Virginia 'sorry' for slavery role

BBC ^ | Sunday, February 25, 2007

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

Virginia's General Assembly has adopted a resolution, expressing "profound regret" for the role the US state played in slavery.

The resolution was passed by a 96-0 vote in the House and also unanimously backed in the 40-member Senate.

Although non-binding, the resolution sent an important symbolic message, its sponsors said.

Lawmakers also expressed regret for "the exploitation of Native Americans" in Virginia.

Saturday's resolution was passed as the state was preparing to mark the 400th anniversary of Jamestown, where the first Africans arrived in 1619.

It said that government-sanctioned slavery "ranks as the most horrendous of all depredations of human rights and violations of our founding ideals in our nation's history".

"The abolition of slavery was followed by systematic discrimination, enforced segregation, and other insidious institutions and practices toward Americans of African descent that were rooted in racism, racial bias, and racial misunderstanding," the resolution said.

The passage of the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865 officially ended slavery in the US.

In 2003, President George W Bush described the transatlantic slave trade as "one of the greatest crimes of history", without giving an outright apology.

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

This is more of the way this should be done. No reparations, but still apologies.

[FlingWingFlyer]

More useless political flatulance. I guess the buffoons get a few warm fuzzies from it though.

[Farmer Dean]

I'm sure we're all sorry about slavery,but it was a long time ago.Every single person that was directly involved is long dead and gone.Time to just move on.

[sgtbono2002]

Apologies for what???
Something that was done 200 years before any of them was born?? I dont owe apologies, No living person does.

If they feel so bad Virginia can pay for their ship ride back home to anyone who wants to leave and then give the land back to the Indians.Other wise they should shut up.

I havent heard any blacks apologise for the 68 riots or for accepting affirmative action jobs that would have gone to more qualified people.


Its all Horse crap .

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

Agree that that should eventually be the case, but only after apologies such as this one provide some sort of "closure" for this bad part of the nation's history.

[DTogo]

Wrong.

[Vicomte13]

This should be non-controversial. Slavery was bad. Killing the Indians was bad. Duh. Every Virginia legislator agrees (who in this world DISAGREES?).

Sort of like the Pope apologizing for the various killings and burnings at the stake in the distant past. Yes, it was bad, obviously.

The real question is, to what extent is the present affected
by those sins of the past. And the answer, for Blacks, is somewhat, for Indians, much moreso.

FOr Blacks, the biggest problem is the education differential. The quality of schools depends on the wealth of the community, because schools are locally financed. That means that poor communities have worse schools.
Because Blacks started as slaves, and were held out of the mainstream by segregation until the 1970s, they've always been poor and don't have the resources, still, because of that legacy, to have the decent schools. Bad schools = severely reduced opportunity. Equalizing school expenditures per capita across states, and across the United States, is the fair way to truly bring an end to the overhanging legacy of slavery. Affirmative Action, originally, was fair, but now the problem is that overt discrimination based on race is mostly gone. It's discrimination based on ABILITY now, mostly, and if you come from crappy schools, you ain't got it. If you're Black, the overhang of poverty is there from slavery and segregation, so your communities are poor. Poor communities have bad schools because schools are financed locally. Bad schools mean low abilities. The overhang of slavery continues. Reparations? Well, to the extent that reparations should be paid to the CHILDREN or GRANDCHILDREN of Holocaust victims, it should be paid to the descendants of slaves. Truth is, though, that the children and grandchildren of Holocaust victims shouldn't be getting cash handouts, and neither should the descendants of slaves. The cash handout doesn't address the problem. The problem is systemic, and the SCHOOLS are the place where the overhang of slavery can be ended. So, equalize per capita expenditures and end local district funding (or subsidize poor districts to bring the per capita expenditure up so that it's the same as in Arlington), and you've done the right thing for the PRESENT generation. You can't bring back the dead and repay them. And paying the present generation won't fix the problem. Education will.

Wth the Indians, the problem is considerably worse and more all-embracing. The trouble there requires education AND subsidies AND quite a bit of wealth transfer, because in the case of broken treaties, the current generation ARE the victims of a broken contract by the Feds (and in many cases, the states). In Virginia, specifically, there aren't many Indians left. To the extent there are, making sure that the reservations well and truly stand up to their full height...which means they are separate polities and NOT Virginia at all...goes a long way to helping.

Black slavery and the treatment of the Indians are America's birth defects. We have come a long way (and Virginia's unanimous admission that these things really were purely evil is a good thing), but we need to go all the way and close the economic gap that these past injustices have left us with. Blacks and Indians are each separate cases. The Indians have had it far, far worse, but even for them, the long night is truly ending.

[manic4organic]

To whom did they apologize? Did they go to a graveyard?

[Mr. Jeeves]

In 2003, President George W Bush described the transatlantic slave trade as "one of the greatest crimes of history", without giving an outright apology.

"That's because he's planning to start it up again - just you watch. Stay out da Bushes". Signed, Jesse Jackson. ;)

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

It might be that no individual American owes and apology for American slavery, but the government (both state and federal) and the country can apologize collectively for slavery.

As for discrimination against those of non-European descent, anti-miscegenation laws, etc., legally that only ended in the latter half of last century. And there are still a few individuals who hold racist views (toward any people group, but including against those of African or Amerindian descent) walking around today.

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

Actually the link to the article which that quote comes from does state that Bush came just shy (in their opinion) of giving an outright apology. Personally, it seemed to be an apology.

[goldstategop]

I thought the Civil War was America's ultimate apology for its Original Sin? Silly me. Let's not forget the Democrats backed slavery and then instituted the century long Jim Crow apartheid regime in the South. But I'm not holding my breath waiting for their expiation of the unjust and racist policies they pursued as a party.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[RetiredArmy]

Well, gee, now that they have apologized, I feel much better. Maybe I can sleep better nights not worrying about whether poor blacks like LaBron James, Barry Bonds, LT, Koby, will still be poor and unable to feed their families next week because they have been held down by the white man. Maybe they can ask PacMan Jones for some of the $81 grand he was throwing at the strippers.

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

Agree about the Amerindians--at least with those who had contracts with the government which were not honored. They would deserve some financial compensation (from one entity to another (government to government, not individual/government to individual) if handing back their formerly recognizes land is not feasible (because people are living there, or it is being exploited in some way and is no longer fit for habitation).

[Tom Jefferson]

This is more of the way this should be done. No reparations, but still apologies.

Excuse me, but what do you mean this is the way it should be done? Who should be apologizing? No one alive today was involved in slavery. Are you saying we should apologize for acts performed by our ancestors who we didn't even know?

I disagree totally. That was a long time ago. Neither the perpetrators of slavery, nor the victims of slavery are alive.

The United States has provided some remedies to the descendants of those slaves. The fact is the descendants of slaves who live in this country have greater opportunities, greater quality of life and greater health than their counterparts in Africa who were not brought here as slaves.

America is their reward. The practice of slavery is a despicable act. I abhor those who were so morally corrupt that they thought it was ok with God to enslave people. However, they are dead. My ancestors weren't even involved in any way since they didn't come to this country until the 1920's.

I don't agree with Virginia and I don't think those living today owe an apology.

[Bulldawg Fan]

Let anyone in Virginia who owned a slave step forward and apologize.

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

Read more of the comments. It could be the case that no living American is to blame for slavery (such is not the case for other discrimination which the resolution addresses), but the government can apologize, just as the German government apologized for the Holocaust on behalf of the German nation, just as the Japanese government should apologize (moreso than it has) for its murder of civilians in World War 2.

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

Read on. It is not an individual apologizing.

[xarmydog]

From the State that elected Webb,yes,they are sorry.No offense to the sane people who live in Virginia.