It’s bitter-sweet to watch politicians and other public officials make apologies for past atrocities and injustices. Of course you can’t change the past with an apology but you can improve society and compensate those who were victims, or those who inherited their ancestors’ and elders’ plight due to the negligence of those in power. An apology and mere rhetoric won’t fix that.<\/p>\n
Via Sheelzebub at Pinko Feminist Hellcat…<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Sometimes an apology isn’t enough<\/strong><\/p>\n But sometimes it’s all you’ve got.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n “Sometimes called a form of American holocaust, lynchings were effective as a kind of homegrown terrorism to keep intact the social structure that preceded the Civil War. They were driven by fear among whites as much as hatred of blacks. But dozens of postcard images of lynching gangs – and a body count kept by the Tuskegee Institute – were also responsible for changing attitudes about race, culminating in the civil rights movement and the ebbing not only of mob violence, but of separate water fountains.<\/p>\n Yet the changes took time. Between 1880 and 1960, 200 anti-lynching bills were introduced, and seven presidents urged their passing. Filibustering Southern senators scuttled the vote every time, saying a lack of law enforcement in the tumultuous postwar South necessitated mob justice.<\/p>\n Critics today say Congress’s failure surely fueled the boldness of the mob. Acknowledging that role is a step forward, many say. The Senate’s official apology, approved Monday, is one of only a handful it has issued throughout history.<\/p>\n “The Senate failed these Americans,” said Sen. Mary Landrieu (D) of Louisiana, who sponsored the action after the Committee for Public Apology began pressing the issue in 2003<\/em>.”<\/p>\n Yes, we did fail them. Horribly.<\/p>\n We worse than failed them–failing implies we just misplaced something, got momentarily distracted, or made an honest but tragic mistake.<\/p>\n There was nothing honest about this, and it was no mistake. We didn’t care. They were just Black and meant nothing.<\/p>\n And so while I think the apology is due, I cannot blame anyone for looking at it with a skeptical eye.<\/p>\n “Carolyn Creech, who grew up and still lives in the black section of Clayton, N.C., says her great-great-grandmother told her father stories about the injustices blacks experienced. To her, the Senate’s apology falls flat – especially since racial injustices still prevail.<\/p>\n Instead of eradicating racial stratification, the powers-that-be, she says, have simply institutionalized such tactics. Her proof: Everything from the predominance of black men in prison to the refusal of the town to put a proper railroad- crossing guard next to the black neighborhood.<\/p>\n “I won’t accept their apology,” she says. “What they used to do with a rope, today they do with a paper and pencil.”<\/em><\/p>\n Maybe we’d have more credibility if there still wasn’t routine discrimination against Black people, if there still wasn’t police brutality, and if there wasn’t a majority of White rule at the top.<\/p>\n We have to apologize, and the senators<\/strong><\/a> who refused to sign on are part of the problem.<\/p>\n But to the ones who did sign on, I want to know: what are you going to do to make things better, now? Because if you think an apology solves the problems that still exist today, you’re wrong.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n And if you think that Condoleezza Rice being Secretary of State means there is no problem and the African-American Community no longer faces serious issues such as racial stratification within society, then you’re also wrong yet again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It’s bitter-sweet to watch politicians and other public officials make apologies for past atrocities and injustices. Of course you can’t change the past with an apology but you can improve society and compensate those who were victims, or those who … Continue reading