I received the following via email from Pat Morton, a long-time resident of Norfolk. With her permission, I share her perspective with you.
I have lots of stuff going on in my head about this. I don’t know if I’ve ever told you this, but at 54 years old I am old enough to remember the “white” and the “colored” bathrooms at Ames & Brownley’s downtown, along with the water fountains for that matter. I saw the bathrooms when I was with my grandmother, I couldn’t have been more than 6 years old, if that old. I wanted to go to the “colored” bathroom because if it was “colored” it was surely more fun than just plain. I’m sure I mortified her when I made a fuss about it.
I also remember not being allowed to sit at the back of the bus – I wanted to sit on the long bench seat at the very back and look out the back window, but my mother wouldn’t let me, the white people didn’t sit back there. Again I was 6 or younger I’m thinking.
I remember when I moved to Colonial Place in 1976 or so my great-uncle having some awful things to say about the mixed neighborhood.
I remember horrible racial things happening at Blair, but then they all got better at Maury. Not perfect, but really a lot better and I was naïve enough to believe that things were finally going to be okay. That was 1968-1970. Hah.
I have never, ever understood any of it. Obviously I have nowhere near a black person’s perspective on any of this, but I can tell you I have been as hurt as any white person can be by all of it and I will never understand how these white people cannot grasp at least a part of this.
Apologize for slavery? Hell, yes. If it wasn’t for slavery, none of the things that offended me – and offended every single black person, which goes without saying – would have ever happened. It doesn’t matter that no one alive today was or had slaves, what matters is the things I’ve experienced in my lifetime that were a result of it and, WAY more importantly, the things blacks have experienced and continue to experience. What in the hell is it about a freakin’ APOLOGY that could be wrong??
Thanks, Pat. You obviously get it.
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
Um, I don’t know what it’s like to be black, like I said. You do?? You’ve done that week as a black man and week as a black woman that I challenged you to do and now you have all the answers?
What I do know/have that you don’t seem to know/have is some compassion for my fellow, uh, folks. I have observed how people are treated differently and unfairly because of the color of their skin and I have been hurt by that. Not nearly as much as THEY have been hurt by that, obviously, but my hurt is real and you can’t make that not so.
Why you have no hurt feelings about these things is something you need to answer to your higher power about… assuming you have one, and if you don’t that’s okay, but you still need to think about why it’s okay for a segment of society to have another segment of society’s heels ground in their faces. How on earth can that be okay?
Just because you haven’t seen it personally (if indeed you haven’t) doesn’t mean it hasn’t happened. There are people here, like me, who HAVE seen it and have no reason to lie to you about it. Why do you protest so hard about it?
What skin is it off your nose to just say okay, things have happened in the past about which I was not aware, I’m really sorry I’ve missed that fact, and I think we need to do whatever it takes to set off on a healing path? Why is it so important to you to say NO, don’t go down that road?
Oh god. This whole thing is making me crazy. How in the hell can you people be so insensitive.
Let me know when the folks from India, Asia and the Middle East have been kept as slaves for 200+ years in this country. Let me know when the folks from India, Asia and the Middle East have lived under Jim Crow laws for 65 years.
And for that matter, let me know when newly arrived African immigrants have done those things, too.
And let us know when you find records of your ancestors being sold as nothing more than chattel – how does that make you feel.
Vivian – You are making far too much of this apology. I suggest you check out out his post. http://twoconservatives.blogspot.com/
The Virginia General Assembly may or may not pass the apology bill. I do not know. Yet, this apology does exactly the thing you supposedly do not want. It put the government once again in the business of discrimination based upon race. For all practical purposes, this apology is an apology from whites to black. Why do you insist the government make such distinctions? When it is suppose to represent both blacks and whites and everyone else, what qualifies the General Assembly to make such an apology?
How can you be taken in with such vacuous pandering? Do you really want status of Blacks to depend upon the quality of their victim hood? Do you really want us to believe that because someone’s ancestors were slaves, we have to treat them better?
If you buy into the Theory of Evolution, we all have a shared ancestry that includes cavemen, monkeys, and single celled lifeforms. Based upon that family tree, we all have had to rise above ignoble beginnings. What is so special about about being descended from slaves? Can you find someone whose ancestors were not exploited by some other group?
This is lovely:
“Live one week as a black man and then one week as a black woman and then let us hear from you.
Until then shut up.
Okay – then apparently anyone posting here that is not “white” should not be allowed to comment on why it is those of that many of us that are white and now living (who had nothing to do with slavery) feel the way we do about this bogus “apology”.
Of course – that view is as rude and misguided as the comment that begins this post.
As long as we are trotting out the ‘ole “you need to walk a mile in MY shoes” lament – do you that are blck have any idea how tiresome it is to those that are not black to listen to the endless whining over slavery that didn’t happen to the people doing the whining?
Probably not – nor would I expect you too.
Why do blacks demand non-blacks to understand their black-only issues?
As many have said – the longer people keep picking scabs off before wonds heal – the more likelihood that the wounds will never heal.
From where I sit – there are those within the ‘black community’ that make a living by preventing wounds to heal.
If I thought this bogus, politically motivated apology by our Commonwealth would actually be accepted and the ‘black community’ would actually say “apology accepted” and move on – I’d be CHEERING the apology.
But nobody really believes THAT is going to happen, now do they?
This whole fuss has shown that for many “African-Americans” – nothing will EVER “atone” for slavery.
But, regardless if the apology is as sincere and heart felt as Pat’s – or an empty and politcally motivated as the General Assembly – – I have witnessed that a certain vocal segment of the “African-American Community” will refuse to ever accept any apology – so, what’s the point?
I am a white person. I am the one who said live a week as a black man and then live a week as a black woman and then come back and give us your report, until then shut up.
I have done neither but I have lived and observed enough life to know that I do not WANT to do either because I do not want to experience what I SEE as a white person that happens to black men and to black women – and it really is two totally entirely different experiences, unlike white men and white women who do have mildly different walks of life, but nothing like the dichotomy of black male to black female.
What I don’t understand is how the other – clearly – white people posting here have not also observed what I’ve observed. And I don’t understand how it is that even though they have somehow… SOMEHOW… missed this ongoing societal offense that it is so important to them to fight something that costs that NOTHING!!
Okay, you don’t get it, you don’t understand how an apology issued by the commonwealth would make any difference to anything that is going on these days. Then why fight it? Why not accept that maybe it does make a difference to some and give it a rest??
Why do you care so much to bloviate so loudly to make it not happen? If it makes no difference, why does it make such a difference to you??
Once again Pat, it is because, it is bogus!
You can’t apologize for something you didn’t do, to someone who wasn’t a slave.
It’s just a way to divide people and give people like McEachin political power.
I suggest all those who feel guilty for slavery, and somehow want to relieve their guilt, make a written apology, and have it preserved in the Library of Congress, if it makes you feel less guilty of something you didn’t do. But don’t use my tax dollars, and waste the time of the GA on something so rediculous, so Mr. McEachin can be on CNN, and on the front page of the newspaper, and continue to brainwash and victimize the less perceptive in our Nation.
There’s the compromise! You get to apologize, those who want your apology get one, and the taxpayer and our dollars are left out of this huge waste. Start this cause for all Americans who wish to apologize. It still cost money to file preserve your apology. And the time you could have used to do something more meanful and productive could have been wasted.
You say it cost nothing. How much time and money have already been spent on it? I sure you would be shocked!
Why are we so upset and writing to voice our opinions. Because we hope that one day a man will judged by the content of his character nad not the color of his skin.
I’m objecting to all the fuss being made about the guy saying “get over it” – because I believe that many of those making the fuss are doing it for political motives – and I’m sick of it.
Pat, do you “get it” (my point)?- or perhaps you need to walk in my shoes and observe what I have witnessed in my 48 years to understand the political manipulation of the oh, so popular “race card”.
(RK) Can’t we all just get along?
What ever happen to working towards “unity” ?
Oh, sorry, many are too busy playing “gotcha” by blaming non-black people today for the sins of white people long dead.
Pat – you shared with us the poor situations you have seen blacks suffer.
But the apology was for slavery, not racial prejudice.
Many here on this forum have attempted to assert that “slavery” is the root cause of the descrimination black people are subjected to today – and in the past few decades.
Here’s a thought – I know a lot of folks that resent black people today – not because their long dead great grandparents were slaves, but for contemporary issues they attribute to the behavior of blacks living today – and for a “black culture” that many object to.
Pat – all of those things you witnessed where by blacks were not treated fairly – ask yourself this question – within the past 30 years; how many had anything to do with “slavery” – or did it cross your mind that perhaps these things happened because they had to do with the actions of black people today?
Is it possible that the reasons black people were mistreated might not have anything to do with slavery?
Newsflash: There hasn’t been any slavery in the United States for over 100 years.
Pat, you’re right – a lot of folks DO treat blacks different than non-blacks – but perhaps that is due to the behavior of many of those now living that are black?
If so, then what does apologizing for slavery have to do with that?
Pat – if the apology costs nothing, that is because it is worth nothing.
What the apology is in fact is an insult to our intelligence.
Like a lot of Blacks, I too have mixed ancestry. On my father’s side, my forebears arrived in this country from Ireland shortly before the war and settled in Wisconsin. If you have any familiarity with Irish history, then you probably know that the English conquered and dominated Ireland for a very long time. The treatment of the Irish by the English was not exactly nice. If you are not familiar with the gravity of this hatred, you might check this link for its description of a famous piece of satire, A Modest Proposal (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_modest_proposal).
Because many his peers took him seriously (Imagine that.), the poor satirist nearly lost his patronage. Fortunately, some people understood the joke.
Nonetheless, in spite of the historical animosities between the Irish and the English, my father married a lady of English descent, and they got along happily for many years. From that I learned that my Irish side does not have to be in constant warfare with my English side. Thus I appreciate the advantages of both sides of my ancestry.
VJP
You think the caste system in India is any better than slavery?
You think the oppression women in the middle east endure today is any better than slavery? Although maybe if we were to adopt a few of their laws regarding getting your hands chopped off for theft, or being stoned for adultry, might bring more civilized, moral, behavior to our nation.
Asians wern’t used as slave labor in this country? Along with whites?
Get real VJP.
Pat – January 21, 2007
And let us know when you find records of your ancestors being sold as nothing more than chattel – how does that make you feel.
Pat, it would make me feel proud of their sacrifice, and my ancestors were strong enough to survive such anful chapter in HISTORY. I would glad I was born and live in the present. It would make me feel this country was just as much mine as anyone else’s and I would not try to divide it, but to unite it, and make it stronger. I would be offended by politicians who would try keep me dependent on government handouts for my vote, when I was capable of achieving so much more. I would be offended by those of my race who used the N word when addressing each another, casting a cloud of hate and negativity over all blacks (right or wrong). I would be offended by gangster rap, and the lyrics of must rap music. I would be extremely offended by those who would try to make me believe I somehow don’t have the same opportunities everyone else has in this country. I would be an American and would stive to assimilate instead of trying to be different and helpless.
“And for that matter, let me know when newly arrived African immigrants have done those things, too.”
The Jim Crow laws ended years ago. If a child born to Blacks after the Jim Crow laws are affected by them, and past slavery, but the child of the African immigrants is not, then it is the parents teaching, not society’s, that is at fault.
And a Black coach WILL win the Super Bowl this year!
I am absolutely saturated with Southern heritage and oral history. I am disappointed with some on the left who tread on my own personal heritage in a clumsy way, and maybe I’ll write more about that one of these days. But I am more annoyed with those who claim to cherish the positive aspects of that heritage but intertwine it with racist values at the same time.
I wholeheartedly support an apology because of what I see in the present, what I have seen in my lifetime and what took place before I was born. Mostly I support it because of what I witness in the present. It takes generations to overcome something as brutal as slavery. An apology is a collective statement that we acknowledge that this nation was built on the backs of all but anonymous individuals that were treated like animals. Many of them were buried in unmarked graves.
One thing I’ve seen is utter terror in the eyes of old black people, especially men. Where did that come from? Their parents or grandparents were slaves themselves no doubt. Just last year, 2006, James Cameron passed away from old age because by a near miracle he survived a lynching. He managed to see the Senate apologize for slavery in 2005:
Click to access resolution.pdf
Are there objections to that apology?
Tom, et al, can you not take a few minutes and imagine if slavery and lynchings were part of your heritage? Because if you cannot do that, I don’t know if this dialog has any value. What is the reward in NOT apologizing, that’s what I would like to know.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/race_relations/jan-june05/anti-lynching_6-13.html
Lynchings were the byproduct of slavery. There’s no escaping that fact. There memory is fresher than slavery.
From what I know about him, I am proud of my great-great grandfather who fought in the Civil War. I know that he was married at the end of the war when he was 21. I imagine that he walked home from Appomattox to Gladys. I also know that there were two blacks in his household. I don’t know if he owned them as slaves before the war or not. If he didn’t, someone did. I learned that my great-great grandfather was a very kind man at my own grandmother’s knee. What did my African American counterparts learn from their grandparents?
I know also that on the other side of the family my own mother was tended to by black women when she and her siblings were young. In the summertime those women had to wear plain sleeveless white smocks that don’t look any different from what women who worked in the “big house” wore during the slave days.
My mother died when I was young and for a brief time we were tended to by a made who stayed in our house 5 days a week. What sort of future did she have? When I was young, the only black people I knew were maids and janitors. Period. Then we had integrated schools. Later I moved to St. Louis, and around 1980 one of my bosses wanted to know if I had any experience “running niggers.”
And yet again I found myself in a community where the process of integration showed the worst side of people.
I found it a challenge to raise my children to be fair-minded in that context. I was young and it wasn’t easy to answer their questions sometimes or to explain the venom coming from some of my neighbors.
I don’t want the next generation to go through anything remotely like that. I want them to be able to look our history straight on and be able to say – that was then, this is now. And now we don’t treat human beings differently because of skin color..
This is not about guilt over the past. It is about the future.