Why did (or should) Virginia apologize for slavery?
I think this question has probably been asked before, but I'll post it anyway. A short while ago, Virginia apologized for its role in slavery. Why should Virginia apologize for this? I feel that slavery was - and is - a terrible practice. Virginia may have been wrong in what they did years ago, but none of the now-living officials in Virginia have anything to do with slavery. Even if I had an ancestor who was a slave owner, I wouldn't tell a black person, "I'm sorry for MY role in slavery," because I had nothing to do with it! I wouldn't even tell them that I'm sorry for my ancestor's role, because I can't apologize for somebody else, and again, I had nothing to do with it. Again, slavery is horrible, and in no way do I support it, but I see no reason to apologize for something which nobody living today had anything to do with.
I'm expecting a least a few of the respondents to call me a racist or an ignorant person or something, so go ahead, fire 'em at me!
Answer:
You don't seem like a racist at all so I won't call you one.
I think Virginia did it to acknowledge and move past it all. They are doing it as representatives of the state which itself has a tarnished past. The individuals no longer do, but the state itself still does. Think of the state as a person that hasn't died, merely changed it's ways, now it's apologizing for past misdeeds.
I think this is a good thing, good for the victims of slavery who still have that hanging over their heads in a way.
Also though, it's a political ploy to put forth a public view that racist mentalities aren't a part of Virginia, by doing this they both in a roundabout way embrace black people while shoving away racists.
Either way it's a step forward, good for them.
As for you, you don't have to apologize, however if you were ever to talk about it, you should acknowledge your ancestor's role, I think that itself is a step forward(if applicable).
the new york bankers bankrolled the whole slavery thing ask them.
They shouldn't. No one alive owned or was a slave
The only people who should be apologizing for slavery are the slave owners and they should only be aplogizing to the slaves. As netiher of these two parties is still alive the issue is dead, and no one in modern times has any right to speak for people we did not know or take blame for actions we did not commit.
Personally I don' believe Virginia should apologize. None of the officials alive were involved. Every civilization alive today, and most civilizations practice slavery in one form or another, despite how retched the practice actually is. Every civilization from Mesopatania, to Egypt, to the West has practiced this cruel practice, Virginia is not special. Nor was the South.
The Virginia Senate and Virginia House of Delegates, which meet on the grounds of the former Capitol of the Confederacy in Richmond, voted unanimously to express "profound regret" for the state's role in slavery. The resolution does not carry the weight of law but sends an important symbolic message. The slavery apology resolution was introduced as Virginia begins its celebration of the 400th anniversary of Jamestown, where the first Africans arrived in 1619. Richmond, home to a popular boulevard lined with statues of Confederate heroes, later became another point of arrival for Africans and a slave-trade hub. The resolution says government-sanctioned slavery "ranks as the most horrendous of all depredations of human rights and violations of our founding ideals in our nation's history, and the abolition of slavery was followed by systematic discrimination, enforced segregation, and other insidious institutions and practices toward Americans of African descent that were rooted in racism, racial bias, and racial misunderstanding." In Virginia, black voter turnout was suppressed with a poll tax and literacy tests before those practices were struck down by federal courts, and state leaders responded to federally ordered school desegregation with a "Massive Resistance" movement in the 1950s and early '60s.
The apology is the latest in a series of strides Virginia has made in overcoming its segregationist past. Virginia was the first state to elect a black governor — L. Douglas Wilder in 1989 — and the Legislature took a step toward atoning for Massive Resistance in 2004 by creating a scholarship fund for blacks whose schools were shut down between 1954 and 1964. Among those voting for the measure was Delegate Frank D. Hargrove, an 80-year-old Republican who infuriated black leaders last month by saying "black citizens should get over" slavery.
The distinction is that the Commonwealth of Virginia is an independent entity that has survived since gaining Independence from Great Britain. As an entity, it did have a major role in the unfortunate practice of slavery. This was "based on the common consent of the people" of Virginia. Arguably, the "people" are different, but they are still the "people" of Virginia. If the common consent of the people now says that Virginia should apologize for the common consent of the people then, then the state should apologize.
It is sad that it has taken this long to progress to the point of an apology.
Like you say at the end of your question, some people might view your position as racist. I personally just think you are, much like your Virginian ancestors, arrogant and ignorant and I, on your behalf, apologize to those whom you have offended.
No Virginia should not have apologized. No one in this forum was a slave or is a slave and if you are a decendant then I'm sorry but what is it that an apology will do for you? My ancestors were poor and Irish, can I get an apology or maybe some cash? Its time to move on.
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