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Yukio
Veteran Poster
Username: Yukio
Post Number: 1734
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, February 08, 2007 - 02:25 pm: | 
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Another Racial Apology (of Sorts)
by Devon Carbado
According to USA Today, Virginia is moving forward on something like--but not quite--an apology. "A proposal in the state Senate expressing 'profound contrition' won unanimous approval from a subcommittee Monday," the paper reports. A standard explanation for why an explicit apology is unlikely is that it would create legal liability.Another explanation is the sense among people who are not black (and among some blacks as well) that blacks need to "get over" slavery and that an apology would interfere with that (healing?) process. Of course, one could put forth other explanations--and I invite you to do so. For me, the foregoing two (which are reproduced in the attached USA Today article ) are unsatisfying.
Va. moves to apologize for slavery
Updated 2/1/2007 7:24 AM ET
By Wendy Koch, USA TODAY
Virginia moved forward on Wednesday to apologize for slavery, something no president or legislature has done.
The Virginia House Rules Committee unanimously approved a measure that expresses "profound regret" for the state's role in the slave trade and other injustices against African-Americans and Native Americans.
The original proposal by Del. Donald McEachin, a Democrat, called for "atonement."
"This is a good first step," says McEachin, whose great-grandfather Archie was a slave.
He says the wording was changed because some lawmakers said an apology could lead to reparations, or cash payments, to slave descendants.
He says the bill, though softened, is important as Virginia celebrates the 400th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown, America's first permanent English settlement and an entry point for African slaves.
House Speaker William Howell expects both chambers to pass the measure, says his spokesman, G. Paul Nardo. The legislature is scheduled to adjourn Feb. 24.
Congress has apologized to Japanese-Americans held in camps during World War II. President Clinton, in Uganda in 1998, said U.S. participation in the slave trade was "wrong."
An apology alone does not heal wounds, says Bruce Gordon, president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. He says it's important to recognize past wrongs, but it's more essential to fix lingering racial inequities.
The Virginia effort to apologize for slavery stirred controversy last month. Del. Frank Hargrove Sr., a white Republican, told The Daily Progress in Charlottesville that blacks "should get over" slavery instead of seeking a formal apology from the state.
He asked, "Are we going to force the Jews to apologize for killing Christ?"
Hargrove voted for the revised measure because, he said, it expresses regret "without apologizing for anything."
The Virginia Legislature expressed "profound regret" in 2001 for its role in eugenics, a discredited science that led to the sterilization of more than 7,000 Virginians in the name of purifying the white race between 1924 and 1979.
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Abm
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Abm
Post Number: 8298
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, February 08, 2007 - 02:46 pm: |
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This is an interesting gesture. Though it's far to early to divine its meaning and effect, this might actually start a much-needed dialog accross the country. |
Chrishayden
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 3598
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, February 08, 2007 - 05:16 pm: |
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I don't want an apology.
I just want them to stop.
But they can't do that, can they? |
Latina_wi
Regular Poster
Username: Latina_wi
Post Number: 91
Registered: 08-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, February 08, 2007 - 07:34 pm: |
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You know what, I kind of agree with the sentiments that people need to stop upsetting the healing process by apologising, or demanding an apology, for the slave trade.
BLACK PEOPLE'S HISTORY DOES NOT BEGIN AND END AT SLAVERY. WE ARE NOT JUST SLAVES.
People constantly try to dehumanise and put down the black race in the sense that they always remind that 'you were just slaves'. It is frustrating.
There again, you see that some affects of the slave trade et cetera still affect african americans in the USA today and you wonder.
Should they follow the lead of Rwanda and learn to overcome your enemy by forgiving them and trying to rebuild your life by moving on...? |
Yukio
Veteran Poster
Username: Yukio
Post Number: 1743
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, February 08, 2007 - 08:27 pm: |
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i dont know, latina_wi. generally, healing includes folk admitting their culpability.
it only dehumanizes you if you internalize the idea that you are a slave. africans were enslaved by africans, and then by europeans. slavery is an old institution, and in parts of africa it is still alive and well. but europeans enslave other europeans, so part of it is looking it in the face and realizing that, as you said, our history is not limited to slavery.
but, of course, slavery is part of our history, and virginia was the first slave state during the 17th c.; after the american revolution, it was the same state that contributed to the internal slave trade. finally, the relationship between masters and slaves was then recreated during the post-civil war period, so that while some things changed, economically and political very little changed. it is about perspective...
as it is part of those from latin america and the spanish Caribbean. how else does one, intelligently at least, explain the relationship between black and white cubans in cuba and miami without discussing slavery?
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