Senate Apologizes For Slavery, Segregation

(AP)  The Senate has unanimously passed a resolution apologizing for slavery and racial segregation in the U.S. and sent the measure to the House.

Democrat Tom Harkin first introduced the measure years ago but wanted it passed Thursday on the eve of Juneteenth, June 19, a day of celebration commemorating the end of the Civil War in 1865 and the release of African Americans from slavery. He said the House is to take it up soon and that a formal celebration will be held next month.

Juneteenth Day events are held in communities around the U.S. to commemorate the day in 1865 when Union soldiers landed at Galveston, Texas, to announce the Civil War was over and that slaves were free.

The Senate has passed such nonbinding but highly symbolic resolutions before, apologizing for such things as the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II.

The resolution passed Thursday includes a disclaimer saying that nothing in it supports or authorizes reparations by the United States.

[whatisit21]

Just some more flaky American stuff. Cover up the corruption by throwing some stupid apology around.

[jakeson1]

Yes now you bring me to my closing point on why this slavery or should i say slavery implemented by europeans or whites is so different from most other cultures that enslaved people. Sex slaves we all know comes down to 1 thing *****. Which means it doesnt matter what your race,creed,hair color etc is if you have a ***** you going up for sale. WE agree this is very wrong no doubt. Ill connect that example with this example before i make my point. There has been no record of slavery on the continent of Africa untill invaders took over the thrown in egypt not to say there wasnt, maybe but it has not been proven which leads me to believe they operated more on a community based structure where your skills deternmined your role in society. But everyone played their role in society peacefully. Forget that point tho lets talk about the slavery that we know occured in Africa during diffrent time periods and in different areas. The form of slavery in these situation was always a class issue meaning rich & poor. Meaning they werent enslaved because of their skin tone or religion for that matter. They used the endentured servant structure in these societies which would already shows that the the ones enslaving atleast considered the slaves as people. We both agree this was very wrong no doubt. Now let me make my point, all kinds of slavery are wrong Even the great wall slavery, (by then europeans were already wreaking havoc on half of the world) but the europeans were the 1st RACE HATERS who enslaved. No other race or culture went to the extent that europeans have worldwide, destroying every continent they touch. you cant prove me wrong!. Name any piece of land colonized by europeans that wasnt taken away and destroyed along with the original people of the land. Africans didnt enslave because the people were black! the chinese didnt enslave and make people build that wall because of their race, it was a class issue!! Im king and if your not part of the upper class of this kingdom then you will build my wall , that was the motivation for them. But when we look at those whites man they add so many new specs to their slavery lol racism,dicrimination,forced religion and language. Man the more i type the more you guys sound like those "terrorist" that our government tells us is so hellbent on takin away our freedom damnnnn can u feel it?lmao I mean you guys didnt want us to vote, we had to believe in your religion the list goes on! this is starting to sound like a fox 11 broadcast about "terrorist" I swear. White people said that we werent smart or good enough to BOX,play basketball,football,baseball,golf,swim,go to the same school,drink at the same fountain,sit in the front of the bus,be their neighbors. I must say i dont know of any other people that has shed as much blood and cause this much chaos on this planet then white people and neither do you. Not to say you had anything to do with that but does it make it untrue since you and your family didnt participate? does it not derserve to be adressed so that everyone can live a better life? since slavery is over we should just move on? Be honest if my history was your history would you just wana move on without things being delt with correctly? open your mind and heart. if you want this issue to go away help the issue go away by being proactive because trust me you dont want this issue to be over more than me and my people. Its only a annoying topic on a blog site for you you can move on to facebook and myspace and not think about it again till the goverment makes another ******* apology. but this you can say is like the url of my life be considerate and not so ignorant!

[jakeson1]

lol oh k if that makes u feel better.

[jonbrun]

While I feel that slavery was a very misguided plan, I think apologizing 150 years after it's abolition is utterly ridiculous. On the other side of the coin I guess the rest of us are all due an apology from these particularly unhappy blacks. The apology can cover the ruination of areas of every city in this country, the drugs, rampant crime, decades of abused entitlements, overtaxing of urban resources and the fear of victimization that we all live with every day - and I mean ALL of us. Then it'll be good and we will have our "closure".
Would the offended please consider returning to their homelands - where things are soooo much better than here - civil wars, slavery, countries on the verge of collapse.....

Give it a rest.

[blog_fever2]

Your opinion and post show the true ignorance of our generation. I feel sorry for you and pray that God fixes your paradigm.

[mizerika]

Oh, Wow!!! What ignorance and predjudice.. Ghettos are always filled with poverty and crime, no matter what race of people occupy them... The Irish, Mexians, blacks... Its just that no other race of people have ever been stuck there.. Its easier for jewish or irish people to gradually blend in to the rest of the culture and move out of the Ghetto, they look like and can easily learn to act like the dominant culture.. Black people don't have that luxury... And its alot harder to climb out when you've had someones foot on your back for 500 years... traits, culture, oppression and bein oppressed and all passed down generationally, as well as poverty and miseducation.. yes we see a few bright lights of hope climbing out of the ghetto, but to rise up as a whole culture takes a lot more than the past 40 years... you have to change peoples attitudes, black and white... Then you have to heal, and you have to make things really equal and fair, not just pretend, which takes time because of peoples attidudes and the fact that white people aren't supet eager to help because we live comfortably and can easily ignore the probems and pretend they don't exist... ALL of "Us" live in fear.. Speak for yourself.. The whole thought of the dark stranger coming to rob, rape or kill you is a bunch of B.S... about 98% of the time a white woman is raped, beat or killed its by another white person...

[tautomer]

Man, this Democrat Senate has a lot more to apologize for than slavery! I'm thinking this is a prelude to offering reparations as part of Obama's transfer of wealth agenda. Let's not forget Democrats like George Wallace, Lester Maddox and Huey Long and John Kennedy who did all they could to prevent the realization of equal rights for blacks. Let us remember Republican Dwight Eisenhower and the Civil Rights Act of 1957 that finally got the ball rolling on this issue.

Maybe we should look at unemployment in the Black Community since the Democrats took over in January 2007!!! In that time unemployment among Black men has risen to 16%! Dems don't give a darn about Blacks except at election time.

Meanwhile the seminal issue in the formation of the Republican party was the freeing of slaves. It's funny that people forget these distinctions.

[mizerika]

The civil rights was what turn republican into democrats.. Its a different party now.. And unemployment rising since dems have been in power! They had a racist, arrogant, ignorant president until a couple months ago and it was impossible to get anything accomplished.. It will take more than 5 months to clean up the mess that has been made of this country in the past 8 years.. It won't happen over night...

[stn_sage]

Outrageous waste of time! With ALL the pressing problems that NEED to be dealt with LAST YEAR---these guys are apologizing for laws and a social
condition that existed 250-300 years AGO?! Ridiculous!

Historically, most groups of people upon arrival to the United States have been discriminated against, treated harshly and unfairly, and even murdered! This is NOT unique to the Black race! Does Congress intend to apologize to the Irish, the Germans, the Italians, the Jews, the Japanese, and Arab-Americans next?! I thought not!

My advice: Stop wasting time, Congress! You 'slackers' need to get your priorites straightened around and get to work! There's more than enough
that needs to be corrected! So do it!

[jakeson1]

reparations were authorized for holocaust victims,japanese internment victims,but not slavery? and hell yea my native american people should recieve something more official than they have! Our corward ass country damn near wiped them out and whut did they get reservations and some casino action? thats is wrong on every level and you seem smart enough to know this. Now to adress your comment about the dems who cares who was more conservative? White people in general in that period oppressed blacks i dont look at them as a hero at all. I mean come on Lincoln only "freed' the slaves as a war strategy most educated people know this. Which means in essence they had no real plans to stop the oppression hence jim crow and the manny other laws and violent acts that my people faced long after slavery! Now to your comment about all whites ancestors not owning slaves etc. Yes this is true common sense tells you that but the key is All whites have benefitted from slavery directly or indirectly. This is true because the infrastructure of our country was built on the back of my people. So whether its a successful company,buisness,university,etc somewhere down the line a white kid is in a better position than a lil black or latino kid the same age due to slavery. is this not common sense? im 28 and dont own a home, my parents dont on a home, if inherited debt& emotional scares from gennerations before me and ive never commited a crime or picked cotton. How does that not work the other way around. whites own more homes, go to college more often, hold higher positions in the corporate world than blacks. Why is that? do you think its because blacks dont want to own houses or go to college? hmmmmm.... chances are a lil white kid that had nothing to do with slavery benifits because hes white and his family is white, from the start of this country they have had an advantage all on the back of my people!! The way i can make that more clear is that immigrants that came here from europe may have had a hard time in the beginings but nothin like my people. You hear it all the time "oh my grandparents came here from ireland with nothing and worked hard to live the american dream. we didnt own slaves they did it on thier own. why cant blacks do it to?" This is the major point we seem to forget(on purpose) and seem to push under the rug kinda like you all are trying to push slavery under the rug. Those immigrants from ireland and wherever else that came to this country benefitted from slvery and took advantage of the american dream because they werent black!!! common sense right? Even if they were an immigrant the point is they werent BLACK which allowed them to come to this country and pass up millions of blacks that were already here working and trying to live. Will you try to deny that? Even if they came here as immigrants they could pass us up economically, socially and among other things had the right to oppress us simply because they werent black. hell yea your benifitting from it right now as you speak whether you admit it or not. To end this because i wanna hear whut you have to say ill say this. Its no way the country could repay what it owes becasue that would mean they would have to turn over the whole damn country due to back pay and the integral role we played in the start of this country but like i say, all we ever wanted was to be is equal even after all the BS we never wanted anything more and i believe that is still true. If they could repay in anyway i say. All my people should have the choice to go the college(paid for) kinda like what our country did for or Native American brothers (how did they forget us on this 1? hmmmm). Along with that healthcare should be free for us due to all the blood shed that whites inflicted and engraved into blacks which is the root cause to black on black crime. Lastly it shouldnt be another black or latino child missing meals in this country. and ill take it s step forward because loving, sharing, and unity is my nature and black peoples nature period this should apply to alll children no matter race. whut do you think is that fair?

[mizerika]

It was 144 years ago, get your math straight.. and the civil rights movement was only over with, what less than 40 years ago... you think that one generation is time enough to solve all the problems created by over 500 years of slavery, oppression and being treated as less than human??? NO its not... Any intelligent human being could figure that one out if they actually took the time to think about it.... I want every white person to do me a Great, Big, Huge favor please... Go to the library and pick up a book called "Being White: Finding our Place in a Multiethnic World" By Paula Harris and Doug Or "Understanding white privilege : creating pathways to authentic relationships across race" By Frances E Kendall, or just look up white privilege and research the issue at your library. Educate yourself..

[FauxNews]

Darn, I read the headline and thought they were apologizing for the IRS. Hopefully, they will apologize to the Indians on Wounded Knee Day and to the Neanderthals on Species Wipeout Day. Fortunately, Congress has their priorities straight and doesn?t worry about a $16 billion per day deficit or double digit unemployment.

[jakeson1]

reparations were authorized for holocaust victims,japanese internment victims,but not slavery? and hell yea my native american people should recieve something more official than they have! Our corward ass country damn near wiped them out and whut did they get reservations and some casino action? thats is wrong on every level and you seem smart enough to know this. Now to adress your comment about the dems who cares who was more conservative? White people in general in that period oppressed blacks i dont look at them as a hero at all. I mean come on Lincoln only "freed' the slaves as a war strategy most educated people know this. Which means in essence they had no real plans to stop the oppression hence jim crow and the manny other laws and violent acts that my people faced long after slavery! Now to your comment about all whites ancestors not owning slaves etc. Yes this is true common sense tells you that but the key is All whites have benefitted from slavery directly or indirectly. This is true because the infrastructure of our country was built on the back of my people. So whether its a successful company,buisness,university,etc somewhere down the line a white kid is in a better position than a lil black or latino kid the same age due to slavery. is this not common sense? im 28 and dont own a home, my parents dont on a home, if inherited debt& emotional scares from gennerations before me and ive never commited a crime or picked cotton. How does that not work the other way around. whites own more homes, go to college more often, hold higher positions in the corporate world than blacks. Why is that? do you think its because blacks dont want to own houses or go to college? hmmmmm.... chances are a lil white kid that had nothing to do with slavery benifits because hes white and his family is white, from the start of this country they have had an advantage all on the back of my people!! The way i can make that more clear is that immigrants that came here from europe may have had a hard time in the beginings but nothin like my people. You hear it all the time "oh my grandparents came here from ireland with nothing and worked hard to live the american dream. we didnt own slaves they did it on thier own. why cant blacks do it to?" This is the major point we seem to forget(on purpose) and seem to push under the rug kinda like you all are trying to push slavery under the rug. Those immigrants from ireland and wherever else that came to this country benefitted from slvery and took advantage of the american dream because they werent black!!! common sense right? Even if they were an immigrant the point is they werent BLACK which allowed them to come to this country and pass up millions of blacks that were already here working and trying to live. Will you try to deny that? Even if they came here as immigrants they could pass us up economically, socially and among other things had the right to oppress us simply because they werent black. hell yea your benifitting from it right now as you speak whether you admit it or not. To end this because i wanna hear whut you have to say ill say this. Its no way the country could repay what it owes becasue that would mean they would have to turn over the whole damn country due to back pay and the integral role we played in the start of this country but like i say, all we ever wanted was to be is equal even after all the BS we never wanted anything more and i believe that is still true. If they could repay in anyway i say. All my people should have the choice to go the college(paid for) kinda like what our country did for or Native American brothers (how did they forget us on this 1? hmmmm). Along with that healthcare should be free for us due to all the blood shed that whites inflicted and engraved into blacks which is the root cause to black on black crime. Lastly it shouldnt be another black or latino child missing meals in this country. and ill take it s step forward because loving, sharing, and unity is my nature and black peoples nature period this should apply to alll children no matter race. whut do you think is that fair?

[nordeck52]

Fitting that the party that fought for slavery is the one from which this apology comes. And before somebody starts flipping out, I remind you that the Democratic Party was originally the more conservative party (until the switch-up in the late 1800s/early 1900s).

Regarding what the article mentions concerning reparations (which have been elaborated further on other news sites), that is a bad idea for a lot of reasons. For one, how does somebody decide whether they've been repaid enough? And how do we decide who donates to a "reparation fund?" Not all of the ancestors of whites in this country owned slaves, so it wouldn't be just to punish the descendants of those who didn't take part in this. And another thing, if reparations were to be given out as a way of repenting for slavery, does that mean reparations would be given out to the Native Americans whose land was stolen as well?

Slavery was an abomination which should never have taken place, but I think this apology is fine as it is. And now I think we should all do a little thing called "moving on and making sure nothing like it happens again."

[jakeson1]

I really hate how americans try to play this slavery thing down. im 28 i never picked cotton are was beat with whips or even had aslave master but yes here in 2009 im affected by slavery. Anyone who would dispute that obviously is in denial and wouldnt understand because more than likely has benefitted one way or another form slavery. The whole infrastructure of this country was built on my people blood period. Before there was "WALL STREET" there was the slave trade hmmm do we forget? Before the industrial workforce it was only agricultural. hmm i wonder how that industry became booming? i dont need to go into that we all know how that went down. Im saying that to say this just when we talk the beginings of this country black people should be in a better place financially,socially,etc. If we didnt benifit then and our situation is in some cases worst in 09 how does it now affect us? yes the slaves were "freed"lol and laws where passed to "prove' this country is against slavery but the chips were never stacked equal to begin with like our country" promised they would be. How are we not affected still when we never had a real chance to rise above our situation hence my people living in "ghettos', killing each other, many athers not in the home etc. Its not our nature to live like this at all if whites where in the same situation if they had generations of oppression against them they would react the exact same way because we are humans. If there no jobs in your area and so much is put in place to keep you from makin progress you would choose to sell drugs and commit crimes to feed your family because its human nature to survive and most men rather die on their feet that starve on their knees. This is why we need to take action and work towards real resolution. We cant say lets move oon when the core of the issues are still so fresh and spreading to new generations. we have not dealt with the problem at all

[jakeson1]

reparations were authorized for holocaust victims,japanese internment victims,but not slavery? and hell yea my native american people should recieve something more official than they have! Our corward ass country damn near wiped them out and whut did they get reservations and some casino action? thats is wrong on every level and you seem smart enough to know this. Now to adress your comment about the dems who cares who was more conservative? White people in general in that period oppressed blacks i dont look at them as a hero at all. I mean come on Lincoln only "freed' the slaves as a war strategy most educated people know this. Which means in essence they had no real plans to stop the oppression hence jim crow and the manny other laws and violent acts that my people faced long after slavery! Now to your comment about all whites ancestors not owning slaves etc. Yes this is true common sense tells you that but the key is All whites have benefitted from slavery directly or indirectly. This is true because the infrastructure of our country was built on the back of my people. So whether its a successful company,buisness,university,etc somewhere down the line a white kid is in a better position than a lil black or latino kid the same age due to slavery. is this not common sense? im 28 and dont own a home, my parents dont on a home, if inherited debt& emotional scares from gennerations before me and ive never commited a crime or picked cotton. How does that not work the other way around. whites own more homes, go to college more often, hold higher positions in the corporate world than blacks. Why is that? do you think its because blacks dont want to own houses or go to college? hmmmmm.... chances are a lil white kid that had nothing to do with slavery benifits because hes white and his family is white, from the start of this country they have had an advantage all on the back of my people!! The way i can make that more clear is that immigrants that came here from europe may have had a hard time in the beginings but nothin like my people. You hear it all the time "oh my grandparents came here from ireland with nothing and worked hard to live the american dream. we didnt own slaves they did it on thier own. why cant blacks do it to?" This is the major point we seem to forget(on purpose) and seem to push under the rug kinda like you all are trying to push slavery under the rug. Those immigrants from ireland and wherever else that came to this country benefitted from slvery and took advantage of the american dream because they werent black!!! common sense right? Even if they were an immigrant the point is they werent BLACK which allowed them to come to this country and pass up millions of blacks that were already here working and trying to live. Will you try to deny that? Even if they came here as immigrants they could pass us up economically, socially and among other things had the right to oppress us simply because they werent black. hell yea your benifitting from it right now as you speak whether you admit it or not. To end this because i wanna hear whut you have to say ill say this. Its no way the country could repay what it owes becasue that would mean they would have to turn over the whole damn country due to back pay and the integral role we played in the start of this country but like i say, all we ever wanted was to be is equal even after all the BS we never wanted anything more and i believe that is still true. If they could repay in anyway i say. All my people should have the choice to go the college(paid for) kinda like what our country did for or Native American brothers (how did they forget us on this 1? hmmmm). Along with that healthcare should be free for us due to all the blood shed that whites inflicted and engraved into blacks which is the root cause to black on black crime. Lastly it shouldnt be another black or latino child missing meals in this country. and ill take it s step forward because loving, sharing, and unity is my nature and black peoples nature period this should apply to alll children no matter race. whut do you think is that fair?

[mizerika]

Amen to you again Jackon... I couldn't have said it better!!

[John_Merritt]

Does this mean we get another national holiday. Great! No, why even bother about something that most of us wish never happened, but we owe no apology for something our ancestors did, not us. Most people should know by now that this was a terrible period in the life of this country, but I really don't believe any black today is wishing they were living in Africa, do they? Enough said.

[sonart]

I apologize for every wrong in the past and future.

[jakeson1]

I just got back from South Africa and i must say its a whole lotta whites livin there hmmmmm... Dont act like europeans did us a favor for bringing us here please. We built this country and still arent welcome here. I must also point out that We where the 1st people on this planet and i would think the whites saw something the really liked about my beautiful continent dfor them to occupy it to this day hmmm. that must be you inner ignorant american speakin for you huh/ get a passport travel somewhere instead of being in front of your commputer so you can see thte damage europeans have cause worldwide no other race has shed so much blood period you cant name 1. AFrica is amazing and would still be if it wasnt for europeans ***** it up like they did to every other continent and i mean every wheter we re talkin australia, south america , mexico, phillipines,puerto rico, ect the list goes on shall i continue i mean really. it reall pisse me off when peole act like they did any1 a favor by stripping them from thei homeland, spiritual practices, language, then puts them to work and opresses them come on!!