Acting White: US Congress Apologizes For Slavery

My son is thirteen. When he was four, he took a poke at his mother. His seventeen year old sister did the same when she was three. Each was a tense moment, but we got past it and everybody is fine now. No apology is required now that they are mature on the point of not hitting people, especially their mother.

For thousands of years people enslaved each other without batting an eyelid. In the 1700 and 1800's, humankind finally began questioning the morality of it. After a skirmish called the Civil War, America began grappling with its new position. In essence the country matured past it, like my kids hitting their mother. No apologies needed. Just keep on grappling.

That's how I feel about apologies for slavery. I'm past it. My enslaved ancestors are dead, and so are the people and system that enslaved them. I can't un-ring the slavery bell, nor would I want to. But symbolism don't feed the bull dog, so I'd rather Congress spend time on fixing real problems, rather than making hollow gestures.

Now some people will try to make the apology less hollow by attaching reparations and slavery-era disclosure requirements, to generate dollars to line the coffers of certain un-named so-called civil-rights leaders/groups we wish would retire, but this is adding insult to injury. It is extortion, and we should not allow it.

Personally, I don't need or want anyone to apologize to me, I was never a slave. If anything, I apologize daily to the memory of our ancestors for people wasting the day's opportunities earlier denied, including that which is unavailable to those ancestral kin in West Africa. I try to show respect by practicing community-mindedness, lawfulness, work-ethic, patriotism and positive spirit. The rest will take care of itself.

James C. Collier

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