Darling Nicky

On the eve of Juneteenth, the United States Senate has passed a resolution to apologize for the enslavement of Africans and the segregation of African Americans. CNN says the resolution is non-binding meaning that it doesn’t have to be forwarded to the president for him to sign it. The marks the first time a branch of the federal government has a apologized for the wrongdoings against African Americans.

I’m not sure how I feel about this news. It’s been 147 years since the Emancipation Proclamationactually abolished slavery and it has taken this long for the United States government to actually admit that it was wrong to kidnap a whole group of people from another country, make them build a nation, call them sub-human, and not give them equal rights for a long time. Not to mention how much African Americans still experience prejudice because of the horrible characterization of black Americans (ugly because we’re dark, lazy, unintelligent, inferior, etc.) and the systemic racism that a lot of black people go through in this country to this day.  I can remember being a kid and going into corner stores with my friends and being followed around by the Asians that worked in or owned the store. We were angry about it when we realized that they were following us around because we’re black and they think that we’re going to steal from them. Soon enough my friends and I boycotted the store and the store, eventually, closed down and became something else. To this day, I still get strange looks when I go into some stores and walk in certain neighborhoods. If the only empty seat on a crowded NYC train is next to me, if the person left standing is white, half the time they’ll look at the seat and then to me and decide they don’t want to sit near me.

My point is what is this apology supposed to mean or do? It’s great that they’re finally getting around to it (better late than never) but it doesn’t mean that anything will change because of this just like it doesn’t mean that anything has changed for African Americans since Barrack Obama had been elected president. Racism still exists, Republicans in the House and Senate still feel the need to show how angry they are that there is a black president by sending racist emails to each other including a picutre of the White House lawn covered in watermelon,  another picture showing the past ten presidents including one of Obama as a blacked out box except for his eyes, and a senator comparing Michelle Obama to an escaped ape; and these are just the things that come to mind at the moment.  How can we as African Americans take serious this apology when things that even the president and his family experience being in the White House still go on? Is there any atonement for American slavery and segregation?

I don’t think so. Some black people might want money, but how much is enough for each descendent of a slave, especially in this recession. Many could use the money and pay off some debt or do some shopping possibly stimulating the economy (we are one demographic that is still spending during this recession – whether or not we actually have the money). Will a little bit of money close the poverty gap between blacks and whites in this country? No.  Will this apology close the education gap between blacks and whites? No. Will it change other people’s way of thinking toward black people and/or the way black people feel about being black? Will it turn back William Lynch’s “How to Make a Slave” speech? No, it will do none of those things. It just puts a flimsy band-aid on an already irreparable wound. I just hope that my friends (of different nationalitiesand ethnicities) will raise their children to be unlike the ancestors that came before them and I’ll do the same to raise my children to not look at the past and use it as an excuse to hate others. It is good to acknowledge a historical atrocity but I don’t think we can expect any real meaning to it from the government. The meaning needs to come from us as individuals and citizens to make up for our country’s bad deeds toward minorities.