EthnicMajority » slavery http://www.ethnicmajority.com/wordpress Fri, 23 Jul 2010 15:36:22 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.2 en hourly 1 Slavery apology: many days late and a few dollars short http://www.ethnicmajority.com/wordpress/civil-rights/2009/06/slavery-apology-many-days-late-and-a-few-dollars-short http://www.ethnicmajority.com/wordpress/civil-rights/2009/06/slavery-apology-many-days-late-and-a-few-dollars-short#comments Fri, 19 Jun 2009 16:29:48 +0000 Clifford Tong http://www.ethnicmajority.com/wordpress/?p=421 Now that we have an African American President, it seems like the politically correct thing to do. Barack Obama’s immediate predecessors, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton both expressed heartfelt regret for slavery but never moved to issue a formal apology.

So now the U.S. Senate has unanimously voted to issue a formal apology for slavery, and the wheels are in motion for the House to approve it and Obama to sign it. Then all will be forgotten, right? Not by a long shot.

In approving this resolution, the Wall Street Journal quoted Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA): “Let us make no mistake: This resolution will not fix lingering injustices. While we are proud of this resolution and believe it is long overdue, the real work lies ahead”. What “real work” is he referring to? Clearly the work does not include any accountability by the government. The apology does not include any admission of guilt or acceptance of liability: “Nothing in this resolution (a) authorizes or supports any claim against the United States; or (b) serves as a settlement of any claim against the United States”.

While I am not in favor of reparations, nothing spells insincere quite like an apology filled with CYA disclaimers written by government lawyers.

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