I'm not absolving anyone, but I think it's important to be fair and accurate on this topic. Over the centuries, plenty of black people have owned slaves--as have people of all races. And while plenty of white people profited from slavery in the most vile ways imaginable as did slave owners of other races), it's also important to note that white people took the lead in the move to abolish slavery in Europe and the US.

No one really knows how slavery started because it has existed since the beginning of recorded human history and still exists today.

Something I didn't include in my article is that one of my sources says there are some 700,000 slaves in Africa today. I wasn't able to confirm that number (but the source has always been reliable on everything else) and I don't know who owns those slaves. But I think what we need to do is take the racial element out of slavery and focus on ending it.