Posted on 07/29/2008 7:56:52 AM PDT by rightwingintelligentsia
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The House of Representatives was poised Tuesday to pass a resolution apologizing to African-Americans for slavery and the era of Jim Crow.
The nonbinding resolution, which is expected to pass, was introduced by Rep. Steve Cohen, a white lawmaker who represents a majority black district in Memphis, Tennessee.
While many states have apologized for slavery, it will be first time a branch of the federal government will apologize for slavery if the resolution passes, an aide to Cohen said.
By passing the resolution, the House would also acknowledge the "injustice, cruelty, brutality and inhumanity of slavery and Jim Crow," the period after slavery was abolished in which African-Americans were denied the right to vote and other civil liberties. The resolution states that "the vestiges of Jim Crow continue to this day."
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
They should apologize by offering everyone who is "aggrieved" a one-way ticket to Africa. End of apology.
The Democrat members of the House are the ones who should sign the apology, since it was their party that advocated and fought for both slavery and Jim Crow laws.
As for me personally feeling guilty, forget it.
“The resolution states that “the vestiges of Jim Crow continue to this day.””
They sure do. In the form of United Negro College fund, 100+ Black only Colleges, Mrs. Black America, BET, Congressional Black Caucus etc.....
Exactly! And add to that, when are these “guilty” white people gonna stop this crap too!:(
“The resolution states that “the vestiges of Jim Crow continue to this day.”
Yeah, they’ve got a former Klansman in the Senate.
If its meant to stir up my "white guilt" that aint happening. A couple of my ancestors came here as indentured servants does that mean my family gets some goodies? Hell no, we are the wrong flavor, we were also to poor to have ever owned a slave.
Our tax money at work! This is what our reps are working on while gas prices at $4.09/gal!!! Makes sense no? What a bunch of pandering idiots! Why are they apologizing for something that happened 100 yrs ago? I’m not a slave owner so what good does it do other than open door for some give away program or lawsuits or something!
Next up? Apologies to Indians, women? To children because children worked prior to child labor laws, or missed school prior to “free and compulsory” education?
These demands for apologies are made to diminish American pride. Nothing else.
Steve Cohen is a fool, who is about to loose his one term seat to a Black woman. He has pandered to Blacks forever.
I wonder if there’s a trade off between this type of grandstanding and taking “VIP” favors? Do a little “good” and take a little “graft”?
I want the Turks to apologize for their treatment of my great-grandfather Makhoul during the Ottoman rule over Syria/Lebanon
Will they forgive us? /sarcasm
Slavery in modern Africa
Slavery in Africa continues today. Slavery existed in Africa before the arrival of Europeans - as did a slave trade that exported millions of sub-Saharan Africans to North Africa, the Middle East, and the Persian Gulf.[1] However, slavery and bondage are still African realities. Hundreds of thousands of Africans still suffer in silence in slave-like situations of forced labour and commercial sexual exploitation from which they cannot free themselves.
Modern-day enslavers also exploit lack of political will at the highest levels of some African governments to effectively tackle trafficking and its root causes. Weak interagency co-ordination and low funding levels for ministries tasked with prosecuting traffickers, preventing trafficking and protecting victims also enable traffickers to continue their operations. The transnational criminal nature of trafficking also overwhelms many countries’ law enforcement agencies, which are not equipped to fight organised criminal gangs that operate across national boundaries with impunity.
Slavery by African country
Chad
IRIN (Integrated Regional Information Networks) of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports children being sold to Arab herdsmen in Chad. As part of a new identity imposed on them the herdsman "...change their name, forbid them to speak in their native dialect, ban them from conversing with people from their own ethnic group and make them adopt Islam as their religion."[2]
Mali
The Malian government denies that slavery exists, however, the slavery in Timbuktu is obvious. Slavery still continues with some Tuaregs holding Bella people.[3]
Mauritania
A system exists now by which Arab Muslims -- the bidanes -- own black slaves, the haratines.[4] An estimated 90,000 black Mauritanians remain essentially enslaved to Arab/Berber owners.[5] The ruling bidanes (the name means literally white-skinned people) are descendants of the Sanhaja Berbers and Beni Hassan Arab tribes who emigrated to northwest Africa and present-day Western Sahara and Mauritania during the Middle Ages.[6] According to some estimates, up to 600,000 black Mauritanians, or 20% of the population, are still enslaved, many of them used as bonded labour.[7] Slavery in Mauritania was finally criminalized in August 2007.[8] Malouma Messoud, a former Muslim slave has explained her enslavement to a religious leader:
"We didn't learn this history in school; we simply grew up within this social hierarchy and lived it. Slaves believe that if they do not obey their masters, they will not go to paradise. They are raised in a social and religious system that everyday reinforces this idea.[9]"
In Mauritania, despite slave ownership having been banned by law in 1981, hereditary slavery continues.[10] Moreover, according to Amnesty International:
"Not only has the government denied the existence of slavery and failed to respond to cases brought to its attention, it has hampered the activities of organisations which are working on the issue, including by refusing to grant them official recognition".[11]
Imam El Hassan Ould Benyamin of Tayarat in 1997 expressed his views about earlier proclamations ending slavery in his country as follows:
"[it] is contrary to the teachings of the fundamental text of Islamic law, the Quran ... [and] amounts to the expropriation from muslims of their goods; goods that were acquired legally. The state, if it is Islamic, does not have the right to seize my house, my wife or my slave."[12]
Niger
In Niger, where the practice of slavery was outlawed in 2003, a study found that almost 8% of the population are still slaves.[13] Slavery dates back for centuries in Niger and was finally criminalised in 2003, after five years of lobbying by Anti-Slavery International and Nigerian human-rights group, Timidria.[14] More than 870,000 people still live in conditions of forced labour, according to Timidria, a local human rights group.[15][16]
Descent-based slavery, where generations of the same family are born into bondage, is traditionally practised by at least four of Niger’s eight ethnic groups. The slave masters are mostly from the nomadic tribes — the Tuareg, Fulani, Toubou and Arabs.[17] It is especially rife among the warlike Tuareg, in the wild deserts of north and west Niger, who roam near the borders with Mali and Algeria.[18] In the region of Say on the right bank of the river Niger, it is estimated that three-quarters of the population around 1904-1905 was composed of slaves.[19]
Historically, the Tuareg swelled the ranks of their slaves during war raids into other peoples’ lands. War was then the main source of supply of slaves, although many were bought at slave markets, run mostly by indigenous peoples.[20][21]
Sudan
Francis Bok, former Sudanese slave. At the age of seven, he was captured during a raid in Southern Sudan, and enslaved for ten years.(Courtesy Unitarian Universalist Association/Jeanette Leardi)
There has been a recrudescence of jihad slavery since 1983 in the Sudan.[23][24]
Slavery in the Sudan predates Islam, but continued under Islamic rulers and has never completely died out in Sudan. In the Sudan, Christian and animist captives in the civil war are often enslaved, and female prisoners are often used sexually, with their Muslim captors claiming that Islamic law grants them permission.[25] According to CBS news, slaves have been sold for $50 apiece. [1] In 2001 CNN reported the Bush administration was under pressure from Congress, including conservative Christians concerned about religious oppression and slavery, to address issues involved in the Sudanese conflict.[26] CNN has also quoted the U.S. State Department's allegations: "The [Sudanese] government's support of slavery and its continued military action which has resulted in numerous deaths are due in part to the victims' religious beliefs." [2]
Jok Madut Jok, professor of History at Loyola Marymount University, states that the abduction of women and children of the south by north is slavery by any definition. The government of Sudan insists that the whole matter is no more than the traditional tribal feuding over resources.[27]
It is estimated that as many as 200,000 people had been taken into slavery during the Second Sudanese Civil War. The slaves are mostly Dinka people.[28][29]
Child slave trade
The trading of children has been reported in modern Nigeria and Benin.[30] The children are kidnapped or purchased for $20 - $70 each by slavers in poorer states, such as Benin and Togo, and sold into slavery in sex dens or as unpaid domestic servants for $350.00 each in wealthier oil-rich states, such as Nigeria and Gabon.[31] [32]
Ghana, Togo, Benin
In parts of Ghana, a family may be punished for an offense by having to turn over a virgin female to serve as a sex slave within the offended family.[33] In this instance, the woman does not gain the title of "wife". In parts of Ghana, Togo, and Benin, shrine slavery persists, despite being illegal in Ghana since 1998. In this system of slavery, sometimes called trokosi (in Ghana) or voodoosi in Togo and Benin, or ritual servitude, young virgin girls are given as slaves in traditional shrines and are used sexually by the priests in addition to providing free labor for the shrine.[34]
Ethiopia
Mahider Bitew, Children's Rights and Protection expert at the Ministry of Women's Affairs, says that some isolated studies conducted in Dire Dawa, Shashemene, Awassa and three other towns of the country indicate that the problem of child trafficking is very serious. According to a 2003 study about one thousand children were trafficked via Dire Dawa to countries of the Middle East. The majority of those children were girls, most of whom were forced to be sex workers after leaving the country. The International Labor Organization (ILO) has identified prostitution as the Worst Form of Child Labor.[35]
In Ethiopia, children are trafficked into prostitution, to provide cheap or unpaid labor and to work as domestic servants or beggars. The ages of these children are usually between 10 and 18 and their trafficking is from the country to urban centers and from cities to the country. Boys are often expected to work in activities such as herding cattle in rural areas and in the weaving industry in Addis Ababa, and other major towns. Girls are expected to take responsibilities for domestic chores, childcare and looking after the sick and to work as prostitutes.[35]
Out of all the appellations, I always thought “blacks” was the most practical. “Negroes” is a good, descriptive, and historical term, but part of that history is its morphing into an abbreviated, derogatory term. “Colored” wasn’t too bad, but it too has derogatory undertones, and also has a specific meaning in other countries. “Afro-American” sounds too much like a hair-style, and being multi-syllabic, is somewhat clumsy to use. “African-American” has even more syllables, and also sounds rather artificial. “Blacks” is a good, descriptive term, as long as one does not associate it with the traditional negative connotation of “darkness” found in literature (which no mature person would).
my thoughts exactly. get over it. get on with life. there are much more important issues at hand such as the survival of America.
These hollow apologies have become the political thing to do. They are meaningless.
If I do something to harm you then no apology will make you whole. What I should do is learn from history and try not to harm other people.
Racial designations are fabrications that don’t mean anything.
It's true I have nothing to do with slavery in Africa, but then again, Congressmen today have no responsibility for Jim Crow laws, which mostly disappeared between 50 and 125 years ago. Unless they're Democrats. In which case I'd like to ask them why their party is run exclusively by white folks. Even their black Presidential candidate is white.
Our ancestors were tossed out of Erie by the British, can I sue the Crown?
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