Posted on 12/14/2015 6:35:11 AM PST by Kaslin
Eight American states have apologized in recent years for their involvement in slavery. Delaware's governor wants his state to follow suit.
"It's essential," said Governor Jack Markell on Dec. 6, the 150th anniversary of the ratification of the 13th Amendment that abolished slavery in the United States, "that we publicly and candidly and wholly recognize the everlasting damage of those sins." He urged legislators to approve a joint resolution declaring that Delaware "denounces and deplores" the slavery that existed within its borders for more than two centuries.
Of course nothing Delaware's political leaders say about slavery today can undo even a particle of that toxic, painful history. The inhumanity of slave labor, its cruel assault on human dignity, the generations of suffering and brutality it licensed — those stains on Delaware's, and America's, moral record are permanent. An apology will change nothing.
Yet that doesn't mean it shouldn't be made.
If done right, a sober statement of remorse and sorrow for the most terrible chapter in America's story is not a meaningless gesture. It is an acknowledgment that history matters. Just as it is never too late to celebrate and be inspired by the moral triumphs of those who came before us, it is also never too late to reflect on their gravest moral flaws. No living American bears any responsibility for what Lincoln called "the monstrous injustice of slavery," but every living American should know about that injustice and take to heart its fundamental lessons. Among them: that all men and women are created equal, that human beings must never be entrusted with untrammeled power over others, and that racial supremacism is a virulent evil that usually ends in horror.
Slavery was not a uniquely American barbarity, of course. It existed in every epoch and was a universal norm long before European colonists brought it to the New World. Nor is America the only society that continues to grapple with its slaveholding legacy. Just last week, Brazil's bar association released a lacerating report on the history of slavery in South America's largest country and called for a formal apology by the government. "Contemporary Brazilian society is still strongly haunted by the ghost of slavery," the report concluded. "The Brazilian state owes its confession of guilt."
Several West African states have also publicly voiced contrition for their historical role in the slave trade. Officials from Benin, for instance, traveled to the United States in 2000 to publicize their government's remorse over the millions of fellow Africans who were sold into slavery. "We cry for forgiveness and reconciliation," said Luc Gnacadja, a cabinet minister, during a visit to Virginia. "The slave trade is a shame, and we do repent for it."
To be sure, apologizing for slavery 150 years after it ended is symbolic. There is no perpetrator who should be doing penance, and no victim with the ability to absolve. But symbolism can be powerful. A somber and honest expression of anguish for the crimes of slavery has the potential to link Americans of all backgrounds in a recollection of historical truths from which all of us can learn. America tore itself up over the issue of slavery, eventually waging its bloodiest war to uproot it — a staggering 750,000 men lost their lives in the Civil War, nearly 2.5 percent of the nation's population. A century and a half may have elapsed, but the memory of slavery's awful toll should still evoke our tears, and reinforce our belief in liberty and justice for all.
But an apology for slavery must not be used as a partisan tactic or manipulated as a way of scoring political points. Our public discourse is far too bitter and polarized as it is; the last thing we need is to turn what should be a solemn act of sorrow and sadness over the nation's historical sins into just another instance of culture-war sniping. There are plenty of other venues for debating the merits of affirmative action, welfare reform, #BlackLivesMatter, and the death penalty. An apology should be a conscientious ceremony of reconciliation and healing — and nothing more. No ulterior motives, no finger-pointing, no playing to the cheap seats.
Apologize for America's entanglement with slavery? By all means — if we can reflect sincerely and contritely on the past, while resisting the temptation to play politics in the present.
Those reparations will come due but not in this world.
The history of the world is filled with exploitation, tragedy, cruelty and misery. Its filled with people taking advantage of other people. Its filled with people acting cruel to other people, sometimes for centuries. Picking out Western slavery and apologizing for it is silly in the grand scheme of things. No one alive today owned a slave or was a slave. No one should buy into historic, collective guilt.
The best apology for slavery is to stop treating blacks as “specialâ€. They are special; just not in the way they imagine it.
Today, I'd rather dis the subhuman muslims. Talk about modern 21st Century Africans!
Come and get me, DOJ!
Word.
We did!
They never could find the 40 acres and ate the mule...
Delayed gratification has never been their strong suit!
There.
Fixed it.
Before I apologize, have the NSA prove I purchased and beat any slaves.
None of the present day backs were evr slaves.
none of the present day whites were ever slaveowners.
So, sit down and STHU already.
I already apologized not just to every slave I owned but also to all the slaves my parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, great-great-grandparents, and great-great-great-grandparents owned. That didn’t seem like enough, so I also bought each and every one of them 40 acres and a mule. I’m done. I’ve made restitution for everything done by the past six generations of my family. Let’s move on and in the words of that famously politically incorrect leader known for his microaggressions, judge others not “by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”
Probably they won't, but they should since they are as much a part of the whole as any other citizen. It seems to me that the act of repentance is just showboating as there are no slaves left alive to accept an apology nor any slave holders left to offer such.
To further complicate the issues, there were black slave owners. There were voluntary immigrants who were indentured to their employers when they borrowed to pay for their passage, they were held as bonded servants until their debt was expunged.
Regards,
GtG
I never owned slaves. I have no need to apologize.
Another ahistorical myth.
Slavery existed in the New World before the arrival of the Europeans.
The Native Americans practiced slavery just as much as the Europeans. They may have had different slavery traditions such as their slaves could eventually become members of the tribe. But the took slaves just the same.
Slavery exist in the present.
Slavery will exist in the future. Slavery is a fundamental part of Islam so it will exist as long as Islam infects humanity.
So get used to it and if you want to extinguish slavery from humanity first extinguish Islam.
Otherwise get over it and be thankful you live in the United States. A country that went to war with itself to free all of those that lived in bondage within its borders.
True words
Singing from the same hymnal
meaningless tripe
but blacks aren’t looking any verbal appolgiese...
THEY WANT DA MULLA AND MORE FREE STUFF....
my advice.... get an education, get a job and keep a family unit
verus
living like subhuman wild animals
owned by the libtards
seems to me the blacks continue to take the free stuff for generations
rahter than stand on their own two feet ...
ironically the enslave themselves..... willingly
Give them an inch, they'll take a mile.
It doesn’t make any sense at all. There should be no African Americans lacking in jobs, education and advancement. They are promoted, hired and/or accepted into schools above everyone else. Why this apologizing, it makes no sense
Surely there are some Viking raiders waaaaaaaaaaay back in my bloodline. NOT SORRY. Hahahahahaha.
While slavery was legal in the USA most of my ancestors could not vote on the matter so had zero voice.
Chances are that the ones further back who did own slaves did not own Africans.
But even if the last two statements are not true as long as the first is true you owe no apology to anyone.
Unless you happen to own a time traveling Delorean there is diddly squat you can do about the past.
Build a bridge and get over it.
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