2008 Woodie Awards
America: apologize for slavery
Michael McLaskey
Issue date: 3/15/07 Section: Opinion
Black History Month may be over, but the struggle for equanimity in the African-American community continues.
It seems a few states are drafting resolutions apologizing for slavery, and even though Idaho isn’t one of them, we as Idahoans need to understand what’s happening here.
Japanese-Americans received their apology for internment during WWII in 1989, and yet, African-Americans still have yet to receive their apology for once being slaves, which is long overdue, according to some.
However, I think we need to forgive and forget.
Sure, it’s easy for me to say. I’ve never known anyone who’s had a slave relative; in fact, I learned that my lineage somehow connects back to Mary Todd, Abraham Lincoln’s wife, and her side of the family owned slaves.
So perhaps I share in this guilt of lineage, much as how Strom Thurmond does for owning Al Sharpton’s ancestor. And perhaps every Jew living in occupied territories is a representative of every wrong done to Palestinians. Perhaps as ludicrous would be a Jew despising all Germans for the genocide of WWII, even though the Nazi regime is defunct and the fuehrer deposed.
Even as Hitler and his Nazi party are dead, so are the ghosts of slavery and racial discrimination — that’s protected by federal statute. That said, since our modern Jew doesn’t despise modern Germany — or at least they shouldn’t — the modern African-American shouldn’t begrudge the modern Caucasian for the sins of their fathers.
When we start indulging in bloodguilt, the results are disastrous. Look at Kashmir, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Bosnia-Serbia War, and even our own American folk tale, the Hatfield-McCoy grudge.
All these conflicts are generated anew each generation, because one papa told his son, who was told it was very important to tell his sons, that those Hatfields are nothing but troublemakers.
America is a melting pot of diverse ethnic backgrounds, and Lady Liberty in New York’s harbor outstretches her hand to all.
Maybe America’s marriage to diversity has hit a snag, like an affair of the wallet — simple exploitation. Aren’t we also married to the notion of peace, justice and equality?
If this marriage is going to last, this extended period of counseling must find closure.
Prodding an open wound doesn’t help it get better. Let’s say America’s past with slavery is like an affair between an otherwise devoted couple (sounds unreal to me, too).
The cheating party doesn’t want to make a big deal of it, and move on with life, but the injured party wants to linger on the injury, and this becomes a common focus of conversation, and eventually their union. People can make any kind of relationship they want, but one of harmony has to work differently.
In order for America to move on and be a country deserving of its pride in diversity, we need to approach the dialectic to harmony, and move away from the confessions of discord. You keep pushing your finger in that old, open wound and it will get infected.
This marriage to diversity needs that apology for slavery, so that this union can continue and prosper. In the words of another guy killed for his ideas, “Imagine all the people, sharing all the world.”
It seems a few states are drafting resolutions apologizing for slavery, and even though Idaho isn’t one of them, we as Idahoans need to understand what’s happening here.
Japanese-Americans received their apology for internment during WWII in 1989, and yet, African-Americans still have yet to receive their apology for once being slaves, which is long overdue, according to some.
However, I think we need to forgive and forget.
Sure, it’s easy for me to say. I’ve never known anyone who’s had a slave relative; in fact, I learned that my lineage somehow connects back to Mary Todd, Abraham Lincoln’s wife, and her side of the family owned slaves.
So perhaps I share in this guilt of lineage, much as how Strom Thurmond does for owning Al Sharpton’s ancestor. And perhaps every Jew living in occupied territories is a representative of every wrong done to Palestinians. Perhaps as ludicrous would be a Jew despising all Germans for the genocide of WWII, even though the Nazi regime is defunct and the fuehrer deposed.
Even as Hitler and his Nazi party are dead, so are the ghosts of slavery and racial discrimination — that’s protected by federal statute. That said, since our modern Jew doesn’t despise modern Germany — or at least they shouldn’t — the modern African-American shouldn’t begrudge the modern Caucasian for the sins of their fathers.
When we start indulging in bloodguilt, the results are disastrous. Look at Kashmir, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Bosnia-Serbia War, and even our own American folk tale, the Hatfield-McCoy grudge.
All these conflicts are generated anew each generation, because one papa told his son, who was told it was very important to tell his sons, that those Hatfields are nothing but troublemakers.
America is a melting pot of diverse ethnic backgrounds, and Lady Liberty in New York’s harbor outstretches her hand to all.
Maybe America’s marriage to diversity has hit a snag, like an affair of the wallet — simple exploitation. Aren’t we also married to the notion of peace, justice and equality?
If this marriage is going to last, this extended period of counseling must find closure.
Prodding an open wound doesn’t help it get better. Let’s say America’s past with slavery is like an affair between an otherwise devoted couple (sounds unreal to me, too).
The cheating party doesn’t want to make a big deal of it, and move on with life, but the injured party wants to linger on the injury, and this becomes a common focus of conversation, and eventually their union. People can make any kind of relationship they want, but one of harmony has to work differently.
In order for America to move on and be a country deserving of its pride in diversity, we need to approach the dialectic to harmony, and move away from the confessions of discord. You keep pushing your finger in that old, open wound and it will get infected.
This marriage to diversity needs that apology for slavery, so that this union can continue and prosper. In the words of another guy killed for his ideas, “Imagine all the people, sharing all the world.”
Viewing Comments 1 - 5 of 8
BrownSurprise
posted 3/15/07 @ 3:50 AM MST
Michael... I think your article hit on some salient points...
It is time for an apology...
And with that said I think you were on the right track. (Continued…)
Alexis Manifred
posted 3/15/07 @ 8:50 AM MST
America should apologize at the same time that Africa apologizes. Blacks were sold into slavery by other blacks, therefore both races share the blame for slavery. (Continued…)
don_001
ED
posted 3/18/07 @ 12:45 AM MST
About the Blacks:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EttkesUjfAI
It's about time.....
Chris
posted 3/19/07 @ 12:21 PM MST
Appologize for slavery? You have got to be kidding me but oh wait why am I not surprised this is a liberal university plain and simple no wonder this kind of garbage would even be printed in the first place. (Continued…)
Dan Arehart
posted 3/20/07 @ 2:45 PM MST
Mike, you have your talking points mixed up. Melting pot is a good thing. Diversity is the opposite, a bad thing. Difference between slavery and the WWII Japanese is that we fought a civil war over slavery. (Continued…)
Post a Comment