U.S Government apologises for Slavery
So on Tuesday, July 29th 2008, the United States of America’s House of Representatives passed a resolution apologizing to African-Americans for slavery and the era of Jim Crow.
This is a historic day of the historic 2008 year, where an African- American president could be elected as its first black president. Could this be part of a trend in North America?
Remarkably the executive branch of government is Republican but the House of representatives is controlled by the democrats. There has been no such apology from any federal branch of government for the approximately 211 years of recorded History of Slavery. It was between 1654 until 1865, that slavery for life was legal within the boundaries of the present United States.
The non binding resolution, which passed on a voice vote, was introduced by Rep. Steve Cohen, a white lawmaker who represents a majority black district in Memphis, Tennessee.
The resolution however does not address the controversial issue of reparations.
In passing the resolution, the House of Representatives also acknowledged the “injustice, cruelty, brutality and inhumanity of slavery and Jim Crow.”
This year, Canada also made an apology to a marginalized group and the native land owners of Canada, the Aboriginal Nations of Canada. Prime Minister Stephen Harper made the apology in a minority controlled parliament in Ottawa, in front of hundreds of ex-schoolchildren. The schools operated from the late 19th Century until the 1990s, although most of them shut in the 1970s.
Canada has apologized for forcing about 150,000 aboriginal children to attend state-funded Christian boarding schools aimed at assimilating them.
So could 2008 be the year of apologies? It surely seems so.
I would like to commend the politicians for making those heart warming apologies; however actions speak better than words. It is important for the victims of slavery, the current disadvantaged descendants of slaves be afforded the education, health care and access to well paying jobs that their forefathers were prevented from access. If no action is taken soon, modern slavery would continue to evolve within those marginalized communities and possibly in another 200 years, another bunch of well intentioned politicans will make an apology on behalf of the current governments.
August 23rd, 2008 at 5:07 pm
Seriously! these politicians are slow! Why aplogize now? Its ridiculous.