Slavery Apology Should Lead to Penance, Restitution

And, you know, maybe a lot of people really didn't actually know what to make of it, the actual unexpected lightness and joy in heavy times about our President, a black man, (actually a child of what was when his parents got together an interracial 'violation of the definition of marriage,' but part of the 'black community' no less, ... being elected on *his own merits,* ....much talk was made about it when it happened, that at least I really wasn't actually paying much attention to...

A female President per se would have meant just as much...

Did anyone *notice the lightness?*

That was our forebears. All our forebears, whatever skins they wore and when....

Joyfully, I think. Letting a weight come off us all.

I don't know what talk could outdo that. But let's not forget it can happen.

We're not all truly free yet, but here we are. It was a day we knew, and could say to the wronged and those bound by wrongdoing both, some stuff got fixed.

"Getting over something that happened to you is the first step in the healing process. If you're not willing to do that, you're not willing to heal. But, if nothing actually happened to you, you don't get to claim a remedy."

Well, if you wanted to give me some reparations for the ongoing effects of what bigotry did to me in *my life right now,* I wouldn't exactly say no. But I'm not willing to put that 'price tag' on a better life for those to come by demanding it. :)

"If your grandfather suffered, who are you to demand reparations on his behalf? Your grandfather owned his pain, not you. Your truculant and petty demands only cheapen whatever dignity he found."

I don't think the Reverend here was asking for 'reparations' in the sense of 'Give me some money or something.'

I think he was asking for, on account of the past slavery and injustice, for ...him? to be part of some Biblical religious domination, actually, to read it in the worst possible way. :)

(No, I don't think that's his intent, but his intent was unclear, and has some interesting phrases in it. )

It's not that some form of *recompense* is so unthinkable. If we stop thinking of *ourselves* in terms of 'sin and guilt and judgment and sentence' ...(for a minute, anyway, bear with me:)

One thing that we (all of us, not just 'white people:' Americans. Cause we're *all* Americans, now) can do for those who have suffered and died under past wrongs, is to give 'them' something they would have wanted: and I think it's actually already very much been done in principle, if not all practice: )

They would have wanted to know that for their descendants, or for people like them to come in the future, that there *is* a better future, that there *is* a point to staying alive through all they went through.

We cannot go back in time and undo their pain, but we can stand, here, in the future, and validate their *hope.*

It doesn't have to come in the form of money or religious 'power.'

Just in the fulfilling, by whatever means we can, of the *hope.*

I think, and always have, thought of the same thing when I was being oppressed, beaten, told I was less than human, or even actively-'evil' or 'cursed' or whatever the righteous line of the day was.

I'd say, right to the Lady, and to a future unknown,

"Let this end with me. Let me bear this for the next one. Let them know freedom, dignity, and equality."

Also, "In the next life, let me know better than to do to someone what's being done to me."

'We' can't *undo* it. By either erasing it or grovelling about it for forgiveness. But we can *fix* it, and for good. The rest is about means.

If your grandfather suffered, who are you to demand reparations on his behalf? Your grandfather owned his pain, not you. Your truculant and petty demands only cheapen whatever dignity he found.

Getting over something that happened to you is the first step in the healing process. If you're not willing to do that, you're not willing to heal. But, if nothing actually happened to you, you don't get to claim a remedy.

How long will black Americans continue to use the long dead institution of slavery as a vehicle for entitlement and racism? You and your children are undoubtedly healthier, safer and wealthier in America than you would have been in Africa. Your citizenship and your equal rights are your reparations. What you make of them are up to you. Most black Americans can and do carry their own water. Those few who are demanding some sort of atonement are utterly irrelevant. They are people unable to find their own salvation and pride. That sort of person, no matter their race, will always be seeking one sort of rescue or another. You can't help people like that and there's no point in trying.

The United States lost over 600,000 of its citizens in a bloody civil war to pay for slavery.

Perhaps, an apology is still warranted, but a reparations in blood was paid at Antietem,
Gettysburg, Petersburg, and other places across the South.

The United States lost over 600,000 of its citizens in a bloody civil war to pay for slavery.

Perhaps, an apology is still warranted, but a reparations in blood was paid at Antietem,
Gettysburg, Petersburg, and other places across the South.

To imply that the NATION owes one group something after it's CITIZENS lost life and limb to FREE the slaves OF ALL COLORS ... developed programs , laws and entitlements to level the playing field ... SUBJUGATING THE WHITE RACE is not owed to you. You should seek more from Africa .AS A MATTER OF FACT ... White people should be seeking compensations from those of African roots for the WHITE CHRISTIAN SLAVES ON THE BARBARY COAST . WHO SHOULD BRING FORTH FRUITS SUITABLE FOR REPENTANCE OVER THE WHITE CHRISTIAN WOMEN THAT FILLED THE HAREMS ? It's been way past time to stir THAT stink.