Formal Senate Apology for Slavery and Segregation

[mjs]

I thought I would have heard of it here first. The Senate passed Resolution 26 on Thursday entitled "A concurrent resolution apologizing for the enslavement and racial segregation of African Americans". Both our Senators were co-sponsers and Senator Levin spoke on it. Sounds like a nice gesture.

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill...?bill=sc111-26
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=sc111-26
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/reco...1-s20090618-20

I couldn't find any parellel resolution in the house yet, but it could appear soon. I did find that Representative Conyers sponsors a bill entitled "Commission to Study Reparation Proposals for African-Americans Act" every year and every year it dies in committee.

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h111-40

[larrym]

I didn/t do anything to anybody, why do I owe anyone an apology or reparations? It ain't right.

[Bobl]

It's a start.
How long will we wait for the Christians who bought them and the Muslims who traded them to apologize?

[mjs]

Protestants and Catholics. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/m.../?tag=rel.res5
Southern Baptists. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/m...2/ai_17332136/
Disciples of Christ. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/m.../?tag=rel.res2
British Baptists. http://www.christiantoday.com/articl...logy/18892.htm

I'm only addressing the acts of Americans and those that significantly influenced its past morals and values. Ask the people of Africa, the Middle East, an African-American, or a Muslim about the rest of the world's involvement in slavery.

[DetroitDad]

I didn/t do anything to anybody, why do I owe anyone an apology or reparations? It ain't right.

You benefit [[or could benefit) from the entitlement system.

[313WX]

You benefit [[or could benefit) from the entitlement system.

Yes. Probably anyone with some level of Afircan-American blood in their body will also receive reparation if it were to occur [[White, Asian, Mexican, etc.)

[detmich]

I thought Detroit was the reparation.

[Retroit]

I'm outraged! I think that it is a downright shame that the Senate has been enslaving African-Americans! I demand their emancipation immediately!

[Bearinabox]

I didn/t do anything to anybody, why do I owe anyone an apology or reparations? It ain't right.

Did anyone suggest that you, larrym, should personally apologize to anybody? No? Then I don't understand what the problem is. If it wounds your dignity that much to live in a country whose government is doing this on your behalf, you could always move to Canada. It's right across the river, you know.

[Downtown diva]

I didn/t do anything to anybody, why do I owe anyone an apology or reparations? It ain't right.

Larry, you have benefitted from slavery, even though it was from many generations ago.

an apology is THE LEAST that you owe.

[yaktown]

African-Americans didn't even exist back then! Political correctness run amok.

[crawford]

I think it's ridiculous, and Levin should be ashamed. None of my ancester were slaveholders. The U.S. hasn't had slavery for 150 years.
There is nobody alive who suffered directly from slavery in the U.S.

Enough already!

[mjs]

I think it's ridiculous, and Levin should be ashamed. None of my ancesters were slaveholders. The U.S. hasn't had slavery for 150 years.
There is nobody alive who suffered directly from slavery in the U.S.

Enough already!

It was also an apology for racial segregation amongst other things. Plenty of living people did suffer this and since Henry Ford used racial segregation to increase inter-labor competition, its also a Michigan thing. Just read it before commenting on it. The resolution's title is 13 words and the first link showing the entire resolution is under 1000 words, less than a page.

[firstandten]

Its a start and only a start. When I saw this I realized the apology is worth about as much as the paper it was written on.

[[2) DISCLAIMER- Nothing in this resolution--

[[A) authorizes or supports any claim against the United States; or


[[B) serves as a settlement of any claim against the United States.



I bet you wouldn't have gotten all the support for the resolution if that disclaimer wasn't there. That's why Conyers proposal dies in committee every year because it won't have that silly disclaimer in it.

[firstandten]

I think it's ridiculous, and Levin should be ashamed. None of my ancester were slaveholders. The U.S. hasn't had slavery for 150 years.
There is nobody alive who suffered directly from slavery in the U.S.

Enough already!

"according to Thomas Shapiro's groundbreaking work on the racial wealth divide, whites in the bottom fifth of all white households [[in terms of income) have, on average seven times the net worth of similar blacks. In large part this is due to a major advantage in home ownership and thus equity, due to passed down property from parents. Indeed, as Shapiro and his colleague Melvin Oliver have found [[and chronicled in their book, Black Wealth/White Wealth), whites with incomes below $13,000 are more likely to own their own homes than blacks with incomes that are three times higher, largely due to these intergenerational transfers of wealth"


Maybe nobody is "directly suffering" today from slavery, but whites have benefited to this day, from privilege and intergenerational wealth transfers that is a direct result of the wealth that was obtained on the backs of slaves.

[crawford]

"according to Thomas Shapiro's groundbreaking work on the racial wealth divide, whites in the bottom fifth of all white households [[in terms of income) have, on average seven times the net worth of similar blacks. In large part this is due to a major advantage in home ownership and thus equity, due to passed down property from parents. Indeed, as Shapiro and his colleague Melvin Oliver have found [[and chronicled in their book, Black Wealth/White Wealth), whites with incomes below $13,000 are more likely to own their own homes than blacks with incomes that are three times higher, largely due to these intergenerational transfers of wealth"

LOL, keep telling yourself this; maybe it will make you feel better! Correlation doesn't equal causation! Maybe the poor whites own their homes because they're in rural hick towns, while blacks are renting in the ghetto.

Yeah, I'm sure that trailer in rural Arkansas is building the wealth! You do know that mobile homes are depreciating assets, don't you? They "build wealth" like a fancy car builds wealth.

And NYC, the most successful city in the U.S., also has the lowest homeownership rate. The homeownership rate in Manhattan is lower than in Detroit. Gee, those poor Manhattanites. I guess they don't get to build the wealth like Detroit homeowners get to do. How's that wealthbuilding been going these last few years? Home values down 50%, you say? Even more?

My parents came to the U.S. in the 1970's with nothing. They did jobs that no Americans [[black or white) would do, and now they live in Bloomfield Township. Don't give me crap about "intergenerational transfers".

Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. Why is it that Haitian immigrants to the U.S. are more wealthy than African Americans after 10 years in this country?

"
Maybe nobody is "directly suffering" today from slavery, but whites have benefited to this day, from privilege and intergenerational wealth transfers that is a direct result of the wealth that was obtained on the backs of slaves.

No they don't benefit. What a ridiculous arguement. No "white" today in the U.S. has benefitted from slavery. Most whites came to the U.S. long after slavery was abolished anyways. They were in Sicily or County Cork at the time. How exactly do they benefit?

Using this logic, all descendants of coastal Africa [[most African Ameicans) need to apologize to the interior states of Africa, because their forefathers 400 years ago benefitted from "privilege and intergenerational wealth transfers that is a direct result of the wealth that was obtained on the backs of slaves." They had slaves there too, you know? Still have them today in East Africa.

And what about Mexican Americans? Most are Indios, and were enslaved by the Spaniards, many on what is now American land? Where's their apology?

What about Irish Americans? Enslaved by the English. What about [[Southern)Italians? Enslaved by the North Africans. What about Eastern Europeans? Enslaved by the Ottomans.

There probably are very few people on earth that did not have ancestors that were enslaved.

[firstandten]

LOL, keep telling yourself this; maybe it will make you feel better! Correlation doesn't equal causation! Maybe the poor whites own their homes because they're in rural hick towns, while blacks are renting in the ghetto.

Yeah, I'm sure that trailer in rural Arkansas is building the wealth! You do know that mobile homes are depreciating assets, don't you? They "build wealth" like a fancy car builds wealth.

And NYC, the most successful city in the U.S., also has the lowest homeownership rate. The homeownership rate in Manhattan is lower than in Detroit. Gee, those poor Manhattanites. I guess they don't get to build the wealth like Detroit homeowners get to do. How's that wealthbuilding been going these last few years? Home values down 50%, you say? Even more?

My parents came to the U.S. in the 1970's with nothing. They did jobs that no Americans [[black or white) would do, and now they live in Bloomfield Township. Don't give me crap about "intergenerational transfers".

Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. Why is it that Haitian immigrants to the U.S. are more wealthy than African Americans after 10 years in this country?


No they don't benefit. What a ridiculous arguement. No "white" today in the U.S. has benefitted from slavery. Most whites came to the U.S. long after slavery was abolished anyways. They were in Sicily or County Cork at the time. How exactly do they benefit?

Using this logic, all descendants of coastal Africa [[most African Ameicans) need to apologize to the interior states of Africa, because their forefathers 400 years ago benefitted from "privilege and intergenerational wealth transfers that is a direct result of the wealth that was obtained on the backs of slaves." They had slaves there too, you know? Still have them today in East Africa.

And what about Mexican Americans? Most are Indios, and were enslaved by the Spaniards, many on what is now American land? Where's their apology?

What about Irish Americans? Enslaved by the English. What about [[Southern)Italians? Enslaved by the North Africans. What about Eastern Europeans? Enslaved by the Ottomans.

There probably are very few people on earth that did not have ancestors that were enslaved.

This gentlemans essay can articulate the points you make much better than I.

Tim Wise is a nationally known essayist and author specializing in anti-racist writings. He has been on hundreds of TV and radio programs and has the data and facts to back his findings. Here is a sample that addresses one point that you make


"However, white privilege is not just about the accumulated advantages brought about by a history of slavery and segregation. Though these accumulated benefits are real -- indeed the current white baby-boom generation is in the process of inheriting between $7-10 trillion in property assets that were originally obtained by their families under conditions of formal apartheid -- the biggest problem with white privilege is that it continues to be generated today, even without the snowball effect of past injustice.
So, for example, a recent study found that job applicants with typically "white sounding names" are 50 percent more likely to be called back for an interview than those with typically "black sounding names," even when all other qualifications and credentials are the same. While we often speak of racism in terms of the harms done to blacks, Latinos and other persons of color, let us then recognize that for every black or brown victim of such discrimination there are several white beneficiaries: people who did get the loan, who did get the job, who didn't get racially-profiled. White privilege at its most basic level is the privilege of having one less thing to worry about in one's daily life. Don't get it twisted: everyone has challenges in life, and few people are born with massive wealth. But for those of us who are white, in spite of our personal travails in life [[which of course people of color have too), dealing with the stigma of race is not an issue."

We all can point to someone that has overcome tough situations such as your parents to become a success. The exception in many cases does nothing but prove the rule.

As far as slavery is concerned, virtually every race on earth has been enslaved at some point in history. The difference and I said this in another post is in many cultures slaves could enventually become free but in the US we practiced chattel slavery which dehumanizes and marginalizes human beings. Hell, whites were slaves in the US as well, but they for the most part were indentured servants.

http://www.lipmagazine.org/~timwise/profitandloss.html


You can blow off my points, based on your individual experience, but that would be intellectually dishonest and not accurately reflecting of this society as a whole.

[Sstashmoo]

When are they going to apologize to the Native American, you know the folks they stole this land from? Shhh they don't want to talk about that.

[MrCrush1914]

I'm black and I say keep it... it doesn't change anything, it doesn't matter. It's best to just keep it moving and stop wasting money and resources on this.

[jba]

I'm black and I say keep it... it doesn't change anything, it doesn't matter. It's best to just keep it moving and stop wasting money and resources on this.

You are right MrCrush.....Everyone [[all colors) suffered in someway, Everyone is sorry. Saying sorry ain't changing anything...Lets keep moving forward and forget it.
Only ones that want to remember is politicians who want more votes and people who want to hate something...

[mjs]

Did you want the House version of the Native American apology that went to committee at the end of April or the Senate version?
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=hj111-46
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=sj111-14

If you have an interest in a bill, write your reps and the folks on the committees. They respond because you threaten to undermine the entire campaign financing system. The main purpose of campaign financing is to convince those that don't read bills or track votes that up is down and down is up. In a democracy, the quality of the leadership is always related to the quality of the voters.

[firstandten]

When are they going to apologize to the Native American, you know the folks they stole this land from? Shhh they don't want to talk about that.

We already did ! We let them put casino's just about anywhere they want.

[rid0617]

When are they going to apologize to the Native American, you know the folks they stole this land from? Shhh they don't want to talk about that.

My wife would like to hear that one. She's half black, half Cherokee Indian. She figures half of an apology would work for her

[ASR89]

nb4 blxsoul.

[MIRepublic]

Germany formally apologized on many levels and many decades after the fact for the Holocaust, so far as to give reparations to not only victims of the Holocaust, but to the entire state of Israel. Furthermore, to even deny the Holocaust is officailly illegal in thirteen nations which, in the least, gets you a hefty fine and in other situations can even get you imprisoned.

The Holocaust is but one example of at least partially retroactive formal apologies. Others include formal apologies by the Canadian and Australian governments for how they dealt with their native populations. Japan has formally and retroactively apologized to a whole slew of nations they brutalized during WWII.

So then, it is something more than disappointing, if even not hardly a surprise, to hear not only the misunderstanding of the issuances of retroactive and formal apologies, but the outright hosility by quite a few to these apologies which are most usually tinged with this audacious myth of the a now-oppressed majority in this nation. It's very much St*rmfr*nt ideological territory, and you're hearing it even more on the streets, these days given our new government [[read: president).

On a personal level, I don't find any personal importance in such an apology, but for those openly hostile to them as simply not understanding them, well, "The lady doth protest too much, methinks," eh? To be offended by an apology [[especially one with no monetary strings attached) says a lot about a person, no?