Congress Apologizes for Slavery
RFI - Esclavage : un premier mea culpa fédéral
Part of the problem here is the mechanism. I hope every member of Congress representing a majority black district recused himself/herself from the vote, since the descendants of slaves apologizing for slavery lacks a certain something. In addition, I hope that the representatives from Massachusetts voted no, since their state was highly implicated in the abolitionist movement. Ditto Ohio, with its long involvement in the Underground Railroad. Did Kansas abstain, its soil still stained red with the blood shed to keep slavery from encroaching upon it?
I might like to ask when the states of North Africa are going to apologize to the United States and Europe for their enslavement of our nationals, illegally taken at sea? When the Turks are going to apologize for their long history of enslaving Christians? When the West African states are going to apologize to dark skinned Americans whose ancestors were sold to the slave traders by their ancestors? Where does this end? Well, of course, it doesn’t end. It continues because it is a stick for the powerless to use to beat the powerful. It is the guy with glasses provoking a fight. It is the girl punching a guy in the stomach and then saying, "A gentleman never strikes a lady."
