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Audacity of Truth
Whiner-in-Chief:
"[W]hether the grumbling is about Republicans on Fox or bloggers in pajamas, there's a word for what the president and his aides are doing. That word is "whining." And nothing [...] does more damage to Obama's credibility or authority than the sense that a popular president is becoming the whiner-in-chief."
- John Nichols, Nation Magazine - 10/12/09
Renewed push for slavery apology begins
From the Department of Self-Loathers:
Five states did something over the past 12 months that no state had done before: expressed regret or apologized for slavery.
This year, Congress, which meets in a Capitol built partly by slaves, will consider issuing its own apology.
“We’ve seen states step forward on this,” says Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, citing the resolutions of Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, Alabama and New Jersey. “I’m really shocked, just shocked” that the federal government hasn’t apologized. “It’s time to do so.”
Harkin says he and Sen. Sam Brownback R-Kan., will propose as early as March an apology not only for slavery but for subsequent “Jim Crow” laws that furthered racial segregation. So far, they have 14 Senate backers, including Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama. A similar House measure introduced last year has 120 co-sponsors.
“I think 2008 will be the year,” says Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn. He says an apology could begin a dialogue about race that Obama could continue as the nation’s first black president.
“The success of the Obama candidacy underscores the irrelevance of an apology” because it shows “enormous progress” in race relations, says Roger Clegg of the Center for Equal Opportunity, a conservative group that describes itself as opposed to racial preferences. “Haven’t we already moved beyond it?”
Not if it can be used as an excuse to create even more government programs the “disadvantaged”:
Apologies are controversial because they could lead to reparations.
They “carry weight” as a step toward racial healing and don’t have to “open the door” to reparations, says Carol Swain, professor of political science and law at Vanderbilt University.
Other proponents say an apology should lead to remedies.
“A mere apology doesn’t do anything for me,” says state Rep. Talibdin El-Amin, a Democrat who is lobbying for such a resolution in Missouri.
An apology is a necessary first step because it recognizes a wrongdoing, says Hilary Shelton of the NAACP.
He says it’s “hollow,” though, unless it leads to a remedy for African-Americans, who still suffer economically and educationally from the aftereffects of slavery and segregation.
Remedies don’t have to be monetary payments but could be government programs to help the disadvantaged, Cohen says.
It’s unfortunate that Senator Brownback chose to be a part of this.
How much do you want to bet that this was a move timed to, in part, see if the GOP nominee would/will sign on to it? Because if McCain doesn’t, you know what will happen.
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8 Responses to “Renewed push for slavery apology begins”
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It’s unfortunate that Senator Brownback chose to be a part of this.
Actually, for better or worse, Brownback didn’t chose to be a part of this — he’s been leading the way.
Brownback has a history of introducing similar legislation for other groups, such as American Indians. And this fall, he announced that he had found a Democratic partner to sponsor an apology for slavery with him; this is obviously the current proposal with Harkin.
I’m not sure why you thought that Brownback was the one being dragged into this, rather than Harkin. If it was because Brownback is a Republican and a conservative, I’d point out that this is clearly an issue that doesn’t fall neatly across party or ideological lines. (Just consider that some of the fiercest opposition to the state apologies in the last year came from black Democrats.)
I was kinda thinking that whole Civil War thing which was carried out by the Federal Government and which ended slavery would’ve been a sufficient stand-in for any politically-motivated “apology”.
It’s the whole White Guilt/Sins Of The Fathers thing.
I have personally never owned a slave and, as a ¼ Cherokee, some of my ancestors were plenty oppressed as well; I think we all need to moveon.org…
So I don’t suppose that whole Civil War thingy counts for anything, then, does it?
Well, my ancestors never owned slaves – at least not in America. No telling what sort of nonsense they got up in the Old Country, but I figure they left that behind to become Americans. So count me out of any apology. I will apologize for wrongs I personally committed, and categorically reject this racist attempt to inflict guilt upon an innocent segment of America.
I’m not sure why you thought that Brownback was the one being dragged into this, rather than Harkin.
James, I didn’t assert that Brownback had been “dragged” into anything. I wrote that it was unfortunate that he “chose” to be a part of it.
As a black man, I’m tired of the “Apology for Slavery Movement”. My wife and I paid a decent amount of money to trace our family roots. What we found out gave us that connection that we were looking for. I even now the slavemaster that owned my great-great-great grandparents. That being said, I don’t need an apology from the ancestors of that unfortunate part of our history. I just need us to not go down that road again. And guess what, we aren’t. Good enough for me.
That’s a mature, rational attitude T-Steel, it’s too bad more people don’t feel that way.
T-Steel, are you a Dem? If so, your party needs a lot more rational voices like yours!