{"id":1659,"date":"2005-06-29T06:22:16","date_gmt":"2005-06-29T13:22:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.amptoons.com\/blog\/archives\/2005\/06\/29\/a-pessimistic-look-at-apologies-for-past-racism\/"},"modified":"2005-06-29T06:22:16","modified_gmt":"2005-06-29T13:22:16","slug":"a-pessimistic-look-at-apologies-for-past-racism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=1659","title":{"rendered":"A Pessimistic Look at Apologies for Racism…"},"content":{"rendered":"

…Via a very unapologetic and blunt article from Salon.com<\/strong>. <\/a>I agree with the writer that whenever politicians attempt to apologize for racism (especially when the media is conveniently in attendance for this), it can<\/em> be patronizing and condescending. Some times these “apologies” are laden with quasi-pity and they’re just empty words. Then these apologies are not transformed into real actions, and those up at the podium doing the apology seem to forget the nicely staged ‘publicity-apology’ and the issue of racism in this country, right after the press conference is over. It’s back to politics as usual once the cameras are off and the African-American Community leaders have left. But anyway…<\/p>\n

Too damn little, too damn late
\nSenators can take their half-assed lynching apology and shove it.<\/strong><\/p>\n

June 28, 2005 | You were expecting, maybe, gratitude for your lynching apology? You should live so long. Here are my top 10 reactions to America’s latest patronizing attempt to repent its racism:<\/p>\n

1. Bite me.<\/p>\n

2. Damn right, the least you could do.<\/p>\n

3. Mighty white of you.<\/p>\n

4. Gee, couldn’t you have waited just a little longer — until even the trees from which the “strange fruit” swung were dead?<\/p>\n

5. I’m not impressed, but then, I’m bell-curved. What do I know?<\/p>\n

6. Thanks for kicking our asses so hard, and for so long, that we were forced to develop entire art forms around our oppression.<\/p>\n

7. Try not to break your arm patting yourselves on the back.<\/p>\n

8. Give us back the land, the businesses and the unpaid debts that were the true cause of many lynchings. You sleaze bags!<\/p>\n

9. Gee, was there no appropriate Hallmark card? Let a sister help you out:<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

10. Thanks for absolutely, positively nothing. You feel better. We feel worse. D\u00c3\u00a9j\u00c3 bloody vu all over again.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

The crux of the matter is this: Had America ever truly repented its racism, no apology would be needed now.[…]<\/p>\n

So I’m with the lynching descendant who said: “I won’t accept their apology … What they used to do with a rope, today they do with a paper and pencil.” […]<\/p>\n

And now that we’ve gotten our empty apology, the question isn’t how blacks feel, it’s how whites do. Shamed? Guilty? Bored? Patronizing? Victimized? Shriven? […]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

‘Oh, but African-Americans should be grateful for these occasional table-scraps of faux-sympathy from politicians, and the nomination of token-Blacks to higher political offices.<\/em>‘ Yes, a few nice p.r. things here and there will shut-’em-up, and keep them voting your way so you can stay in office, and keep doing almost nothing<\/strong> to really<\/em> help African-Americans.<\/p>\n

Yes the apology was awfully sweet of them. Now let’s see them put that pretty little choreographed apology of theirs’ into real<\/em> action and deeds (no, I’m neither asking for the lynch victims to be brought back from the dead, nor changing the past–that’s impossible). But I won’t hold my breath, as I’m sure the Senators have forgotten all about the “apology<\/em>” and the issue of racism in this country by now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

…Via a very unapologetic and blunt article from Salon.com. I agree with the writer that whenever politicians attempt to apologize for racism (especially when the media is conveniently in attendance for this), it can be patronizing and condescending. Some times … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,93],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-elections-and-politics","category-race-racism-and-related-issues"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1659","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1659"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1659\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}