I wasn’t kidding when I wrote about the attitude of folks regarding the proposed apology for slavery. We learn via Waldo that Delegate Frank Hargrove (R-Glen Allen) said basically that:
“Are we going to force the Jews to apologize for killing Christ?” Hargrove wondered.
I listened to the responses of Delegate Don McEachin and Delegate (Reverend) Dwight Jones and their comments echo my own thoughts. Wasn’t yesterday MLK Day? Is Hargrove just an insensitive jerk?
Were he alive, my own father would be 95 years old. When I was a child, he told me the stories that his grandfather – a slave – had told him. And I’m supposed to “get over it”?
How many of you have in your family archives a copy of the Bill of Sale for your mother’s great grandmother and her mother? And I’m supposed to “get over it”? (click on link to enlarge)
When I have to look in the property records for my ancestors while others get to look at the Census records, I’m supposed to “get over it”?
There ain’t no way.
UPDATE: I see that this Hargrove story has legs. It was on the local news tonight, on the front page of MSNBC, and TPM (via Waldo).
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
We all have family histories that are not glorious, but that was then, this is now. Hate will not change what happened in the past, but will only keep the worst of it alive and breeding. I am saddened by your tortured heart and pray that God will alleviate your pain.
How come I’m “tortured” but the folks who won’t let go of the Confederacy are not?
History is important and should be honored not forgotten madmouser.
How is anyone supposed to “get over it” when certain segments of Virginia choose to honor the past confederacy with monuments and flags that are up today to keep us mindful of the past?
Virginia needs to apologize for her participation in slavery….and let us white folks be mindful that many of us get an inheritance, etc that is usually larger than black Americans….and I propose this is an economic remnant of slavery still in existence today.
I join Vivian in saying…Don’t get over it….
I’m not ready to play nice on this topic….Buzz…Buzz…
So, what is the point of demanding a hollow apology from people who are uninvolved in something bad that happened to people at least two generations before anyone who is currently around?
Certainly, what happened 140 years ago and before was terrible, but will everyone who feels pain from what happened then feel better because the great-grandchildren of people who might have owned slaves make them all feel better? On top of that, it is being done in the name of a state; this is not a person or people who recently did something so wrong, but a place where it happened. If I had ancestors who had been slaves (honestly, I do not know if I have of have not), such an apology would strike me as condescending.
And mosquito, where did madmouser say to forget history? I think the point madmouser was making is that what happened then is out of our control. madmouser even seems to imply that change should occur; that the hate of the past should be left there.
My main concern is where does it stop? Changes have been regular and appropriate since then, but they have never seemed to be enough. I see a system in place right now that gives everyone equal rights. What if an apology is not enough? People start demanding that the descendents of slaves get greater rights? Affirmative action already seems to hold that position.
As a Christian, I remember that the God’s Word tells us to forgive the trespasses made against us, and to love our neighbor as ourselves, regardless of whether an apology is given or not. Do you really need an apology? Perhaps you should just be forgiven and take on some of today’s problems. Our lessons have been learned from slavery.
Here’s the problem: the constant reminders provided by ongoing references to the Confederacy. That’s the part that folks just don’t get. Every time there is something honoring the heritage of the Confederacy, it dredges up the issue of slavery and reopens the wound.
What is being asked is impossible.
I try not to think about it too much, lest I think even less of my fellow man than I sometimes do, but I am always astonished at how much effort some put into fighting something as easy as a simple apology.
CRUVa, your rationalizations are in poor taste and unkind. Your words are not of a Christian. Is this what Jesus would say?
Vivian, I am not sure if I can really buy that. While slavery mostly resided in the south, the Union was not innocent of it. Maryland was a slave state, and likely only remained as it is beyond DC. And the Union did very little to stop it until Abraham Lincoln made a point of it during the Civil War; they said they were against it all while keeping trade and other dealings with the to-be-Confderacy. The north was just as guilty for not stopping it sooner. So why do we not see a greater demand to remove any American references?
I’m not telling you to change your feelings; I can understand that is never as easy as it might sound. But only you can decide how you deal with them. Do you really think that an apology will make you feel better? Better yet, do you want Delegates McEachin and Jones to vote on it? Or anyone that is not white (at the time that slavery was present, there were not too many non-white politicians)?
You know what would make ME feel better? That there wasn’t so much ignorance out there that it’s socially acceptable to question the appropriateness of an apology. Really, to hear so many objections from a conservative population that otherwise fetishizes empty gestures (One nation under God, In God We Trust) should be surprising. But, of course, it isn’t. Because if there’s anything more predictable about many of today’s “conservatives” than pointless public proclamations of faith, it’s their steadfast devotion to racism.
CR – whether you buy it or not, it is the truth. The Confederacy and slavery are so closely aligned. No one is denying that the North was complicit but to ignore the reality that states left the Union in order to protect their so-called “way of life” is a slap in the face, especially when we know that “way of life” meant slavery.
Why don’t Southerners get this?
I think Southerners get this, but still wonder why their right to free expression is being suppressed. I see this and think it is no better than the “solution” for gang problems in schools. When a certain color is being banned because it leads to “gang association”, what is really acheived? They could get rid of one symbol, but what will stop them from finding another?
And the South did not leave the North over slavery. The North was doing nothing against the South in terms of slavery. The South left over states rights; President Lincoln is the one who turned the war into a referendum on slavery.
The right to free expression is being suppressed?
The apology must come and it must come fast.
And what would those states’ rights be? Um (in my best Church Lady voice) SLAVERY?
And “get over it” isn’t a form of suppression?
About time for me to weigh in I think
I agree with about 95% of the whereas language
I have no problem with the end statement
RESOLVED by the Senate, the House of Delegates concurring, That the General Assembly hereby atone for the involuntary servitude of Africans and call for reconciliation among all Virginians;
I am not an expert on parlimentary procedure but I think I would almost certainly vote yes because I agree with the final statement and 95% of the whereas clauses and anyway from my student government days I think the resolved is the only part that matters right?
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One more thing
WHEREAS, the perpetual pain, distrust, and bitterness of many African Americans could be assuaged and the principles espoused by the Founding Fathers would be affirmed, and great strides toward unifying all Virginians and inspiring the nation to acquiesce might be accomplished, if on the eve of the commemoration of the 400th anniversary of the first permanent English settlement in the New World, the Commonwealth acknowledged and atoned for its pivotal role in the slavery of Africans”
Honestly,
When this bill passes will you personally feel assuaged
I looked up assuaged (words were never my thing) according to the Internets
to make less intense or severe
to satify or appease
to pactify or calm
I would concur with definition 1 but not definition 2 or 3. I wonder what the meaning of the word is used in the resolution.
Thoughts