POLL: Should we apologize to the blacks for enslaving their ancestors?

Actually, you already did apologize. You, me, the rest of the US citizens.

In case you missed it :

Both the House of Representatives

and the Senate

have already made formal apologies for slavery.

House Issues An Apology For Slavery - Washington Post

Senate approves resolution apologizing for slavery - CNN.com


Both your Senator and Congresscritters spoke on your behalf.

These individual states also apologized:

North Carolina Senate apologizes for slavery - USATODAY.com


Virginia Apologizes for Role in Slavery - Washington Post

Florida Legislature Apologizes for State's History of Slavery

Alabama governor signs slavery apology - History Net

Maryland issues apology for its role in slavery - NBC News

New Jersey officially apologizes for slavery - CNN.com

Lawmakers Formally Apologize For Slavery In Connecticut

 

Who we own an apology to are the Neanderthals. This is long overdue.

 

I'll apologize to blacks as soon as they apologize to us for all of their crap.

 

African Americans don’t need anybody’s apology and they are not looking for apologies.

Let me tell you what else blacks are “not” looking for:

Handouts
Free….”fill-in-the-blank”
Sympathy
Pity
Charity
Empathy

Actually the list is so song that I have to stop here or else I’ll be going on all night long.

Let me tell you what they "are" looking for: (from all non-blacks all over the world)

Respect

Acknowledgement that they are human beings capable of great things, and equal in every way to their fellow human beings.

The opportunity to prove the aforementioned statement without negative prejudices or preconceive notions.

An end to discrimination solely based on the fact that their skin is of a darker completion.

An end to tying all things evil, dirty, bad, negative, and distorted to their skin that is of a darker completion.

An end to all foreigners (all over the world) telling their children that if they can manage to do better than blacks in America then they are ahead of the game.

An end to the “fantasy” that they have the same advantages & opportunities as everybody else as long as they just “pull themselves up by their own bootstraps”

An end to all of the negative stereotypes they have had to endure for the past four hundred years in this country.

An end to the age old disgusting practice of home values being diminished just because they move into the neighborhood.

The acknowledgement that NOT ALL blacks are running down the street with stolen televisions because many of them are studying to become scientist, doctors, lawyers, and engineers in some of the finest schools in the country. (but that’s not bad press so we just don’t talk about it)

Once again the list is so long that I couldn’t possibly complete it here but these are just some of the larger points.

Blacks are not looking for anything other than to be treated as human beings and not foreign anomalies with weird skin & curly hair. They want the same clean slate that everybody else gets when they: apply for a job, a home loan, etc. etc. etc.

And before some of you start with the “affirmative action” nonsense, blacks actually hate it and the reason why it had to be enacted in the first place even more. Only in America does such a thing have to be created to “force” business owners to hire blacks. (go USA)

Look, there are serious problems within a lot of the black communities all over the country, and yes, a lot of young black men & women have completely given up on trying to “fit in” to what America deems polite society.

The reasons why are so many and so complex & wide in scope that it would take weeks to explain, and no, not all of the problems in these black communities are all tied to or go back to slavery.

Just think of it this way: blacks just got the right to vote, were allowed in: restaurants, planes, schools, colleges, and many other areas roughly less than a hundred years ago (give or take). In affect they are “infants” in a world that is thousands of years old, and in a country that is roughly 400 years old.

They were kept out of everything, systematically and on purpose for the first 300 years of this country’s existence, yet many of you seem to think that - that shouldn’t count for any deficiencies now, and that they should be on the same level as people who never had any barriers.............of any kind...........from day one.

Non-Blacks live in this surreal world where everybody has the same chances & opportunities as long as they try, and they can’t quite understand why that black kid walking down the street mumbling a rap song under his breath is so angry.

Tragically they never will because they’ll never take the time to find out, and they can never know what he currently experiences or what his ancestors experienced, nor do they have to live with the stigma that slavery left on all blacks.

It’s so much easier to listen to people like Donald Trump or Rush Limbaugh to get your daily dose of: “let me tell you what's wrong with blacks today” lesson.

Non-blacks are sick & tired of hearing many of these arguments, and they just want blacks to either go away or get with the program, and believe it or not I get that.

Their position is that they didn’t create slavery or own slaves so…………………….what the hell’s the problem, right?

Here’s the problem, non-blacks didn't create slavery or own slaves, but either their ancestors did or people who look just like them did.

What we’re left with is a twisted: “guilt by association mentality” and this goes both ways.

Blacks look upon non-blacks as the originators of the problem whether they had anything to do with it or not, and non-blacks lump all blacks into the same pool of lazy, good for nothing weed heads looking for the next welfare check.

This problem starts to get better by listening, and not to people like Donald Trump or Rush Limbaugh who are completely clueless, but to each other, and to the kid walking down the street mumbling a rap song under his breath just trying to get home without being shot……………………..while walking black.

Last thoughts on the slave trade:

The reasons why certain African chiefs helped Europeans in rounding up slaves to be brought to the Americas is of little consequence today and it in no way abstains or diminishes the responsibility or participation of the early settlers & Europeans that created & started the practice of bringing slaves to the new world to be worked like horses and treated worse than dogs.

Slavery in Africa was not structured this way, and slaves in Africa were not treated the way the slaves in America were treated. Do some research and educate yourselves on what slavery was, who it affected, the various reasons why some people became indentured servants in Africa and how they had the opportunity to be released from these agreements over time.

Blaming African Chiefs for slavery in the US is like blaming cocaine plants for cocaine abuse.......its preposterous on its face and its a nasty way of side-stepping & avoiding the inconvenient truth. The truth that the early settlers along with the Dutch, Spaniards, and Portuguese sought to make money by accosting, selling, and destroying the lives of millions of people for profit.

African Chiefs didn't text the colonist to tell them they had a special buy one, get two free offer on fresh slaves if they were interested. Those slaves would have never wound up in America if the settlers had not looked to others to solve their problems with agriculture in a new land that was kicking their @ss.

The tragedy here is that the two groups that saved their worthless souls...(the Indians & the Africans) got the short end of the stick in the end because they had no gun powder or guns, once again.........go USA, way to stay classy.

 

Each generation is responsible of their own actions.

Nothing to apologize, just keep going and see if you can help others. That's all.

 

The conditions of education and economic status are similar for every single population of Blacks around the world.

The USA did not create this problem and thus we have nothing to apologize for.

 

The 3/5s compromise was a stroke of genius that did as much to end slavery as anything else.

 

So if a majority took the rights, wealth and land from a minority for a few generations it does not mean that their descendants are responsible?
What about all that wealth the majority leave their children? The land? You do not think that has an effect of generation after generation?

Many states have been through this. It seems to be a feature of human societies. A few get rich on the expense of the many. Then land reform and redistribution pleas will rock the foundations and unity of the states. And it always ends with land reforms and redistribution. Either by force and revolution or by some of those rich people who to save their state reform it.

 

You're being sarcastic, right?

 

Nope, not at all.

 

The 3/5th compromise was the only way we could get the slavers to agree to sign onto the Constitition, but it did as much to promote and expand slavery as the Cotton Gin did.

And because they got their dirty little compromise, they were able to get property - chattel - counted in the census for reapportionment in Congress

Which gave the South overwhelming dominance in congress for near all of the first quarter of our history.

Every president up until 1850 (with the exception of two, the Adams) -- were Slaveholders, and every one, except the Adams' and Van Buren -- were Southerners.

The South, and future CSA, held tremendous power, and it was only when the populations shift changed and addition of new states that began to shift.

It was the loss of that enormous dominance they feared the most. They couldn't even abide being equal.

Just like they saw nearly half their population, in slaves.

 

A couple of your facts are right but your conclusions are wrong.

Including the South in the new United States lead to the end of slavery so the compromise was needed.

Slave holders wanted a full count, by not counting them as a whole reduced they're power.

 

The dirty compromise was needed, but it did NOT reduce their power. It increased it.

My gawds. Read what I just wrote : The South had overwhelming dominance in congress for near all of the first quarter of our history.

The North did not want the slaves counted - because they were property, much as a horse or cow was property.

In fact at the Constitutional Convention, some Northern reps even argued if property could be counted for reapportionment, why not their own horses?

The south wanted full count to beef up their numbers in Congress, which it did -- they just didn't want those same people -- er, property, to vote or to actually have representation.

That would kinda jam up their plans.

It was a compromise - because the southerners said they would not ratify the Constitution if they could not give their slave property at least 3/5ths representation in Congress.

Without giving them representation. They used their slaves as hostages to the negotiation.

The 3/5th clause did not lead to the end of slavery -- it helped perpetuate it.

 

And why wasn't a law passed or a Constitutional Amendment ratified to abolish slavery prior to the CW?

Because the South for almost the whole first quarter of the country dominated Congress and nearly every president up until the 1850's was a ****ing southern slaveholder, as I said.

Congress dominated because of that bloody compromise which gave them way more representation than they actually had, conferring their property count to be realized as Congressional representation.

The South even had a gag order to prevent the topic of Slavery from even being discussed in Congress or the tens of thousands of petitions from the Northerners to be even spoken about on the floor of Congress. GAGGED.

With the Whig split and the formation of the anti-slavery Republican party -- and the expansion into the territories (and about 40 other things too lengthy to get into) that was when the South saw their demise. Numbers. And they they knew how to read a map.

Once Lincoln, the man who scared the living **** out of them with his (even moderate) anti-slavery position with the Republican party was elected (with not a single Southern state putting him on the ballot!) -- they didn't even let him take office before they took their marbles, seized federal property and started Acts of War.

All in the name of perpetuating and expanding slavery.

 

My god man, it's like you're saying yeah 2+2 is 4 but 4+4 is banana.

Yes and they would have had 40% more power and that would have allowed them to hold onto that power longer had slaves been counted as whole people.

Yes, you do realize that had they been counted as a whole it not only would have increased the south's representation in the house and the electoral college it would have increased the voting power of slave holders? At the time individuals didn't vote, land owners voted, thus the slave holders. It may be insulting but had they been able to count slaves as property like a horse slavery would have ended sooner.

Compared to what? Not having a union? Counting them as whole people? Lincoln never being elected?

 

No,. that's you.

They already had overwhelming dominance. Enormous dominance.

?? They did count slaves as property like a horse. It didn't end sooner.
A compromise had to be made. The Northern states (which had by and large abolished slavery) would not have agreed to 100% representation for property.

???

See my prior post .

 

Ohh snap, ouch good come back.

So according to you they should have had more?

 

^^^ Just shaking my head.

 

Look.

The former kings of the powerful kingdoms of the past started their power as bullies who forced the weakest to be their servants and slaves.

The whole feudal system was ruled by bullies who made great profit at the cost of people who became their servants.

This is how and why there are rich and poor people in the world.

Only in sporadic cases some families became rich because hard work or just good luck.

Your thoughts guide for demands against the Queen of England to open her treasures and give them back to the rest of people.

And sorry but... this is not how the world works.

If your thoughts were correct, then the US government should give back the authority of Hawaii to the original kings of those islands, so the aborigines might enjoy their richness by themselves.

Did you got it now?

The only solution today is to give equal opportunities for everybody to progress and be successful, and if you want from you part to return some wealth to a certain minority, that is voluntary from your part but is not mandatory for the rest.

Each generation is responsible of their own actions.

 

A better comparison would be city states and Republics such as Athens and Rome where we indeed see high concentration of wealth in their latter stages. Always bringing volatile politics and clashes for the redistribution of wealth.

You cannot just say "each generation". History is not divided that simply and the generation alive to day has actually still benefited from slavery. Whether as inheritance or land.
If you still benefit from slavery should you not attempt to equal the field? I mean. We have free education and healthcare but you don't? What does your society provide of opportunities to a group who were enslaved and who's labour the majority enriched themselves on and could pass on?

As a note. Yes. I do actually believe countries with monarchies should expropriate the monarchs land just like I support it against the church. They are the shining example of a "family" that has amassed massive wealth and land on the shoulders of subjects.

 

We should apologize to some. Barack Obama, for example, shouldn't get an apology. His ancestors were not effected by U.S. slavery. His wife and kids should get an apology.

 

NO
However i did not vote because both "no" options come with conditions.

Nobody alive today has reason to appologize for slavery. Any appology would be insincere and pointless. Any one who would take some false sense of comfort from an appology needs to learn to let it go and move on.
If a peoples greatest claim is to hang onto something negative that happened generations ago ... what does that say about their collective self perception today?

 

I'm a Jew and I'm not asking the Egyptians to apologize for slavery. Heck I'm not even asking this generation of German citizens to apologize for the Holocaust. Only people who were directly involved owe an apology for anything that happens. Any black who wants an apology has an undue sense of pride, self-entitlement, and egotism.

 

If that's the case, shouldn't all those European countries that the American taxpayer's rebuilt in the 1940's and 1950's, repay America for the Marshal Plan? All that did was stabilize crushed European countries, that were not under the Soviet's heel at the end of the war, and rebuild their entire infrastructure: railroads; aircraft industry; homes; industry; shipping; trade, etc., bringing them back into the fold of solid Western democratic states before the Communist's could get their ideas across and take over. We outlasted Soviet resistance with the Berlin Airlift - Truman demanded Soviet troops leave Turkey and Greece or war would ensue, and that the American Congress passed the enormously generous Marshal Plan to rebuild and save modern Europe as Democratic. We never presented any of those countries with a bill for all of that - in fact, the only European-Asian country ever to repay America for war reparations and Marshal Plan reparations, was Finland. England; France; Ireland; Belgium; West Germany; Spain; Italy; Turkey; Greece; Austria, and all the Slovac countris, which were created with the break-up of the former nation of Yugoslavia were brought into the Democratic fold by the American taxpayer, as an outright gift. Same thing occurred in Japan. Now, when America could use a hand up economically, where are all those Euro-Asian-Middle Eastern countries we have been carrying financially for 70-straight years, and the newly established states no longer under the heel of the Warsaw Pact and Moscow - joining NATO and receiving major reparations. England - Switzerland - Saudi Arabia could drop a deposit into the World Bank or the IMF paying off America's entire $20 trillion debt, with no harm to themselves economically, as could China and Japan but nothing has been forthcoming since August 1945 - and they don't care. Why should America care about any of those countries, particularly the OPEC ones that are friendly to us, anymore, when they could pay off our debt overnight and not effect their own economies one bit? Just askin................