Guilt belongs to some, not all, blacks

I read Chris Edwards' article ("We're all to blame for slavery") in the Nov. 28 IDS. Your article in a word, was about the diffusion of responsibility. You basically argued that blacks and whites are equally responsible for the slavery. So you are arguing that both are equally wrong. And you hope your argument will end the desires of the people who want to know who's responsible for the black slavery in America. \nAlthough I agree with your idea that "it is always a bad idea to associate with a color," I want to add one bit of information you might have ignored. There were, in fact, two kinds of blacks. It was not just whites and blacks. Blacks served as slaves, and blacks caught such slaves in Africa. You might be right in that blacks of the second kind and whites are both responsible for the slavery. But remember that blacks of the first kind are not responsible for the slavery. \nI don't know about the lawsuits that much. But the lawsuit is, I guess, about whether the United States should compensate the blacks who served as slaves. It is not about punishing whites who wanted slavery and blacks who caught the black slaves. In other words, your knowledge in history is about who brought the black slaves into this land, not about whether the black slaves were treated unequally enough that they deserve compensation. \nI have a lot of things to say about your column, but I will not write too much. But I want to add one more example to make things clearer. Consider an American company that uses abusive child labor in a Third World country because there are people who are willing to provide the child labor in the country. Is the American company responsible? What if the American company now brings the children into America and still uses them, but the U.S. government does not do anything about it? Is the U.S. government responsible for the company bringing in the children? \nI hope the Supreme Court will be sensible enough to effectively solve the lawsuit without mixing up history and what the lawsuit is really about.