Repentance Is Healthy

Well I had a sociology professor provide a West African view of American racism and he insisted it was nearly impossible to grow up white and not get some distorted attitudes.

He also said he did not know what being black was until coming to America.

I recognize being afraid for no logical reason sometimes when I am on the street in the company of one and especially more African American males. As a Master's in sociology I really try to not be.

Imagine how easy it must be to have an attitude toward a fat guy or a high functioning autistic both of which I am if you are just an average (maybe even a college educated) American without the benefit of five years of careful self examination.

I would add that social relations do not happen in a vacuum. Prejudices shoot in every direction and hit everyone.

What attitudes do minorities have, even if they have them in self defense?

"But not acknowledge the role of 'evangelical Christians' in promoting and defending and 'Biblically-justifying' slavery in the first place."

Slavery was a worldwide phenomenon, practiced by all cultures. Arabs plundered the Mediterranean coast, selling millions inot slavery in Africa. African tribes captured their enemies, sold them to Arabs, who sold them to European slave traders who sold them in the Americas.

It was evangelical Christians from England and America who eventually eradicated the slave trade and pushed toward its worldwide aboliton. Slavery was not formally outlawed in Mauritanea and Saudi Arabia until the secod half of the twentieth century. Its practice is still winked at in the Sudan and other places. Human trafficiking remains a serious problem.

Your abhorrence of slavery has Christian roots, Paganplace. Give credit where credit is due.

A lot of people think we should apologize for the world as it was before the living inherited it. Not only do we need to apologize for slavery, but for the Crusades. We need to apologize for Coronado and Columbus and every conqueror, prophet, king and explorer who has ever walked the earth. We need to apologize for anyone, throughout history, who ever failed to live up to America’s Twenty-First Century moral ethics.

But if everyone was as good 400-years-ago as they are today, we should feel ashamed because there would have been no progress in all that time. In fact, we SHOULD apologize if we are not better than our parents, because that is what we can control – not the sins of our grandfather’s grandfather.

If you did not enslave, nor cause to enslave, nor choose to be silent as friends, neighbors and countrymen enslaved – if you have never witnessed American slavery firsthand or lived in the days when it was practiced - then does your apology mean anything? …or are they just empty words?

I think the Senate has offered up empty words concerning the tragedy of American slavery. These words will someday be forgotten and the next generation will require a new apology which will sound exactly like this one.

...But not acknowledge the role of 'evangelical Christians' in promoting and defending and 'Biblically-justifying' slavery in the first place.