Apologize for Slavery? Why?

"You wonder why we didn't do it 100 years ago," Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), lead sponsor of the resolution, said after the unanimous-consent vote. "It is important to have a collective response to a collective injustice."

"It is important to have a collective response to a collective injustice."

?????

Collective? i had nothing to do with it, nor did my ancestors...It wrong for a nation to apologize to a racial group. Personal apology i can understand, but national apology is silly. If they really want to show how sorry they are for what their slave owning ancestors did, then make moves to end oppression and indentured peoples around to world, instead of their war on terror.

Just a thought.

Slavery is a very old human story , every culture and race has practiced it, including some Native American cultures. Keep in mind countruies like America outlawed slavery 150 years ago, while some countries still practice slavery today .The English empire began to outlaw slavery in 1807 .

Finally there were also white slaves through out North America too, they were called indentured servants, I guess it was the political correct term for slave in those by gone days . Look at how poor whites were treated by the elite whites during the industrial revolution if that's not slavery, I don't know what it.

Push for an apology and reparations will lead to a greater racial divide .

I just thought, maybe we should start apologizing to the Irish for how they were treated and shunned when they were coming over to America in droves during the potato famine. Is there a chance that that will happen?

reply to post by OpusMarkII

Push for an apology and reparations will lead to a greater racial divide .

Perhaps disenfranchisement as well because there are many white folks that have slave blood in their genes. Wouldn't the government have to give reparations to them to? Or would they come up with an arbitrary "level" or slave blood that you need to have to qualify?

Those senators that apologized should be individually held accountable for the slavery they are apologizing for. The rest of Americans living today and those that immigrated here after slavery are not responsible at all, and neither is present day America.

If those senators have guilt feelings perhaps they are guilty. Sue them but not America and the rest of us.

Every country has been conquered and slaves taken by other countries, that's the way life has been on this planet from day one....get over it!

reply to post by ricco78


I guess we should all be charged with thought... er I mean hate crimes

It is amazing to me the amount of emotion that gets expressed over an apology.

I dont believe reperations are due, but the apology was in my mind the right way to go.

I gotta go to work, and will look up this thread when I get home, but wow, I can see already it will be a heated thread. Interesting

Peace out!

I am guilty of being from families that had slaves. My mothers family had slaves in Mississippi and my fathers had slaves in Georgia.

I will agree to apologize if and when the descendants of my families slaves pay me back what my families paid out on their slaves.

When the slaves were freed they did not want to leave. They had a home, medical care and were well taken care of. My paternal and maternal ancestors treated their slaves like the humans they were and respected them as real people.

Up until 5 years ago decendents of the slaves my fathers family had still worked for our family. I has a black nanny. She loved her little cotton ball as she called me.

I want half of all the reparation money and a plaque in the white house.

I've busted my butt all my life to treat all colors of people with respect even when I was called bad names by some blacks.

Why are we at this point in history? How absurd it is.

On second thought I will die before I will apologize for something I did not do or cause to be done.

PLEASE can we forget the color of our skin and concentrate on feeding the hungry and healing the sick? Can we get to the job of bettering life for all people?

wow "alienstrangler"u sure are not racist but the statments u said is somewhat not race friendly lol,u watch to much tv,u seem really set on how u think about blacks,i mean do u really see all blacks like that??whats the first thing u think about when u see a black person,im curious?i know for a fact u have no black friends because if they read what u wrote they wouldnt be happy

reply to post by dizziedame

When the slaves were freed they did not want to leave. They had a home, medical care and were well taken care of. My paternal and maternal ancestors treated their slaves like the humans they were and respected them as real people.

I read once that after the Civil War, many of the slaves actually chose to stay with their masters and this is because many of the slaves felt like they were part of the family, many weren't abused like is typically characterized. I think that many slave owners treated their slaves that way because the Bible actually says, in the Law, that if the Hebrews were to accquire slaves, they weren't supposed to abuse them.

There is no reason to apologize except to make some people feel good about themselves. Congress needs to put their money where there mouth is, and give every person that was a slave 1 million dollars for reparations.

These 150 year old people would sure appreciate it!




Seriously...this is just the issue that the "Reparations" Crowd needs to get the movement started again. Obama is in serious trouble for 2012 and will need to rally the troops again.

reply to post by soldiermom


Thank you very much, I also want my share for losing three members of my family in world war two, Korea and Vietnam.

Also because some of my ancestors may have been slave or indenture servants I also wants some for that.

there is a long list of those nations that should also apolagise for slavery, Greece, Rome, Egypt,Syrians,hitites,sumarines,arab slavers[ who bought blacks with salt then sold the blacks to the whites for gold] darn it, cannot think of anymore of the anciants, but there are more modern ones, like the Russians and the gullags[ coal and gold mines], I think I should have done more research before starting this post!

Originally posted by marg6043
Also because some of my ancestors may have been slave or indenture servants I also wants some for that.

Oh, yeah, like I said, unravelling the entitlement issue is going to be a nightmare if (when) our government starts paying out reparations.

I mean, I'm white from a Southern white family, but it seems my great-great-great-grandmother had a baby with a black guy back in 1875 or something, so I can factually state that black blood runs in my veins — do I qualify for a reparations check?

No? Because my skin isn't darkly pigmented? Oh. But isn't that racial discrimination?

But the Reverend Al Sharpton is darkly pigmented, and his great-great-great-grandfather was a white slave owner. Does Rev. Sharpton, direct descendent of a white slave owner, qualify for a reparations check?

Because, if he does, something is very screwed-up with this reparations talk.

Apologizing for slavery is pointless and meaningless since we still haven't learned from our mistakes of treating everyone equally, gay rights comes to mind.

reply to post by marg6043


You're quite welcome. Maybe we should write letters to these high and mighty senators with a list of all ancestors that we feel deserve monetary compensation with payment made to us.

My great-great-great grandmother was an indentured servant. The thought has never entered into my mind that I should be paid for any indignities she may have suffered.

And there's the rub. These people claiming that they deserve reparations as a form of repentence on our part, don't even know how their ancestors were treated. Like it was stated previously, many didn't want to leave because they received the same care as their owners families.

It all boils down to nothing more than a glorified handout imo.

These people offering up apologies on my behalf can shove them. I've done nothing wrong.

[edit on 6/20/2009 by soldiermom] I can't type today

[edit on 6/20/2009 by soldiermom]

[edit on 6/21/2009 by soldiermom]

I don't really see a problem with it. An apology is just an apology. Whom does offering this apology hurt? The Catholic Church, in 1992, finally offered an official apology to Galileo Galilei. 400 years late, and was anybody related to Galileo really moved by this apology - or held a grudge necessitating such an apology?

However, even though nobody currently alive is a Civil-War Era slave (slavery does still exist in America, however, though underground and illegal) - the struggle to live up to our nation's founding creeds is still ongoing. The hurt and scars of that history of slavery run deep - and yes, they are passed down via the racism and inequality which has (until so recently) been omnipresent. Is still present.

I think it's the least our government can do, to acknowledge the errors of our history and offer this apology - because it needed to be said. However, I think it would be much more of an apology by honoring the memory of our darker side of history by taking a more active role (both verbally and with action) in combating modern day slavery - to which millions are still subjugated.

I am not black, and I guess I can't really make many suppositions on my worldview if I were. But I'd like to think that if I were black, and I were to somehow receive reparations for our countries enslavement of my ancestors - I would want that money to be spent to help stop the demand and flow of Blood Diamonds, rather than receive a check... or to have it donated to the UNCF to help underprivileged black children in my neighborhoods get the liberation of a good education.

reply to post by octotom

I read once that after the Civil War, many of the slaves actually chose to stay with their masters and this is because many of the slaves felt like they were part of the family, many weren't abused like is typically characterized.

Many slaves did stay with their masters - some out of obligation, and some because... that's all they knew. Spend your whole life in a prison, broken by the system, doing hard labor... and get released when you're 40 or 50, and the outside world is going to be a very scary place. Just as I'm sure the world was a very scary place for many slaves faced with leaving the plantation. Especially considering the hatred and discrimination they faced - in both the North and South.

You can find examples of both extremes in the treatment of slaves - with the vast majority leaning on varying degrees of abuse. Still - the treatment of the slaves is a side point to the central issue. The morality of owning another human being and all their progeny. Even among the slaves who decided to stay behind on the plantation - many of wanted to be free, even with no intention of leaving. It's about basic human dignity.

I think that many slave owners treated their slaves that way because the Bible actually says, in the Law, that if the Hebrews were to accquire slaves, they weren't supposed to abuse them.

Exodus 21:20-21 "And if a man smite his servant, or his maid, with a rod, and he die under his hand; he shall be surely punished. Notwithstanding, if he continue a day or two, he shall not be punished: for he is his money."

Yeah...

Actually, you can beat your slaves as much as you want - but if you disfigure them, you have to let them go. If you beat them so badly that they are killed, then you are also killed. However, if it takes them a few days to die of their wounds, you're in the clear.

I wonder how many "additional" beatings were administered by servants of the master to ensure that their initial beating at the master's hand was fatal.

I suggest you watch the following video.


[edit on 20-6-2009 by Lasheic]

reply to post by Darkblade71

Well it is the US gov that is apologizing, not the man on the street, the Gov was involved. Therefore, they should do just what they did, apologize. None of us alive today had anything to do with slavery, but our gov continues on and was involved.

This. This right here. No offense, but bravo for recognizing the obvious.

I really don't see where so many posters feel they should take this personally. My family came to America shortly before WWI, and we have no ties to the history of the American institution of slavery. If someone asked me to personally apologize for slavery, I would balk and tell them to # themselves... and I have. I didn't do anything.

But this isn't about me. This is about America as a nation, and the American government. As an institution, it is only right that they offer an official apology.