No, feel guilt for what you may have done, not what other people have done :-)

No one can tell you what you should or should not feel guilty of. Personally, I say no.

No, I'm white, but my historical family came to the US in the late 1800s from (then) Prussia. I have no guilt because not only have I personally not discriminated or owned slaves, my historical family never owned slaves.

Racism destroys lives, it is normal to feel guilt regarding the subject. However, you cannot really stop free speech, though being racist out loud is insanely immoral and just plain wrong in this PC age we live in. Your ancestors would want you to continue trying to stop racism, it isn't your fault at all that racism occurs, you should try to stop it, and continue the family's work for good.

if you offered your slaves a choice to leave and payed them well then they were not slaves... if you had nothing to do with what happened in the past then learn from it and leave it there because we are in the moment

I do not believe that any white person today should feel guilty for slavery. No white person alive had anything to do with slavery. I do not think that anyone should feel guilty for anyone else's racism... period. Good on your ancestors for working with the Underground Railway!

I've never heard the term "white guilt", but it seems like a rather useless emotion. There is tons of institutionalized racism in the world today--instead of feeling guilty about it, do something about it.

A lot of us here in the USA have ancestors that came over on a boat from other countries. Mine is German and Irish, why should I feel guilty just because my skin is white… I didn’t harm anyone…and I am not a racist. I don’t think any less of anyone just because of the color of his or her skin. But I do not appreciate it when I am treated as if I should pay for the mistakes made in this country long before I was born and because of ignorant people who I was never related to. I realize and find it heart breaking what black people went through here in this country even 30 years ago they were still being denied the same rights as white folks. I feel racism and prejudice comes from everywhere…we all suffer it. Not just African Americans. I am married to an Italian American…. Is it ok that I call him that or is every other nationality in the country just American. I think fair should be fair. No one should be mistreated due to the color of his or her skin. And the fact is whites are mistreated because of things long past, hatred builds hatred. I have black friends who I respect highly but sadly there are those who have treated me like I should have lesser rights to pay for past mistakes… I just don’t understand it…. cant we all just be American people and put the past to rest and live in harmony with each other? Martin Luther King said “ I have a dream….” His dream has come true…now I have a dream…I dream of people seeing each other as people and not race, its time for everyone to live for today and not in the past. Don’t just assume because my skin is white I can love and respect other races… but people have to earn peoples respect. I cant expect anyone to respect me just because I demand it… it would probably back fire. Earn respect by being respectful to others… stop being judgmental. Look at what is on the inside and we will find humans are all the same.

What exactly is "WHITE GUILT"? Why is this still around? I understand that time period in our history was horrible and can never be made up for, but no one alive today had anything to do with slavery and neither did their parents. Why can't we move on?

Absolutely not. No one should have to pay for the sins of their fathers. Looking at slavery and saying "That was wrong," and feeling guilty about it are two different things. As far as insitutional racism, can I get some examples from people, because I really don't understand it...

I have never heard of "White guilt", but you shouldnt feel guilt, unless you are guilty. You should however, hopefully fell empathy, for the ones that did go through this terrible tragedy.

Well what about "Black Guilt" - many slaves were sold to the whites by their own people; village elders made a tidy profit by selling slaves to the ships heading back to the USA and Europe! AS others have sadi nobody alive today had anything to do with it but please this is Political Correctness at its extreme - racism isn't universally white!

I wish people in America would realize that the real dividing line is a socio-economic one and not a racial one...

One can only feel "guilt" for that which one has perpetrated him/herself..otherwise it is false in my opinion. However, one can certainly feel sorrow for that which was foisted on others simply because of skin color, religion or whatever. :)

You shouldn't have to feel guilt for anything you haven't done/caused.

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I grew up in a predominantly black area, and I was taught from a young age not to judge people by the color of their skin. Unfortunately, I was often the victim of racism, (it would be called hate crime today) along with several of my non-black classmates. I think it is extremely unfair for any person to be treated like crap because they're a certain color, and having had first hand experience with it, I can tell you that it is a nightmare. My family had nothing to do with slavery, and yet, I feel like I was punished for it. I wish people would realize that although slavery is a black mark on the history of America, that by continuing to focus on the atrocities of it we can never move forward. We're all Americans, and we need to stop focusing on our differences and look for things that promote unity.

I believe that you only have to feel guilty for what you actually did or didn't prevent. I think that feeling guilty for what people did in the past is wrong and not productive to making things better today and tomorrow. Yes, our ancestors did some rotten things and killed and enslaved and behaved badly. That was them. Not us. We can do better, we can LEARN from the past and not make those mistakes. You can only be responsible for yourself not others. If you know that you have done your best and will continue doing your best - then you have nothing to feel guilty about and for.

i dont feel "guilty" that wasnt me doing the wrong thing. that was our ancestors that made that mistake

I don't carry "white guilt"....I had nothing to do with slavery...I don't owe anyone an apology for what I was not involved in...I feel bad that it happened don't get me wrong...Part of my heritage is German....but I don't feel the need to apologize for the Nazis...because I was not one....once again...I am sorry it happened but I had no part in it....

no you should not feel any guilt. I think it is a sa thing that slavery existed, and in truth it has existed in almost all cultures (yes there have been white slaves even) at one time or another and still exists in some parts of the world today. It is an unfortunate part of our societies. Black slavery was a horrible thing but it was not the work of you and I, only whites, stupid ones from the past. Slaver in America is gone now and yes it was the cause of whites but many whites fought to free them, a country was torn apart, more people died in the civil war than in all other wars combined. Though this fact seems to get forgotten. We should all feel glad that everyone in this country is free of slavery (except wage slavery) and work to bring all cultures and colors closer. We should never forget the past though or we are doomed to repeat it.

damn this im from the south and best of my knowledge my family fought for the south..they sold themselves and in my opinion they should be thanking us for slavery cause if we hadnt brought them over here in the first place then right now they would be over in africa starving and getting raped and at war with each other with none of the luxuries of living in america but they are here with the luxuries and still bitching about reparations...so i say we give them true reparations and take away their citizenship liquidate what assets they have and ship them back to africa and put the money back into our economy and then we would still save money on the welfare system alone and the prison population would drop drastically...so go ahead and call me a racist i dont care cause this day and age if you speak out against multiculturalism and non functional diversity then you are labelled as a racist even if you aint

ANY guilt is bad, it is the way of someone to get you to follow their thinking when you do not want to. I think that EVERYTHING to do with referencing slavery in modern culture should be abolished. NO REPARATIONS, NO WHITE GUILT, NO SOCIAL BACKTRACKING DUE TO A WHINY FEW!!! Move on. Leave the past in the past. And bring on the DR's because i'm not a whiny, sympathetic, guilt-ridden little bitch to the whims of a few.

YOU SHOULD FEEL GUILTY WHEN YOU PERSONALLY ENSLAVE SOMEONE TODAY IN 2008. HOW CAN YOU FEEL GUILTY ABOUT SOMETHING YOU HAD NO INVOLVEMENT IN.