my rant for the day. i think it's good
What we have here is something I'm actually thinking of sending in to a couple of newspapers. Read. Enjoy. Feel free to comment. :-)
I don’t often read the political articles in the newspaper - I’m more a society or science section reader. This particular political issue, however, has continually grabbed my attention and finally sparked me to write my own opinion about it. I wondered at first who I should let read this letter. I contemplated mailing it to a state legislator, but then it came to me: why not share it in the same place I have been reading others’ opinions on the same subject?
It has come to my attention that the NAACP is requesting that the state of Georgia apologize for its role in slavery.
I think that is utterly ridiculous.
I am a twenty year-old black woman, born and raised in the deep south. But even I find myself wondering, what is the purpose of this apology? Nobody who would be apologizing owned any slaves. As horrible as we all know slavery was, it does not justify holding the great great grandchildren of those who participated responsible.
Furthermore, I ask you, fellow black men and women of America: say Georgia does decide to apologize. Will it be over then? Will it all be better? Will we be able to accept slavery as a horrible horrible thing that happened in the past and finally move on trying to make today better? Trying to improve race relations in the state and lives of blacks around the country, because we know that the legislators of Georgia, none of whom ever enslaved our ancestors, regret that it happened? You may think those are naïve and idealistic hopes. I know slavery can never be forgotten. I wouldn’t want it to be. I would, however, love it if we could move past it. Honestly, though, I don’t expect any of this to happen. At least not just because of an apology.
We as black people have to accept this fact: the white people around now had nothing to do with the institution of slavery. So we need to stop holding it against them. Moving on is going to take a lot of work, not only on the part of white Americans, but black Americans as well. Nothing any group of people could do is going to make it better. Once we learn that, we will be able to free ourselves from the mental hold slavery still has on a large part of our population. I’m not saying everything will be wonderful. There are still a large number of racist people around - but making our state leaders apologize for something that happened almost 150 years ago isn’t going to change that. Maybe we should focus our energy toward those particular groups, and rather than request apologies, request more actions.
I don’t often read the political articles in the newspaper - I’m more a society or science section reader. This particular political issue, however, has continually grabbed my attention and finally sparked me to write my own opinion about it. I wondered at first who I should let read this letter. I contemplated mailing it to a state legislator, but then it came to me: why not share it in the same place I have been reading others’ opinions on the same subject?
It has come to my attention that the NAACP is requesting that the state of Georgia apologize for its role in slavery.
I think that is utterly ridiculous.
I am a twenty year-old black woman, born and raised in the deep south. But even I find myself wondering, what is the purpose of this apology? Nobody who would be apologizing owned any slaves. As horrible as we all know slavery was, it does not justify holding the great great grandchildren of those who participated responsible.
Furthermore, I ask you, fellow black men and women of America: say Georgia does decide to apologize. Will it be over then? Will it all be better? Will we be able to accept slavery as a horrible horrible thing that happened in the past and finally move on trying to make today better? Trying to improve race relations in the state and lives of blacks around the country, because we know that the legislators of Georgia, none of whom ever enslaved our ancestors, regret that it happened? You may think those are naïve and idealistic hopes. I know slavery can never be forgotten. I wouldn’t want it to be. I would, however, love it if we could move past it. Honestly, though, I don’t expect any of this to happen. At least not just because of an apology.
We as black people have to accept this fact: the white people around now had nothing to do with the institution of slavery. So we need to stop holding it against them. Moving on is going to take a lot of work, not only on the part of white Americans, but black Americans as well. Nothing any group of people could do is going to make it better. Once we learn that, we will be able to free ourselves from the mental hold slavery still has on a large part of our population. I’m not saying everything will be wonderful. There are still a large number of racist people around - but making our state leaders apologize for something that happened almost 150 years ago isn’t going to change that. Maybe we should focus our energy toward those particular groups, and rather than request apologies, request more actions.