Slavery Apology would Be Just 1/23/2007 12:06:06 PM
Let justice be done. There is no statute of limitation on justice that is due. This principle applies to slavery that ended 142 years ago but left a legacy that is as current as today's weather. Justice denied is not a settlement for a justice claim that is due...long overdue. When I returned from Montgomery, Ala., to Charlottesville, Va., I was greeted by the headline of The Daily Progress that said,"Kaine: Hargrove's statement 'outrageous'" (Jan. 18, 2007).
I reflected on the fact that Jan. 15 was Martin Luther King Jr., National Holiday, the day that Virginia Delegate Frank D. Hargrove Sr., in an interview with The Daily Progress, speaking in opposition to a measure offered by Delegate Dwight C. Jones head of the Legislative Black Caucus and his colleagues that would apologize on the state's behalf to the descendants of slaves, said that slavery had ended nearly 140 years ago with the Civil War and that "our black citizens should get over it" ("Slavery apology opposed," Jan 16).
He also rhetorically questioned whether Jews should apologize for "killing Christ."
Although Gov. Timothy M. Kaine said Hargrove statements were "outrageous, very unfortunate" and did not reflect most Virginians, he refused to acknowledge that the statements -- along with former U.S. Senator George Allen's use of "macaca" to describe a dark-skinned Indian-American or 5th District Republican Virgil H. Goode's warning of too many Muslims being elected to Congress -- were racially or religiously intolerant.
That can only mean that the governor is not listening to black people in Virginia, and many non-black Virginians, who know that these remarks are racially and religiously intolerant and mean-spirited.
Fred Hudson, chairman of the Albemarle County Democratic Committee, is correct in stating that Hargrove is "an embarrassment to the commonweath who needs to seek other lines of employment'"and in taking issue with Keith Drake, Chairman of the Albemarle County Republican Committee, who said that a resolution expressing appreciation "to recognize the significant contribution of slaves" would be more appropriate and positive. May I ask: Why not put these significant contributions slaves made in the history books and teach about them in our schools, colleges and universities?
Recognizing the contribution slaves made and apologizing to their discendants are not of equal value.
An apology is a justice matter and an admission that a wrong has been done.
Recognizing the contribution that slaves made as a result of forced labor for which they have yet to be compensated remains odoriferous in the nostrils of black people.
Even an apology is only the first step. It must be followed by making atonement, translated to mean reparations, for descendants of slaves.
To Hargove's indefensible statements that blacks 'get over it" and Jews might just as well be asked to apologize for "killing Christ," the black response is best expressed in the Jewish response to the Holocaust, "Never again", and by Jesse Jackson's mandate to "Keep hope alive!"
