Shame has been a significant factor in the long corroded history of black/white relationships in America. On both sides
For whites because they are (generically if not genetically) descended from people who did that to other human beings
For blacks, the humiliation of the victim, the feeling that somehow it was their fault. Which makes it hard to hold your head high when other people can always just see that you are descended from people that that happened to
The unjustified feeling of the victim of any crime – something which particularly bedevils the victim of rape, when too many people see nothing wrong with adding to this feeling – She must have been asking for it. Makes them feel a bit better - they have not done anythig to deserve it because it has not happened to them
For the avoidance of doubt I am not saying that either blacks or whites in America ought (or indeed ought not) to feel like that, just observing that I think it is a factor.
What William Russell was getting at when he said the British could not have emancipated their slaves if the plantations had been in Lancashire rather than the West Indies
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