Originally Posted by PornMD

The fact is that much of Africa is 3rd world, and most black people's roots are from Africa. It's only a correlation, nothing causal i.e. for some reason them being black is why Africa is 3rd world, but it is what it is. Anyone of any other background living in 3rd world areas would probably have no better or worse chance of inventing anything either. Slavery is obviously one of the biggest travesties of the history of the US (along with damn near wiping out Native Americans) but the fact that black people were brought out of a 3rd world area and into a more technologically advanced society despite the horrendous circumstances surrounding it has ultimately helped grow that list of inventions by black people. A bad thing plus a good thing equaled a good thing, and even that perspective is subjective since the only reason our quality of life is really any better than 3rd world quality of life is because of prevalence of starvation and disease (i.e. I'm sure most people in Africa couldn't give less of a shit about computers or internet and are probably live much less empty lives than we do).