Inherited Guilt

America’s declaration of independence allowed British people to wash their hands of slavery and its legacy. It became an American problem and Brits didn’t need to concern themselves with it. They were claiming that privilege of innocence, but the claim was fraudulent. No-one is innocent of crimes their society profits from, not even the victims. If a descendant of slaves attends a university endowed by a slaver, they are benefitting just as much as the descendants of the whitest aristocrats. After all, anyone who even uses the roads in a country whose wealth was partly established by slavery, is benefitting from slavery. Any nation that trades with them, including former slave colonies, is profiting from slavery… 

We should probably avoid grievance and self-righteousness. Who knows what terrible crimes our ancestors committed. And presumably we do not want to suggest that guilt is racially inherited. We don’t want to go down that rabbit hole, do we?