When I 1st reading the story below, I was like wow; these slavery regrets/apologies are happening like once a week!
I’m happy that “they” (in the larger sense) are finally starting to fucking recognize but what do all of these apologies really mean?
Are these apologies going to really right wrongs, are they going to make Negroes feel loved & what are they going to change current conditions that exist because of the sins of “their” forefathers?
So you can imagine that I am thinking restitutions & if you are, that you are a smart mutha!
I am not necessarily thinking of cash as I think that the average Negro will just fuck the money up & get a new Caddy or Lexus etc. Come on you know it.
What I am thinking is more along the lines of some type of tuition program for college at the very least.
This story talks about how “our” ancestors built the University of Virginia & worked slaved there for 46 mutha fuckin’ years.
I wonder when Alabama, Louisiana & Mississippi will make their apologies for slavery & aggressive Jim Crow support etc. You know what my last statement made me think of Nina Simone’s Mississippi Goddam.
“…Alabama’s gotten me so upset
Tennessee made me lose my rest
And everybody knows about Mississippi Goddam……You don’t have to live next to me
Just give me my equality
Everybody knows about Mississippi
Everybody knows about Alabama
Everybody knows about Mississippi Goddam…”
You know what, I just had to check my facts right quick & Alabama has “approved” an apology for slavery this past Tuesday (story here)
What are you thinking about these apologies & will “America” ever be able to reconcile for the decades of torture of Africans in America?
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U.Va. shows its regret for slavery
By Jamie C. Ruff
Times-Dispatch Staff Writer
The University of Virginia’s governing board has adopted a resolution expressing regret for the school’s use of slaves, including those “anonymous laborers” who constructed its first buildings.
The resolution, unanimously passed by U.Va.’s board of visitors on April 13 — the 264th birthday of school founder Thomas Jefferson — expresses the school’s “particular regret” for its use of slaves from 1819 until 1865. The university opened in 1825.
School officials believe their board is the first to pass such a resolution.
“The board expresses its particular regret for the employment of enslaved persons in these years and . . . expresses as well its profound respect for the contributions of these women and men, by whose ingenuity and labor much of what is now admired at the university as a national and world treasure came to be,” the resolution reads in part.
The board was inspired by the Virginia General Assembly, which in February passed a resolution of profound regret for the state’s role in slavery, said Thomas Farrell, rector of U.Va’s board of visitors.
It also was following up on U.Va’s erection of a memorial stone at the Rotunda that recognized the role slaves played in constructing the signature building and the Lawn, he said.
The resolution also declares that the board is re-committing itself to the “principles of equal opportunity and to the principle that human freedom and learning” are inextricably linked in Virginia and the United States.
“It is very important to us . . . not just to look back but recognize the commitment of the administration that all types of people are treated fairly for now and in the future,” Farrell said.
Warren M. Thompson, chairman of the board’s special committee on diversity and whose great-great-grandfather was born into slavery and lived about 20 miles from Charlottesville, said some board members considered the resolution well overdue. (Read more here)
Sugar / April 27, 2007
I think you’re right. A tuition-free program sounds good to me. That would be something less tangible to them, but very valuable to us. Hell, I wish they’d just give us somethin’!!!! An apology never paid the bills.
Lola Gets / April 27, 2007
If you read the entire article, the president of Brown University (and former president of Smith College – Class of 93 rules!) is researching the role slavery had in the creation of that university. When those results are in, President Simmons is planning on implementing programs that would help Blacks (and perhaps other minorities)achieve educational goals.
THATS the kind of “reparations” we, and other ethinicities, need!
Bronzetrinity / April 28, 2007
I think its really important that they appologize. There are some people who think that as long as slavery was not a crime at the time then nothing was wrong. There are people who say it was all about economics and had nothing to do with racism or morality. There are also people who believe that people of African descent were meant to be slaves and that was why slavery occured. If states, companies, and organizations appologize then they are letting the world know that the above rationalizations are garbage and that what they did was morally wrong. Until people stop using those stupid justifications then we will not be able to make the world understand the impact of slavery on people of African descent and we will not be able to improve our reputation.
People are going around using historical law, economics, racism, and single lines of religious text to explain why it was okay to commit genocide and inhuman atrocities on Black people and I am not okay with that!
Bygbaby / April 28, 2007
Sugar – “An apology never paid the bills.” Hello!!!!!
Lola Gets – You know talk is cheap so I hope Brown puts their money where their mouth is.
“resident Simmons is planning on implementing programs that would help Blacks (and perhaps other minorities)achieve educational goals.” We need our shit first & the others need to be secondary IMHO. We laid the foundation for civil rights in this country & sometimes it seems that get the short end of the stick in comparison to other “minority” groups.
Bronzetrinity – You touch on some really good points! I appreciate & agree with your POV as I did not consider a few of the things you mentioned.
You know last night I was watching Borat for the 1st time & thought it was pretty funny on how he got people to act a damn fool. For instance when he was hitchhiking & those college boys picked him up & he got them to talk about slavery.
I was almost tripped out on how the one boy was saying that slavery needs to come back that minorities need to bow down to the man.
I remember when the movie was released, the 3 boys tried to sue Sacha Cohen (Borat) because they felt set up & they mentioned that they would never say such terrible things. The one boy bragged about how he had Black friends and shit.
Don’t try to sue cuz you done got caught expressing your true feelings. I’m rambling so I will stop here.
Bygbaby
-=Topper=- / May 5, 2007
Free wrote in his blog “All white people are racist suspects – Wolves In Sheeps Clothing -until proven otherwise.”
I find that statement 110% absolutely, true. As far as apologies towards blacks there are many whites that disagree. Because they feel that it will involve reperations. SO WHAT?
If white people are anything they are shallow. I guess I should mention that I am one.
Also in Virginia at the legislative level the State considered and I believed passed, if you will, an apology bill. Timely thing to do, and the ugliest old coot you could think of rejected it. On the very grounds that it may turn to reperations. Damn the taxpayers.
A couple of personal thoughts on these matters.
http://topperstap.blogspot.com/2007/03/more-on-race-relations.html
http://topperstap.blogspot.com/2007/02/ball-of-confusion-race-relations-in-us.html
There is a character trait in crackerdom, “I don’t see color”. The boys in Borat were in that denial. They don’t see color because they don’t bother to look. I don’t see color is probably the biggest cop out to come out of crackerdom yet.
Sure white people want a utopian society, but not the responcibility. Some actually believe that affirmative action is reverse discrimination. Bull shit, Affirmative action is a result of a social norm that makes it neccesary. Maybe many social norms. Racism, bigotry, prejudice, discrimination. You know, there are hate crime bills in the works right now that I feel white people fear. Because they can’t check themselves, and honestly, they don’t want to.
I could go on and on about my own kind and the disparity they create.
I found your site here looking at the fields blogroll. Free, feild, the angry black woman, your site here. I enjoy being told the way it is, and hope if you read me, I am getting it.
Bygbaby / May 5, 2007
Greetings Topper, I Am happy that you found me via some of my favorite Bloggers & appreciate your comments from the other side of the fence!
On the subject of not seeing color, I saw Na’im Akbar speak last year an he said, he hates it when people say they don’t see color & all they see are people. He went on to say that you see me as a person that’s great and all but how are you totally going to deny my Blackness because you do not want any hidden bias you have. How are you going to say that you do not see by broad nose & & lips.
Reparations are so touchy amongst the race continuum (sp?). I think that until America @ large is willing to us us our due & pay an apology, the healing will never begin. We can kid ourselves by saying that we are better but who are we really kidding?
Peace & I will check you out!!!
Bygbaby
The Second Sixty-Eight / May 6, 2007
Hmm. I don’t even know if an apology for slavery is even worth MY time. If they were so damn sorry then why did it have to be made illegal for them to stop? Or what about the 100 years after slavery? The last 40 years? Okay, fuck all that. How about the fact that the average graduate at the same inner-city Detroit high school that I graduated from, has probably less than an even chance of succeeding in college? If they are really sorry then fix the damn schools at the start so we can compete in and after college. Kinda hard to play on a level playing field when you are about 2k short on the budget (per student vs the burbs) every year.
What good is a bunch of nice words when one is still treated as second class?