestors, you know, higher up in the peerage the better.

I'm not saying ending slavery was in and of itself a bad thing. I'm saying that ending slavery the way in which it was ended may have been bad thing. Ending slavery through war led to a LOT of hatred on both sides, and that hatred was taken out on freed blacks. Had the war never happened, had slavery been allowed to die naturally, a lot of issues would've been avoided.

And I wasn't referring to slavery in Europe. I was referring to slavery in the French, English, and Spanish colonies. I'm talking about slavery in places like Canada and Mexico. Slavery died peacefully throughout the entire British empire, and it would have died in the CSA.

@fkusumot: Good that we can agree on that...maybe I didn´t express myself clearly in my original posts... I apologize as well.

Anyway my family history (the royal one at least) goes back to the thirteenth century, they lived near the swiss border and were closely related to the Habsburger family... one of the most important familyes in europe during the late middle-ages... they ruled great parts of Germany, Austria even Spain for a very long time (they married a lot to get more power)... however my family split form them pretty early and moved north, in my area there are three castles that still cary my family name (yes europe if full of castels) unfortunalty for me they lost them all due to a financial crysis... all thats left now is our family emblem and a "von" infront of our name.

Thats the only image of it I could find online... the one we have is much nicer... anyway thats just one part of my family, the rest were famers from all over germany... and some musicians from berlin... but its hard to track them... the royal part is much easier to find.

So now you know most of my familys past... what about yours ??? Know anything about them before or during the civil war ??? I find that period of time highly fascinating...

What is my family emblem? The bess's have a coat of arms I know it, but I can't find it online again. (I think my family were royal in  ireland.)

Maybe slavery would have died naturally in the south... but when ??? Twenty years later... fifty... a hundred... who knows... maybe the Nazis would have been overthrow naturally as well with some time... we don´t know those things... what we do know is that people were injustly suffering then and there, those people had the right to be free then... they should have been free much sooner just as the civil rights movement should have happend sooner... but we can´t change that... waiting for injustice to end on its own is never right. 

you make good points el dedrin o

I think any distinction between peoples is either observation or a show of ignorance other than for cultural reasons. A Person shouldn't abandon their culture, but they also shouldn't separate themselves into a segment of society with terms and mentalities. We are all people and it is in our differences that we are the same. Just because you are born as one specific type of person or another physically, does not make your character, goals, personality, thoughts, etc, any specific way. You make your own, regardless of social flavor.

 Okay, related to the Hapsburgs. The spelling threw at first. That's a good one, Holy Roman Empire and First Reich. I thought it would be easy to find some link simply because your family's history is so well documented and so is mine. No luck. I struck out! The HRE moved in and my ancestors moved out, eventually mostly to England by the 1400's. The Hapsburg pretty much ruled Europe by 1400.

I did find a funny link though; the Hapsburg and the Rothschilds are often talked about together. Here's a link to a guy named L.C.Payseur, he is truthfully my great-grandfather. And he couldn't turn into a lizard.

 I know most of everything for my mother side. I only know my father's side for four generations. On my maternal grandmother's side I can go back as far as you want. You're doing pretty good at matching me. I can only name one castle, so you win 3-1.