NJ Lawmakers Consider Slavery Apology

[absinthe]

If the Turkish government today acknowledged the genocide they perpetrated against the Armenian people, and the government-backed persecution and exile of the Greek people, I would be pleasantly surprised. If they went so far as to actually APOLOGIZE, I would be happy. My grandmother is not around to hear it, but it would honor her memory and recognize the suffering she and her family experienced.

If one black person is feeling that kind of bittersweet appreciation today, then I think that the apology issued by the state of New Jersey was well worth it.

 

[reb]

Peter-- well that's the difference here--- the Indians aren't going around DEMANDING apologies!!! As I said- 'if anyone deserves one, it's them'... and the reason being that while blacks are perfectly free to go back to the 'motherland'- (but most don't want to)- the Indians' motherland is here-- largely covered by strip malls, highways, suburbs, and owned by someone else. But while they seem to be well aware of what happened.. they are not going around holding it over everyone's heads every day. Yes that WAS a long time ago,, and that kind of thing (manifest destiny, etc.) happened everywhere, all the time.. it's not just Western Europeans who are guilty of barging onto other peoples' land and wiping them out.
That being said... it's important to remember that not all Indians were slaughtered. MUCH of the Indian population was blended and absorbed into the American settlers' blood. AND it's also true that many Indians WANTED to have the nice things that their own technology had not advanced enough to invent. AND it's true that many, many settlers were slaughtered by Indians... it started off peaceful enough,, but then you had an incident here, and a repercussion there, another here, and there, tit for tat, until it just became a free for all. But what bothers me is that we look back now, and it's easy to teach the children that the 'big. bad white men came along and took their land'... which is essentially what they did... but that doesn't tell the whole story. It's much more complex. And everyone spreads the myths of 'the Indians were a peaceful people who lived in harmony with nature and blah blah blah..' uhh,, yeah, they were also often AT WAR with each other and slaughtering each other too.. and there is evidence that they thrived so well in some areas that they possibly caused much land degradation, etc... so they weren't saints... they were (and are) human just like everyone else. But we now tend to sugarcoat everything when it comes to them.
It would be great if history could be rewritten in all aspect and everything could have worked out differently.. and no wars or land grabs would've happened.. everyone would have been nice to each other and respectful and it all would be hunky-dory now.. but it's easy to say that now when we're all comfortable sitting in front of our computers. But back then it was dog eat dog, every man for himself (and still is in many ways!)... a fight for survival, man conquering nature and everything else around him (notice I say MAN here)-- and 'political correctness' hadn't been invented yet!

 

[reb]

<If one black person is feeling that kind of bittersweet appreciation today, then I think that the apology issued by the state of New Jersey was well worth it.>

But don't you see...??? That's not the reality. SOME people will be appreciative,, of course. But for many.. it will only empower them to be angrier, MORE bitter, and to demand ever more.. from the govt/the white man. Come on already. They already have ROOTS. They already have Black History Month. They have a Martin Luther King Blvd. in every city in America. They already have everyone kissing their arses over every little thing. They have generations of European-American bowing down to them in guilt. They already seem to be the sole recipient of so-called "hate crimes" (and are allowed to kill others for their race and not have it called a hate crime). They have already taken over popular music. They already have had affirmative action, quotas, and scholarships based on their RACE for years. (do we...???) They already get to spit in our faces and tell us how much they hate white people every day. They get to rob, rape, harass, assault, murder us, and steal from us... and we don't get to retaliate or stand up for ourselves. Nothing will ever, ever, ever be enough!

I would have felt sorry for them a few decades ago, as so many did... back when whites & those of other races were standing with them in solidarity and helping them fight for their civil rights (...and did those people ever get so much as a 'thank you' for that?? HA!! yeah, right!) .. but no more. I've seen way too much in the past decade or so. And no I'm not talking about the ones who are educated, successful, or at least make a positive contribution to society. I'm referring to the rest.
At this point all I have to say, is-- if you have fought hard to be successful like the rest of us who've never had break- then, congratulations and join the club. To the rest-- I say: it's time to shut up, GROW UP, and get the heck over it already. YOU were never a slave.... ALL of our ancestors faced unspeakable hardships. But of course,, if more blacks had any interest in learning about some other history or culture besides their OWN (and many don't even care about learning about that!).. then they would already know this!

 

[reb]

One more question: Are they going to demand an apology from the descendents of the African Tribal leaders and kings who sold off THEIR ancestors...????

Yeah, I thought not.

 

[Peter Hamilton]

Any apologies about anything should be in the last century, let'stick with that--But the whole notion of "Apology' is pretty stupid anyways, its pointless--There's hardly a country around that shouldn't apologize for something--Switzerland collaborated with the Nazis by accepting murdered Jewish Gold--Sweden allowed the Nazis to march across their country--800,000 blacks were hacked to death in Africa between the Hutu and the Tutsis just 15 years ago, guess they should apologize too--that'll make it better lol--South Africa's Apartheid system was brutal to blacks--Some South American countries brazenly allowed Nazis to escape there, avoiding prosecution--Nazi and Japanese cruelty in WW II was beyond belief, how many countries suffered because of them??--and how many black countries in Africa suffered because of Colonialism by Britain, the Dutch, the Portugese, the Germans, the French--and how about those million that died in Algeria trying to get independence from France? and the French sending their convicts to Devil's Island--plenty to apologize there--and the massacres in the Balkans by the various ethnic groups 15 years ago?--and Russia under Stalin who murdered millions, including targeted ethnic groups--and Pakistan who murdered hundreds of thousands Bangladeshi's about 25 years ago, and the Turks who committed Genocide against the Armenians in 1915