A Bunch Of People Who Never Owned Slaves Apologize To A Bunch Of People Who Were Never Slaves
Stupid…
WASHINGTON (CNN)—The U.S. Senate on Thursday passed a resolution apologizing to African-Americans for the wrongs of slavery.
The nonbinding resolution sponsored by Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, is similar to a House resolution adopted last year that acknowledged the wrongs of slavery but offered no reparations. The House will have to vote on the issue again because the composition of that chamber changed after last November’s elections.
The resolution was approved on a voice vote.
Because it is nonbinding, it does not have to be forwarded to the president for his signature.
Several states have passed similar resolutions, but the House resolution was the first time a branch of the federal government did so.
Harkin’s resolution “acknowledges the fundamental injustice, cruelty, brutality and inhumanity of slavery, and Jim Crow laws,” and “apologizes to African-Americans on behalf of the people of the United States for the wrongs committed against them and their ancestors who suffered under slavery and Jim Crow laws.”
This is meaningless, so maybe it’s not worth getting upset about. But because it’s meaningless, it’s also a little irksome. Especially because people are apologizing on my behalf for something either myself nor any of my ancestors had any part of.
I am the descendant of Norwegian immigrants who homesteaded in North Dakota in 1901. Well after the civil war and after slavery was abolished in this country. My grandmother spoke of not even having seen a black person until she was well into her 20’s. My family were not slave holders, and had no part in promoting slavery or Jim Crow laws.
If we want to apologize for the Vikings pillaging half of Europe then maybe I’ll join in. But slavery? Not something I took part in.
And, frankly, nobody alive today was ever a slave. So who are we even apologizing to? The descendants of slaves? What about the Jews? They’ve been enslaved, or treated like slaves, throughout their culture’s long history. Irish and Italian workers were treated very poorly, if not exactly enslaved, upon coming to this country. The American Indians were enslaved at various times in their history, by one another in their tribal disputes and by European settlers in America.
My point is, where do the apologies end? The Emancipation Proclamation. The Civil Rights Act. The 13th amendment. These are things that matter. These were acts that actually changed history and made people more free. Pandering apologies made by pandering politicians looking to please one special interest group or another are ultimately meaningless.
We’ve got a long history, and unfortunately that history consists of some terrible things like slavery. But slavery has been ended, and I think we gain little from perpetually living in the past.
