Saw that last night. Some people need to get over it already. :roll: I agree with about 99% of the comments. :mrgreen:
Apology is definitely needed, reparations, NO! The story that got me the other day on this is the one when the government told the Freed blacks that they were no longer free and that they had to find another Master. :-(
WHY is an apology needed? Do you know of a single person alive today who was a slave, or owned a slave? Sorry, I simply can't understand that kind of thinking.
Amen, Amazing Grace. Neither North Carolina nor the federal government were responsible for the importation of slaves. No apology, no reparations. As if the Native AMericans were treated any better. Apologies and reparations for Native Americans, I can understand. Same for the Japanese interments of WW2. Those were government policies, and government should own up to it.
Do you think that if the Nazi government were to be in power one hundred years from now that they would owe the Jews an apology? I agree with the others that Native Americans were not treated well either.
I would say anyone living during that period of time should profess regret, except they would be well over 150 years old. Otherwise, no. Its silly for a us to dig up old bones that's better left alone. We are a country of progression and there is nothing to gain from this. I myself have never owned a slave, nor have I been owned. I did not vote for slavery and I did not fight for it.
My grandmother is 94 and she remembers a lot back then. She wasnt a slave nor did she own one but she has stories. It is just how it was back then and you cant change history nor should we apologize. Most people who were slaves are passed on. It is just an excuse at this point in my opinion. We should just learn about the history of it now. No complaining.
NC might not have been responsible for the "import" of slaves but there is an underlying history that isn't discussed so freely. Like, did you know, Charles B. Aycock and "friends" were mainly responsible of winning the election by virtually destroying a large percentage of freed slaves/African-Americans because they knew the "Black vote" was their largest risk of winning. So much so that he and his party were "contracted" in a sense to provide the same "service" to those in states such as Georgia and Alabama (I believe)? They riled up so many people that hundreds of thousands of blacks were hung, threatened, beaten and killed, enough so that he actually won! Pretty crazy thought. I found this out when my 7 year old went on a field trip to his birthplace and they glorified what a great man he was, helping build education. It is rarely discussed he was a white supremacist (mostly college level it is revealed I have found)....and yet there are field trips to his birthplace (which by the way, was discussed with the principal and I doubt ever again will the elementary school take their kids there for fun. ONLY for the fact that if history can't be told in it's entirety then it can wait to be told at an appropriate age. I don't think 6-7 is that age IMO.) When my son comes home and I ask how it went and he tells me Gov. Aycock was a great man I about flipped my lid. http://www.1898wilmington.com/white_supremacy.shtml http://www.ah.dcr.state.nc.us/1898-wrrc/report/Chapter3A.pdf Apology would be nice, monetary gain-no. Should a white person walk up to a black person and apologize-no....as a human race should we take responsibility of our actions as a whole, yes. One hundred years isn't that long ago in the grand scheme of things and there is still a rough road to travel. Acceptance and growth from it is needed as a society not as a one-on-one basis necessarily although some would disagree. As long as there are those that think, we didn't do it so why apologize, there will be difficulty healing from it. People need validation. Maybe we didn't do it but as a whole we should all be ashamed that, as a human race, we can cause such tragedy between each other, whether it is slavery, the holocaust, native americans....etc. Maybe apology is not the word people should use but Reflection. Learn from the mistakes of history so it is not repeated (which still goes on today all across the globe). You have to accept it to change it on both sides whether you need the apology or are giving it. But saying things like, what does NC have to do with it? Or what do I have to do with it? is pretty insensitive, we should be so lucky we weren't a part of it and feel the remorse. IE. When the little girl in Clayton was killed by her father, I felt/feel such sadness that I found in my prayers to God I would apologize for her death. I was soo sorry for the whole situation. Not that I had a thing to do with it but it touched me so deeply...it was/is so sad that I found I was apologetic for everyone involved...I am sure some can relate?
Are the African tribes that took men from other tribes and sold or traded them into slavery expected to apologize?
I agree with Grysunshine. I would add only that in order to move on, we need to admit that some of the things done by our forebears were wrong, that we see that those things were wrong and we can learn from their mistakes. If we always react defensively, making excuses or denying responsibilty, instead of learning from the past and moving on, how can we make the future better than the past? Throughout history, humans have treated one another inhumanely. The strong have taken advantage of the weak. That doesn't make it right, and it doesn't justify us.
How many times do you feel the white population needs to admit it was wrong? Do you feel the white slaves deserve an apology also? To move on, both sides will have to be willing to move on. It doesn't seem the blacks are willing to do that yet.
I think an appoligy is a great way to get everyone to begin to move on. To the best of my knowledge this is the first official apology by the government of NC apologizing for its role. If the government had a role in white slavery it should apologize.
So, do you consider that if each and every state does not issue an apology that it has not happened? What about each and every city within each state? And if it didn't does that mean it was a lesser act? Has it not already started?
Herman Melville "We cannot live for ourselves alone. Our lives are connected by a thousand invisible threads, and along these sympathetic fibers, our actions run as causes and return to us as results." What is the cost to humanity to ask for forgiveness?? What could be the benefits in being forgiven??
I think that is a blanket statement. Do you know ALL "black" people? And, yes, Jews and Nazi's (white, white) there should be apologies...skin color really is so superficial. We all bleed red. For a HUMAN to do this to another HUMAN is unacceptable. In this case it happens to be with slavery which is associated with Africans. There are children in other parts of the world that are not black and suffer from slavery. Why does skin color make it an issue? I never understood that. People were hung, raped, abused, tortured...if you found out your great great grandmother was raped, beaten and hung after working in a scorching field all day for someone else with little food...would you be able to "let it go" so easily? Oh, and you hear how your great grandmother had to watch the whole scenario, watch her mother die and fear her own life? I think I would be a little upset don't you? I would want answers generations later. People want closure. When you fight with a friend or spouse you eventually (hopefully) have closure and move on. Many have not felt this in the magnitude it deserves. There are many "blacks" that are ready to move on...the president of the NAACP for one. I heard a speech where he talks about "being the victim" and how his fellow African Americans AND other races need to stop hiding behind the issue and that there is a way to move forward and some people have and want to. I know there are many African American people that are a heck of lot more educated and successful than I am. I also think there are always people waiting for an easy fix and will not take responsibility for their own actions. Black, White, Orange and so on... No pun intended but it isn't just black and white, there is plenty of gray. As with any race don't generalize for the actions of few...there are plenty of white folks out there that are "good people"... I think everyone should reflect. Not state by state, we are a COUNTRY, we are one world (in the grand scheme). I hate to go all religious...lol, but would Jesus say, "ok, Texas, you apologize to that gentleman right there..". I would think he would say something like...'And if the kingdom be divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand...St. Mark 3:24-25" Before all the Bible quotes are thrown in...eheemm, my point is, we need to come together for the greater good. If some need "a hand to hold" then hold it and say it will be ok and we will get through...
