True to Type

Q : How would you distinguish between the racism of the Atlantic Slave Trade and the quality of the slavery experienced by the Jewish people during their time as slaves in Egypt?

Muhammad Rasheed - The poor treatment the children of Israel received by the Egyptians was born from jealousy. When their ancestor, the prophet Joseph (peace be upon him) was elevated to a high-rank by the Pharaoh of his day, remember that Joseph used his position to send for his entire family and had them living like lords, including his knucklehead brothers. Their descendants enjoyed their new quality of life at the Egyptians’ expense and obviously weren't shy about it. The new Pharaoh of the Exodus period obviously echoed the resentments of his people, and punished the children of Israel for it.

By contrast, the victims of the Atlantic Slave Trade had been reduced to product/livestock because of the obscenely huge profits made from that system. The Dutch East India Company and its immediate rivals functioned as the prototypes of the modern ultra-greedy mega-corporations, and they quickly stopped looking at the trafficked Africans as humans at all in order to keep that gravy-train of money rolling in. The dictionary definition of what "racism" means developed as the justification for why it was acceptable to do this to people.