Formal Senate Apology for Slavery and Segregation

[Ocean2026]

Bigb- stealing the candy bar was just the start-finishing school would have helped. So keep whining when people disagree with you.

Blacks should take some responsibility for their actions as well. Slavery was wrong as is destroying neighborhoods and making the city with the largest Black majority, the city with the highest crime rate.

I voted for Obama not so much for his policies, but because he gives Blacks and more importantly Black Youth, the best possible role model. If he can make 15% of the American public instantly feel better about themselves, then that's more than Reparation Bills and the two parties can accomplish.

[Bigb23]

Bigb- stealing the candy bar was just the start-finishing school would have helped.

Yeah - The United States Navy, didn't see you there Ocean.

[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.

[ejames01]

You are either a very good troll or really dumb.

Bigb- stealing the candy bar was just the start-finishing school would have helped. So keep whining when people disagree with you.

Blacks should take some responsibility for their actions as well. Slavery was wrong as is destroying neighborhoods and making the city with the largest Black majority, the city with the highest crime rate.

I voted for Obama not so much for his policies, but because he gives Blacks and more importantly Black Youth, the best possible role model. If he can make 15% of the American public instantly feel better about themselves, then that's more than Reparation Bills and the two parties can accomplish.

[Ocean2026]

ejames I know you want attention and it probably takes you a few hours to come up with a meager sentence each time you post.

Try to articulate your positions [[ look up the word articulate). This way its possible you will make sense- just calling names may serve well for your family dinner but doesn't add much to the discussion.

[ccbatson]

Why not? Obama is apologizing for America abroad, might as well do so at home as well.

[mjs]

I think reparations are in order. If I were a calkasian woman I would be able to earn three times what I do, and wouldnt be subject to half of the things I have to at work.

Reparations could help me out alot.

The thread is about apologies to those of african heritage, not reperations or other groups, but since you brought it up. Please provide the source that shows that a white female in any profession makes three times what a non-white female makes.

More importantly, tell me where you work. If we can statistically prove your allegations, I'll be more than happy to help you burn that company down. None of the non-white women you work with will need reperations after we're done. They'll be able to form their own charities.

[ccbatson]

Sure...reparations are a great idea. Just have Obama tell Bernanke to add a shift at the mint to print it right up...as the cost of a loaf of bread hits 20 dollars [[and I don't mean some fancy boutique Asiago bread...we are talking Wonder Bread here).

[firstandten]

Sure...reparations are a great idea. Just have Obama tell Bernanke to add a shift at the mint to print it right up...as the cost of a loaf of bread hits 20 dollars [[and I don't mean some fancy boutique Asiago bread...we are talking Wonder Bread here).

I haven't seen a hint of hyperinflation ! So call Congressman Conyers up and tell him to dust off that reparations bill, then that apology will mean something

[ccbatson]

Oh yes you have...look at the interest rates, and oil prices.

[ccbatson]

Hiding our collective heads in the sand is not going to change principles of economics.

[MrJones]

So, is all forgiven?

[firstandten]

Oh yes you have...look at the interest rates, and oil prices.

LOL Cc , just as I thought we were having a good discussion you took my pitch and blasted it into deep RIGHT field. Too bad it went foul at the last moment

Interest rates are low and will stay low per Forbes magazine, now they may rise slightly but not at a level that anybody will think we are having hyperinflation.

Oil prices are dictated by the cartel under the guise of free market policy

[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?

One more time.

[ejames01]

My position is that this is an idiotic discussion. And I'm not the moron claiming that they have voted for a President to be a role model. You can't claim any intellectual superiority and write ignorant things.

ejames I know you want attention and it probably takes you a few hours to come up with a meager sentence each time you post.

Try to articulate your positions [[ look up the word articulate). This way its possible you will make sense- just calling names may serve well for your family dinner but doesn't add much to the discussion.

[alsodave]

I voted for Obama not so much for his policies, but because he gives Blacks and more importantly Black Youth, the best possible role model.

How magnanimous. Or for those without a dictionary, what a guy.

ejames01, it is best--especially on this side of the forum--to not feed the trolls. They're a hungry bunch!

[Danny]

The white senators apologizes while we African Americans don't get any reperation money plus 40 acres a mule.

WORD FROM THE STREET PROPHET

for Neda Soltani

[detmich]

The white senators apologizes while we African Americans don't get any reperation money plus 40 acres a mule.

WORD FROM THE STREET PROPHET

for Neda Soltani

So, there already have been reparations. Why is everyone still crying over spilled milk then?

[firstandten]

So, there already have been reparations. Why is everyone still crying over spilled milk then?

No, we didn't get our 40 acres and a mule. So I figure with interest we should be at 140 acres and a tractor or the cash equivalent.

[Detroit Stylin]

No, we didn't get our 40 acres and a mule. So I figure with interest we should be at 140 acres and a tractor or the cash equivalent.

That estimate is kind of modest don't ya think?

[detmich]

No, we didn't get our 40 acres and a mule. So I figure with interest we should be at 140 acres and a tractor or the cash equivalent.

You have Detroit instead. Isn't that enough for you? Heck, they threw in New Oreleans as well, another "chocolate city". What more do you want? You've gotten everything already.

[firstandten]

That estimate is kind of modest don't ya think?

Yeah ! I guess so I didn't want to give the RWers on here sticker shock

[firstandten]

You have Detroit instead. Isn't that enough for you? Heck, they threw in New Oreleans as well, another "chocolate city". What more do you want? You've gotten everything already.

Nah ! that won't work, by the time Detroit became a chocolate city it was already used and abused and on the decline by the previous "tenants" . Besides unless you work for city government you pay to live in Detroit.

New Orleans is below sea level ! Who would want that !

[rb336]

No, we didn't get our 40 acres and a mule. So I figure with interest we should be at 140 acres and a tractor or the cash equivalent.

the 40 acres and a mule was promised by sherman to a very specific group of people on the carolina barrier islands, so go after sherman's decendants if you are decended from one of those people [[many of them DID get the 40 acres and a mule, it was all land on those islands that was siezed by the Union)

[Locke09]

the 40 acres and a mule was promised by sherman to a very specific group of people on the carolina barrier islands, so go after sherman's decendants if you are decended from one of those people [[many of them DID get the 40 acres and a mule, it was all land on those islands that was siezed by the Union)

This is only being offered in the interest of accuracy:

A read of the original order shows that it set aside certain land, but did not explicitly restrict which "freed Negroes" might settle in the land. The only requirement was that the family show that three of its men had fought in the war on the Union side. It didn't specify that they had to be from that area, but I imagine it was reasonable to assume they would largely have been.

It was all of no consequence anyway, since the order was reversed a year later by Andrew Johnson and the land was returned to the former white owners. Many historians acknowledge that it put a black mark on Reconstruction efforts as even then it was seen as reneging on a commitment.This is per PBS, not Wikipedia