What about those who look white but have slavery in the family tree how's that going to fly.

I am all for repatriation! It is about time!

Oh, sorry, misread title..

I'm certainly no fan of slavery, but if I were black, I would thank my lucky stars my family were slaves; reason being I would be a black man in America, rather than a dead one in Africa. I would thank America, rather than demand payment for someone I never knew.

Blah... my grandparents came over on the boat in the early 1900's. Every culture on earth is responsible or slavery, bigotry, discrimination at some time or another in it's history..... get over it.

OK, I am guilty too, my ancestors were Roman... An Equal Opportunity Enslaver... they didn't care where you come from, your ethnicity, sex, color, race you were... Everyone was equal to row the boat... LOL, little joke.

Should Italy pay off the entire human race for Rome's sins?

Should the US pay Italian immigrants for the treatment they received in tenement housing and slave wages in the 1800-early 1900s?

Should not the Native Americans receive reparations?

It goes on and on.

You all are forgetting something, it was not just your ancestors (slave owners) who were involved, it was also the government, and quite honestly I am surprised they have not received an apology yet, how disrespectful.

There should be no compensation however, it should've happened after slavery was abolished, not thought of over 100 years later, when the effects of an apology would of meant the most.

That 115 year old African american woman's parents were slaves, she should be asked what should happen, she is very closely related to it.

ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL. Remember that quote, that guy owned slaves? I guess the hypocrisy still runs through the average american veins.

"(A) Whether the Government of the United States should offer a formal apology on behalf of the people of the United States for the perpetration of gross human rights violations on African slaves and their descendants." - I believe they should. Because if it wasn't for Abraham Lincoln, they probably still would've been today, and we wouldn't be having this discussion.

Reparations? Yes it's wrong. But apologies??? I suppose the government might as well make a formal apology to all African American citizens. Better yet, let's just apologize to the whole freaking world while we're at it, right? After all, Bill Clinton did apologize to the Japanese for dropping the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end the second World War. Nevermind the fact that move probably ended saving millions more lives than those bombs cost by bringing about a surrendur. So why not just go ahead and apologize to everyone for every wrong our country has ever done to anyone while we're at it?

At this rate we'll be owing apologies Native American Indians for bringing disease to them and herding them off their tribal lands like cattle; we'll owe apologies to the British for killing their military men while we were so selfish as to want to establish an independent nation; Hey, we're going to need to apologize to North Korea and China because there's no telling how many troops our forces killed in that "police action"; we'll need to apologize to Vietnam for fighting over there; we should apologize to Russia for portraying them as war-hungry communists during the 80's; who else do we owe apologies to - Bosnia; Kosovo; South Africa? Where does it end???

If you're prepared to offer even apologies, not reparations but JUST apologies, then I would argue that you need to be prepared to offer them to every people of every single nation that we've ever slighted.

Originally posted by southern_Guardian
I dont think african americans should get reparations because over the years the government has supported them. I do however believe there should be an official apology from the government.

But before that could happen I want the native americans to be repayed for what they went through, I want an official apology because this was their land in the first, and I want one of the midwestern states to be given completely to them for their control.

Whoa...I was all with you there until the bit about a "midwestern state". I live in Illinois! LOL