If someone believes in anything after this life, then,at the very least, do it in honor of your own ancestors (either give or seek out apology). Now, even if you don’t believe in an afterlife and honor and all that jazz–and you (your race’s ancestors), on the “giving” end of unjust treatment, truly feel that another [group] was ill-treated–then there’s nothing wrong with apology. Not only does it make the victim(s) feel better (doesn’t quite change anything, but…), it should make you feel better, and the biggest benefit could be the effect on the overall vibe (in all of society).

Little confusing. But, basically, the answer to your question, dinosaur: Yes.

Hell the Barbary pirates were raiding the UK just a few hundred years ago do they owe the brits an apology? Or is that different? Based on race of course.

Right Girl, I’m not very political, but I will say that though, through history, Democrats have been at the forefront of those things liberals of today are so against, the important to remember, IMO, is that one can be labeled anything, but nothing matters but the actions.

Kathy, an uplifting doesn’t begin at its peak; “uplifting” means it is taking place as we speak. Look back over those conditions I mentioned above and take that into account when you look at us (Blacks) today. And as for how whites/Asians/Hispanics view blacks, that is not a problem for Blacks–that’s a problem that those particular whites/Asians/Hispanics have to deal with within themselves. (Also, I haven’t even heard you mention that those things “in the past” were a bad thing. I mean, I’m pretty sure you aren’t okay with folks–even children, if that can hit a heart-bone in you–having to go through said unjust treatment, are you?)

Also, regarding the busing, whether or not that worked out, think about the fact that grown folks were out there during school deseg throwing rocks at young black children (along with spitting, curses–and this is all with their own children witnessing this…wow…those children are 40/50-ish now. Think about that.

As for the things that happened to me, any black person can try to explain the things that he/she goes through on a daily basis (and throughout life), but a non-Black person will never be able to understand, especially one not willing. As for things that happened to my parents, my mother tells me things that happened to her, including her father having to call the little ten-year old white girl (daughter to the cotton field owner that she and her father worked in) Ms. Ann…while Ms. Ann called my mother’s father (my grandfather), Ben (his first name). My mother, when she realized that she had to refer to her as Ms. also, decided she wasn’t having that. That added to the pissation she felt that her father had to–and did–call the little white girl Ms. Ann, and the next time–and many times thereafter–my mother hid in the house because she couldn’t take calling her that. And her father faltered some in her eyes from her seeing him treated like that. Before I go further. my mother is not yet 60. She also mentions that she had to sit in the balcony (movie theaters) while the white kids sat downstairs; they (Blacks) were also not allowed to go downstairs to get food from concession stands (no mingling allowed). Also, she once pissed herself because the Blacks Only restroom was broken, and she was not allowed to use the Whites Only one. Just a few of the incidents she’s mentioned to me.

Now, my mother does not like going to the movie theaters. You think that has something to do with that treatment?

Not only the effect all of that had on her, but what about the effect that it must’ve had on me and my family…and all those other children of the same wounded?

As for the Jews and all of that, I don’t not feel for them, because I do, but what you must realize that is that what Blacks have gone through with Slavery and, especially, what followed (and still is) is completely different in that we’re still seen in the same way (we were once considered 3/5s of a person–now, even you got to admit that some wild sh–stuff, right there).

How did that whole ‘forced busing’ thing work out?

The things you complain about didn’t happen to you. They probably didn’t even happen to your parents.

I”d say get over it but you have nothing to get over. Jews have suffered as much as blacks yet you don’t see them whining for reparations cuz they had to build the Pyramids and the Autobahn…

I’ve been talking about this a lot lately in political terms. I don’t know how political you are, but hear me out:

Southern slavery/Civil War : Democrats
Jim Crowe : Democrats
Welfare State : Democrats

And the catering to “affirmative action” groups and race pimps is also done by Democrats.

You may however want to ask Colin Powel and Condi Rice what the Republicans have done fore them!

Anyway, like I said, that’s just the pre-election political view.

RG

You definitely bring up some good points, but I’m not so sure an apology wasn’t warranted.

IMO, what the apology was for was more than for the physical slave years, the ones we’ve all read about and heard thru the generations–it was also for the years that followed. We’ve (U.S.) have never gotten past slavery and its effect. After slavery, we had nothing. And by “we,” I mean black folks. So, after years of having nothing, being forced to make up dishes from a pig, forced to have sex, families broken up for profit, all of a sudden a miracle was supposed to take place. With “darkies” blending in and being the same as everyone else who were not enslaved. Mind you, that could have been slightly possible…if blacks were given a chance to. If anything, it may’ve been worse to be free than a sve in the time following emancipation.

But, like I said, you mentioned some important–and well-spoken–points; however, you definitely need to take into account such things as: “whites only” fountains, KKK, not being able to sit at a food counter (wow), forced to give up a seat on the bus–regardless of age, health, level of exhaustion. Shoot, you ask me, the governemtn got off kinda easy with just an apology. And the affirmative action argument should not even be one, because it is not an apology to blacks (and other minorities); it is an uplifting of U.S. society.