House Formally Apologizes For Slavery And Jim Crow
Yeah … cuz the North/Union winnin’ the Civil War wasn’t good `nuff … Guess this means all them thar Congressman and wimmins gotta be givin’ up der slaves `n such now …
Can we PLEASE get the fuck past this volume in our history already? I fucking mean, even Germany, whose filthy history is no more than a rough 60 or so years old and many still sucking in air, and THEY’VE seemed to have gotten past the whole Nazi/Holocaust “nuisance” …
Look, I’m NOT making small of the Holocaust … We lost over 405,399 military men and women fucking up Hitler and Tojo in WWII … and, really, saved the world.
And neither am I making small of our history in this country with slavery. This country sacrificed over 320,000 “white” men to keep this country United, and to end slavery.
Truth be told, there isn’t a damn country on the face of this planet that hasn’t had slavery in some form or another … FUCK! Hop on a plane and fly around the world and discover it’s still very much in brutal practice in OTHER countries.
The only person within the walls of the Congress building that is still sucking down air and farting a carbon footprint and MAY have closer links to this country’s slavery past than anyone else in the Congress or Senate, or the country for that matter, is Sen. Robert KKK Byrd … for fuck’s sakes!
So get the hell off MY back with this shit … and get the hell over it already.
BTW, this is a piss-poor attempt to set the ground work for a possible Hussein presidency under which “reparations” WILL be paid.
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WASHINGTON - The House on Tuesday issued an unprecedented apology to black Americans for the wrongs committed against them and their ancestors who suffered under slavery and Jim Crow segregation laws.
“Today represents a milestone in our nation’s efforts to remedy the ills of our past,” said Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, D-Mich., chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus.
The resolution, passed by voice vote, was the work of Tennessee Democrat Steve Cohen, the only white lawmaker to represent a majority black district. Cohen faces a formidable black challenger in a primary face-off next week.
Congress has issued apologies before - to Japanese-Americans for their internment during World War II and to native Hawaiians for the overthrow of the Hawaiian kingdom in 1893. In 2005, the Senate apologized for failing to pass anti-lynching laws.
Five states have issued apologies for slavery, but past proposals in Congress have stalled, partly over concerns that an apology would lead to demands for reparations - payment for damages.
The Cohen resolution does not mention reparations. It does commit the House to rectifying “the lingering consequences of the misdeeds committed against African-Americans under slavery and Jim Crow.”
It says that Africans forced into slavery “were brutalized, humiliated, dehumanized and subjected to the indignity of being stripped of their names and heritage” and that black Americans today continue to suffer from the consequences of slavery and Jim Crow laws that fostered discrimination and segregation.
The House “apologizes to African-Americans on behalf of the people of the United States, for the wrongs committed against them and their ancestors who suffered under slavery and Jim Crow.”
“Slavery and Jim Crow are stains upon what is the greatest nation on the face of the earth,” Cohen said. Part of forming a more perfect union, he said, “is such a resolution as we have before us today where we face up to our mistakes and apologize as anyone should apologize for things that were done in the past that were wrong.”
Cohen became the first white to represent the 60 percent black district in Memphis in more than three decades when he captured a 2006 primary where a dozen black candidates split the vote. He has sought to reach out to his black constituents, and early in his term showed interest in joining the Congressional Black Caucus until learning that was against caucus rules.
Another of his first acts as a freshman congressman in early 2007 was to introduce the slavery apology resolution. His office said that the House resolution was brought to the floor only after learning that the Senate would be unable to join in a joint resolution.
More than a dozen of the 42 Congressional Black Caucus members in the House were original co-sponsors of the measure. The caucus has not endorsed either Cohen or his chief rival, attorney Nikki Tinker, in the Memphis primary, although Cohen is backed by several senior members, including Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., and Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel, D-N.Y. Tinker is the former campaign manager of Harold Ford, Jr., who held Cohen’s seat until he stepped down in an unsuccessful run for the Senate in 2006.
(AP)
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