Jason, just ignore it all. There should have never been slavery, however there was. There are no slave's alive today, and no slave holders alive today, so no-one owes anyone anything. I can never remember which President said it, I want to say FDR, however it's hard for me to think he would. The President that did say it said, that the hyphenation of our national identity ( African, Mexican, Chinese, Indian, Irish, Italian, etc. ) is the downfall of our nation. That was not his exact words but you get the meaning. When I meet a person who hyphenates their nationality I automatically see them as a racist, and I do not go out of my way to be their friend unless they are from another country and have become a Naturalized Citizen. Then they are in fact African, Mexican etc., American. You can be proud of your heritage, however if you are born in America, YOUR AMERICAN. That should be your first pride. No-one is guaranteed anything. If you educate yourself and work hard you will eventually overcome all obstacles. There will always be someone who hates you whether you are white, black, Chinese, Mexican, etc. You will never stop that. The world will pass you by if you concentrate on the hate from the very small amount of people who actually do. By the way, Black and White are not a RACE irregardless of what people say. America seems always to get the blame for slavery. People need to look a few things like: only a very very very few large monoculture farms and very rich people owned slaves ( percentage of the population, although 1 was too many ). Yes there were others less rich who owned them. Slaves were not only black. Brazil took the most slaves not America. Slavery was world wide and continued to I think 1974 in some countries and continues today in different forms. Slaves were sold by many different people in Africa, lots of which were Black. Slaves were freed because of White people who knew it was wrong. They first tried it politically. In the end they laid down their lives to do it. I guess that doesn't count though. This could go on for as long as the argument has been going. You will not win the fight. You can only take solace in knowing that the people who hate, and the people who are not educating themselves and working hard will one day wake up and realize that they have wasted their lives fighting a fight that was useless. Lastly, let me relate a story I was told to me by a Mexican guy I worked with in 1984 in Oakland CA. Carlos was about 50 at the time. I was 21. Carlos told me that when he was a kid his family worked the fields. ( my cousins did also ) Carlos would say that at night the guys would drink beer around a fire and complain about how whitey has them down. Carlos said his dad would say the same thing. Then when they were at home, Carlos's dad would tell them that those guys were wrong. The only person who has you down is you. Carlos's dad worked his ass off. 2 sons, 1 daughter, all college educated and successful. Great guys. I worked under Carlos for awhile. He was a very educated guy with a great attitude, as were most of the guys I worked with back then ( the whites were the minority there ) So I know it's hard, I feel the same way you do. Just remember they are wasting their lives fighting ghost. Sorry for the long post.
Jeff
You hit that one out of the park Jason!
) then a lot of the other black people label them as an "Uncle Tom". 
If you come here, from a foreign country, you are an American of xxxxxxx descent. Very simple.