Slavery issue: No apologies necessary
- Related Stories
- Happy Juneteenth Everybody!Juneteenth is celebrated in America on June 19 to ...
- Two Real MavericksFebruary 12, 2009 will mark the 200th birthday for...
- In the Age of Obama, Still Playing the Race CardBy William Jelani Cobb Here's what hasn't changed ...
by William Jelani Cobb
The House is likely to soon pass legislation offering a formal apology for slavery. The Senate passed the same resolution on June 18, acknowledging the “injustice, cruelty and brutality” of slavery.
The timing was a sad irony – it passed the Senate the day before Juneteenth. June 19 marks the annual commemoration of the day when slaves in Texas received word of emancipation, more than two years after Lincoln issued his proclamation.Â
 The response to the resolution has been a sort of inverted Juneteenth. The holiday recognizes a grand federal proclamation about slavery that was deliberately withheld from black people. Now Congress is on the verge of passing a grand federal proclamation about slavery, which black America simply chose to ignore. The primary effect of this apology has been the synchronized rolling of 66 million eyes.
It’s not so much the idea that the evils of slavery don’t warrant recognition – I’ve devoted my career as a history professor to precisely that task. It’s the marrow-deep assumption that this really isn’t about us. There is weary history involved here.Â
 Personally, this is the third apology for slavery I’ve received, each bestowed with great gravity and something resembling sincerity, like the racial equivalent of receiving an honorary degree. The first was issued by a white classmate in grad school whose overwrought admission to her family’s slaveholding past preceded her hitting on me. The next was a random mea culpa from an editor who came clean over lunch and all but offered me the keys to his Jetta as reparations. The square root of all these apologies is the narcissism of the confessors.Â
 Last year, Barack Obama’s presidential campaign managed to turn the word “cynicism” into a term of profanity. But the problem is not with cynicism; it’s with the fact that cynicism is often the most accurate predictor of society. It is cynical, but not necessarily inaccurate, to say that apologizing for slavery is akin to an adulterer who confesses solely to clear his own conscience. That is to say, the fundamental selfishness of the offense is compounded, not alleviated, by the selfishness of the confession. “We really shouldn’t have done that whole slavery thing. My bad. Boy, I feel better already … I’m sorry, did I just call you boy?”Â
 It is cynical, but not necessarily inaccurate, to say that an apology could pass the Senate – and likely the House of Representatives – precisely because there is now a black man in the White House. You can offer these kinds of legislative confections in post-racial America. No harm, no foul. You guys got a black president out of the deal. (President Obama himself could not issue such an apology, since it would be something of a historical conflict of interest.)Â
 In politics, there is no end to the dividends of symbolism, and for the cost of a few sheets of paper, Congress has done something that allows the country to feel better about itself. Most of it, anyway.
But slavery was real, not symbolic. Dig into the nation’s history, and we find ourselves lousy on race. The admissions of Missouri, Maine, California, Texas, Florida and Kansas were directly tied to the politics of slavery. Enslaved hands built the Capitol where this apology was voted on.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0609/24157.html#ixzz0JS8URuTo&C
- Recommend this?
-
Email This
Loading ...This story is filed under: Politics
Now on Black Power
-
PoliticsBarnes and Noble Store Window Features Obama Alongside Monkey Book *UPDATE* B & N Spokesperson Issues Apology -
Pop VulturesNew Orleans 9th Ward resident and Trouble the Waters star, Kimberly Rivers, aka, Black Kold Madina Goes from the Hurricane to The Rap Game
-
A Guy Named LeonLifestyleCelebrity Resolutions The New Year's Resolutions I'd Like to See Famous People Make
-
Arts & CultureJohn Hope Franklin, the Prince Who Refused the Kingdom Henry Louis Gates Eulogizes John Hope Franklin
- Barnes and Noble Store Window Features Obama Alongside Monkey Book *UPDATE* - 202 emails
- Two Arizona Female Teens Accused of Pimping Other Girls - 40 emails
- Who Really Killed Malcolm X? An Exclusive Interview with Khalil Islam Who Spent 22 Years in Prison for His Murder - 28 emails
- Please Don’t Be Black - 28 emails
- Farajii Muhammad Leads a New School of Leaders - 24 emails
- Shocking Numbers Show African American Community Flourishing During Recession - 22 emails
- Black Iraqis in Basra Face Racism - 20 emails
- Women by Design - 16 emails
- See Baby Discriminate. Can Babies Be Racist? - 14 emails
- I Just Don’t See Her in the White House - 12 emails
Black Power Announcement
NEW!! Blackpower.com is tired of listening to the same 10 songs on the radio too. So we’re starting an “Emerging Artists Series” where we’ll feature the music of up and coming musicians. We want to showcase new talent that advances the art. If you are an upcoming musician,and are interested in being featured in our showcase, please  send us an email with your music/video/footage and a bio. Let us know why you should be featured. All genres of music are welcome from rock to hip hop to R & B to Yiddish wedding music. Solo acts and groups are welcome.  Send submissions to submit@blackpower.com and put “Emerging Artist” in the subject line. We look forward to hearing from you.
Blackpower.com welcomes great minds and great writers.  We offer diverse points of view, from right to left and everywhere in between.   We would love to see your stories on politics, technology, entertainment or Russian puppet-making. Its all good. For more information, please contact us at info@blackpower.com.
Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/blackpower2008
Its to late to make an apology for slavery it sounds good but it does not help the children of slaves who happen to live in Latin America and in South America in the Caribbeans and in north America. Children of slaves do´t need an apology we need the truth about history if an apology is made then tell the world why its being made the full truth not a half truth. If Enslaved hands built the Capitol then put it on CNN,Fox,NBC and all the major news stations in and out of the USA. And lets not forget our African brothers because their forefather had a hand in this so the apology should also came from them not for what they did but for what was done to black people that might or could have been one of their family members at the hands of their forefathers. Give us better schools,better teachers,better polices,start better programs to educate our parents who have very little education so they will know the importants of a good education for their children. We dont need words an apology is nothing but a puff of air. We need action we need help we need to be more respected as a group of people not only in America but also around the world. Its a bullshit shame the white house had to wait until a black man moved into the white house to make this apology. Obama started something well it was started a long time ago with the one that came before Obama like (X)or Marcus,Martin Booker,Truth,Evens and many more. So dont be fool by this apology because race still matters.
> Butch
cant anyone get the fuck over slavery bullshit yet..quit crying about something that never happened to you and quit punishing and making white people think its there fault when 95 percent of white americans alive now had nothing to do with it nor any african americans grow up already…what are you gonna do next complain b/c the white house isnt called the black house..theres no white history month or asian history month..ect ect ect….if one thing is celebrated then ever race should have ther own ..things need to be fair and there not..its a damn shame but its the truth…im not racist in the slightest ..so why cant anyone else let this go..im sick of black people bitching and moaning about this when none of it happened to them..try being jewish in concentration camps
> Rodney
I’m a 14-year old boy from the Netherlands. In my history text book they dedicate a whole chapter to the holocaust and 2 pages to slavery. So if you’re implying both subjects get the same recognition, I can’t help but disagree. However, I do think you’re right that we should let it go.. There’s enough racism still going on today so we should focus on that instead of something that happened a century ago.
> Nick
Please everybody just go pass Rodney´s comments because their to dumb and stupid to read. Do´t wast your time he is not worth a reply. And to Nick if their is still racism all over the world today then why should we let it go we will let Ãt go when it stops. Maybe the schools in the Netherlands should focus more on what happened in South Africa doing the apartheid system and that was not so long ago. As black people we will never let it go and we will never let white all over the world forget it. Don´t tell us to let it go try telling a Jew to forget the past or try tell a south african to forget how they were treated at the hands of the Boers.
Again Rodney is just dumb and stupid.
> Butch
Rodney and Nick, This is something you would never understand so please keep your get over it comments to yourself, African Americans as a people went through a whole lot of stuff that still isn’t right today so, It’s a touchy situation that you and your family will never endure or haven’t endure. But the scars are still there from this tradegy . Until you lived it you can’t comment on anything so leave it alone.
> Hollywood
Thank you Hollywood.
butch
> Butch
We as african americans can never forget about slavery, the news oftren talks about how the Chinese,Indians, and the Japanese were paid for imprisonment, and all we get is more invisible chains. The white recieved its named because no other race was ever supposed to serve as PRESIDENT.
> Rick
Right on Rick
> butch
Leave a Reply