They said sorry...but they still get off

[Jalili B. Jimiyu]

July 29 the U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution that
apologized to Black Americans for the inhumanity, injustice, cruelty and
brutality of slavery and for Jim Crow segregation. The resolution was
sponsored by Congressperson Steve Cohen from Tennessee. He is a white
man representing a mostly Black district in Memphis.

Another Democrat, Sen. Tom Harkin from Iowa, is considering introducing
a similar bill in the Senate. How long has Harkin been considering his
bill? And will he go beyond just the consideration stage? Could it be
related to the fact that he’s running against a Black candidate in an
August primary?

Apologies made by Congress are nothing new. The federal government
apologized to Japanese-Americans for confining them in concentration
camps during World War II, for which they also received reparations and
compensation. And the U.S. government also apologized to the people of
Japan for dropping the atomic bomb on them. (Noteworthy too is that the
German government gave both monetary and nonmonetary reparations to
Jewish survivors, their heirs and the state of Israel for the Nazi
Holocaust.)

Earlier this year, the Senate apologized to Native Americans for the
genocidal atrocities committed against them. However, the damage and
deplorable conditions created by those atrocities are still being felt
today, especially on reservations.

A few years ago the Senate also apologized for the government’s failure
to intervene and put a halt to the lynchings of approximately 4,000
African-Americans in this country. Both the North and the South were
complicit in these brutal crimes.

What’s that old saying—“better late than never”? In these instances,
have better-late-than-never apologies and acknowledgments of wrong
doings made significant differences or improvements in the condition of
the people affected by those atrocious acts, past or present? There’s a
difference between apologetic words and actions that demonstrate true
remorse. Another old saying goes: “Actions speak louder than words.”

Under the Clinton administration in 1993, Congressperson John Conyers of
Detroit introduced a bill calling for an acknowledgment of the cruelty,
brutality and inhumanity of slavery and for a federal government
apology. The bill also called for a commission to examine the
institution of slavery with regard to the impact on African-American
descendants of the uninterrupted racial and economic discrimination
emanating from it. Although Conyers’ bill didn’t specifically call for
reparations, his bill never even got out of committee because it didn’t
get the necessary support.

Conyers continued to introduce the bill again and again, but there
continued to be denial by Congress of the U.S. Black Holocaust,
including the Transatlantic Slave Trade. There was fear that
acknowledgment and/or apology for the horrors of slavery would lead to a
demand for reparations, for, of course, the two matters are inextricably
linked. (Slave owners, however, received monetary compensation for the
loss of free labor after slavery ended.)

Now in 2008 Conyers’ colleagues seem to be having an epiphany. One has
to wonder why. What are the politics behind it? What is the motivating
and driving force? Could Sen. Obama’s presumptive nomination and
possible election this year have anything to do with it? Interesting too
is the obvious omission of any mention of reparations in the symbolic
apology the House just passed.

There were very interesting reactions to the House’s apology for slavery
and the Jim Crow era. Some angry and hostile bigots were downright upset
with the decision. One angry blogger’s comment, which was championed by
quite a few folks who were in agreement, stated that the apology should
have been coupled with restitution in the form of a one-way ticket back
to Africa—to get rid of “them” once and for all.

Other folks mentioned that their immigrant ancestors also had “a hard
time” making it in this country; that they didn’t have specific
knowledge of where their great-grandparents came from either; that they
have difficulty finding jobs too; and that Black people need to put that
all behind them, move on and get over it!

Then there were those who commented that Black people should be grateful
that “we’ve let them” have certain things, so they should stop
complaining. Certain things? Is it because those white people no longer
hear about wide-spread, blatant terrorism by the KKK and others of their
ilk? Or about bombings of or fires set to Black churches, homes,
orphanages and businesses? Is it because Black people can now sit
anywhere on a bus or train or in a waiting room? That they can now enter
any public library, pool, park, playground or beach? Or stay in any
hotel, eat in any public restaurant, drink from any water fountain, use
any restroom?

Or try on clothes in any store, go in front door entrances, walk freely
on any sidewalk in town (that’s debatable)? Or go to “integrated”
schools (in inner cities)? Or leave their designated ghetto and get a
home mortgage (albeit subprime and foreclosed)? So what more do “those
people” want, they ask? When will “they” be satisfied? After all, who
the hell do “they” think “they” are anyway? Our equals?

Regrettably, some people just don’t get it. And some never will. We may
have come a long way; but we sure have a much longer way to go before we
shall truly overcome.

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NOw that that's copy and pasted let me give you my own view.....

Ok, we live in a Christian nation (well that's what they say) and the are running that idea into the ground. They apologize and hope they get forgiven because they aren't speaking about compensation for all the hell our people have, go, and are going to go through in this nation.

They scream sorry seeing that our power is growing fast in this nation and our stands behind Saun Bell, and The Jena 6 with marches, blogs fund-raising along with a new rise in intellectual awareness on the situations in this world. THEY SCARED!!! But many of us still can't see that and they know this....so they nominate a "SAFE" black man with just enough white in him to make them happy, say sorry when they don't mean it, and keep doing what they are doing.

Hear that noise in the background? It's and alarm telling us to wake up

[Ta Neil Adams]

Everybody the US has apologized to has received reparations of some such but, usually finacial. And in society they're not at the bottom of the ladder.
An apology isn't what is needed but action. Looking at from a micro view, interpersonal relationships, whites have always been quick to apologize as lynching, burning, murdering and molesting, raping have been frowned upon.
This is only to throw the victim off guard so they can escape taking responsibility for their actions. Whites as a whole have devolved from being overt to covert with mentally and psychologically enslaving Afroasiatic peoples. This is why I study mind control because like an abusive husband or boyfriend, they've gone from leaving physical evidence to soul murder.
With Obama President Elect, they're afraid we may get vindication on our own. I see black folks now not doing the modern day stepnfetch since Obama.
But they still can't deal, never have been able to, deal with the fact everything they enjoy was stolen from Afroasiatic peoples.
I just see whites as perpetually infantile creatures who will never ascend to higher levels of consciousness. They will continue to go through the motions and mimic what having morals.

[Jalili B. Jimiyu]

If you got to the top while climbing on others backs you will then do and say everything you can to stay at that place, because if in one second they do take responsibility for what they have done.......of course they would have to give away everything they got from the benefit of keeping others down.

Thanks your comment was right on point.