Are we responsible for the actions of our ancestors?

I believe we are liable for one life, the life we we have been given, we are all given a precious gift of life and have to do the best we can with that life, we can try and improve things, try for better ways but we are only responsible for our own life and actions.

What our ancestors did have stayed for some years though but now it is nowhere mentionned that we are confronting theirs actions so I believe we are not at all responsible for theirs actions.

Hi Goldeneagle...Interesting topic.

I am an African descendant living outside of the US. I will answer your question from my point of view... I'll try to make short refences to the points I want to highlight.

The effects of oppression on any race or peoples is far reaching and shoud be treated with the dignity it deserves to bring about a healing. We live a global society where we all intermingle as equals. We are governed and brought to justice by the same laws (per country). To leave issues unresolved is not good.

Both sets of people (the whites and the African descendants in this case) can be hampered by their past. There are whites who continue to harbour supremist tendencies and blacks who continue to carry the hurt of yester year. A display of these tendencies by any of these peoples will evoke a response in the other (as in your case being fed up/angered by blacks still asking for recompense).

African descendants are not the only people who make these demands or who seek recompense or an apology from those who cause them hurt.

*The war in Israel continues because of unresolved issues.

*The Germans continue to show the Jews their regret for the actions of their forefathers which caused them much pain.

*There are Africans against Africans as in the Tutsis and the Hutus in Rwanda.

*Korea is still divided as North and South (these issues I am not clear on)

I am sure a web search would reveal some more of these cases.

We tend to be proud of the good things our fore parents have done and wear it like a badge of honor but distance ourselves from their mistakes. The American forefathers set the stage through hard work to make that country known worldwide for its greatness. I have never heard an American stand aside an disown the achievements of their country. They are proud of it. Both Blacks and Whites.

We must take the bitter with the sweet. I do not think that the African Americans should keep pressinng for money. No matter how much money is given it cannot bring healing.

The black race has made significant strides over the years in achieving equal rights and justice. They should continue to work to get more blacks above the poverty line. This means that they demand more of the US government and their black brothers and sisters themselves both rich and poor.

The legacy we achieved through Martin Luther King Junior, Nelson Mandela and so many other freedom fighters were not based on money. They appealed to the strength we have within us to rise above adversities and demanded that we be given the tools necessary to accomplish this.

No matter how much money they get .... it will never bring the black race out of their poverty. Why demand money? It is needed to aide in programs and developmaeental projects... How much is each African American (both the free and living and the enslaved dead) valued and how will that money be used to ensure that them all benifit?

There is nothing simple about being enslaved just as there was nothing simple about the bombing of the Twin Towers.

Americans (black and white) will continue to hurt for many many years to come and healing will not be possible if the perpretrators continue to as they are now. It angers many Americans while others continue to cry at the cold and callous way their loved ones were taken from them. The American people would no doubt be mortified if in the years to come the people responsible for the ghastly act were to simply remove themselves from all blame instead of standing up and responsibly seek to make amends.

Descendants inherit the consequensies of the actions of their forefathers. What they do with that inheritance both the good and the bad will make all the difference in the direction for their own children to inherit.

If I fall in the lot where I need to make amends and assist in the healing process of a people hurt by my forefathers, then I ought to do my part.

If I fall in the lot of the hurt, then I ought to do my best not to let the hurt consum me. Whatever actions I take now the consequencies will be born by my offsprings.

no,,as Far as I m Concerned Its nt Like V shd B taken Responsible for d Actions Of our Ancestors .. as At d Time wen Our Ancestors would hav done d dose actions it may b accordin to d Den Situation n so d Present Cant b taken Reponsible for d Deeds Of d Past ...
Its Nt right to b Taken Responsible for d Deeds of Others..
May b U ll agree wit Me..Gud Day

I agree. I do not condone what others did many years ago. If they want compensation then they need to sue Africa for it. They are the ones that sold their own people into slavery.
I do not feel that we should be liable for what others did a long time ago. I did not do it therefore I should not have to pay for it. If I do wrong I should pay for it and will, but I did not do this.

If memory serves me correctly, it was the DUTCH that were the main suppliers/shippers of the slave trade in America. Why are they not on the hook financially for these actions?

I look at it this way, we had no more control over what our ancestors did or dodn't do than we have over what a stranger on the streets does or doesn't do. I agree that slavery was wrong, but it was abolished a long time ago. NO, we are in no way liable for the actions of our ancestors and those who wish to seek monetary compensation for things that happened in the distant past and not even to them personally, in my opinion, are just being greedy and trying to find any and every way to get free money.

What I believe in is that we are all liable for our own actions. We shouldn't be held responsible for an acted upon done by other people.If we know that what we're doing is right then we don't have a thing to worry. Just abode by the golden rule that "don't do to others what we don't want others to do unto us."

No I don't think we are responsible for our ancestors. They lived in a completely different time than we do, and just because somebody who may share some blood line with me did terrible things it has nothting to do with me. I didn't do those things, I would not do those things, and I didn't know that person nor did I have any influence on their behavior. I was not even born. It had nothing to do with me. And just because people did bad things in the past to other people it does not even mean that any one I was related to did those things. I don't know what my great, great, great, grandparents did. I think we need to live in the present. I also don't think people should get compensation for what their ancestors went through. They never suffered the same injustices, we don't owe them any thing. Perhaps if someone from that decade were still alive and they had been mistreated then maybe, but not some distant relative of today that probably didn't even know their tortured ancestor.

We should not be responsible for the crimes or sins of those who are the same ethnic group that we are, but for some reason there are people who are still paying for the errors or wrong doings that their ancestors did even now.
Even the African Americans. Who knows that the reason that many of their ancestors were enslaved was because back in the tenth century they had kings who thought nothing of killing off their opponents and who knows whether the reason some people do not have as large families because their ancestors rejected the true faith and followed a heresy? And we cannot go back and change the past only make sure that it never happens again.
But these are not punishments visited by man in that man says "because you sent my ancestors to the gas chambers or because you brought my ancestors over in slave ships we lost our opportunity to make money and you owe us a living." The trouble is that if you feel that way, you have a slave mentality and that has nothing to do with your ancestors working for no money or your ancestors being in a concentration camp because there were some Negros back in the early 18th and 19th century who felt in their minds that they were free even though legally they were slaves and tried to make a little money to gain their freedom just as there were some Jews and others in the concentration camps who tried to escape and encouraged others not to give up.
And besides even if you may be rich and fortunate, back two thousand or more years ago, one of your ancestors was a gladiator or worked in the mines back in the Roman Empire and you made it even with that horrible background.