honey
to be frank, apologies are necessary for nearly all nationalities, which this country was built on. The government would do, because just as there were British, English, French, Spanish, who enslaved Africans, Hatians, Chinese, Italians, Spanish, etc, were also treated wrong, think of the railroads, which were set up primarily by Chinese, Africans, and Native Americans.
And to mention Native Americans, this is not the land belonging to any of us, except them, and look what happened to them. They are damn near extinct. When you see parades, most of those people you see arent even Indian, they are either inter-racial, or Mexican, or Hispanic, all together.
Yes slavery was a business, because Africans traded Africans- thats fact, also with other countries/continents, as well as Europeans, but the British has treated African worse- far more worse then any nationality, just because they could, and more African has lost their lives, than any other nationality, including jews. We don't know how many were killed, because they were not fully truthfull with "the cargo", and in addition to that so many of them were "lost at sea", and there were hundreds of voyages using trade ships, from Africa to many countries, not just here.
So when you speak of an appology, its a start, no money could ever replace whats been done, but for someone to open their bloody mouth, and admitt of wrong doing, lifts alot of possible resentment, or angry feelings,
I mean where do you want to start, if these were your anscestors how would you feel, to not be counted for by birth, to be called cargo, to carry the last name of someone who owned you, or had no blood relation to you? how would you feel, knowing if you bore a child, that child would not be considered a man, or a woman......but property?
there's a sh**load of facts so where should i start?
and these things were'nt just because some white dude with an accent said so. it was law.
From that we(Africans, African Americans, Malattos Moors Ni***s, ******, what ever you want to call us could not get an education, could not vote, could not get jobs, could not own anything, we didn't even own our children, or ourselves, and you question an apology.
Can you imagine being beaten close to death, just to be scared into subission to work the rest of your life?
Can you imagine you woman(cause you couldn't marry) being given to a white master for his pleasures?, or to populate his plantation?, or given to any slave for breeding purposes?
Can you imagine seeing your woman, or children being whipped, because they tried to run away?
These are just very few of the many things which went on during slavery, may i add, the state i reside, Maryland, has been known as a Lynching State, the area is called Eastern Shore, Maryland, have you heard of this? This is one of many places.
Want more? Some states riddled throughout the south, have until this day, auctioning posts which are still standing, and our government has said nothing as far as having it removed, and then some look at it as a sad reminder.
Just as many of us carry European last names, no longer speak our official languages, or more, were are still carrying the sir name of our ancestors slave masters(most of us).
what more do you need?
and i am not venting on you, i am just letting some who are saying no see what many of us have gone through......yes i say us, because our society have until this day labeled us as a statistic, labeled us for failure before we have even been conceived.
Those events which took place still stand in some form, do you understand divide and concquer? this phrase/strategy was found by a slave master named Willie Lynch, hence the term lynching.
Where this person( to control his slaves) would set up all kinds of conditions to force the slave into submission.
Separating the darker slave from the lighter on, the women from the men, the house slave from the field slave, beat the slaves senseless, but not killing them, and in many cases, form all kinds of mental brain-washing to force slaves to believe which ever he wanted them to believe.......that exisits today. in so many forms, like prison, like cults, even religious ones........honey, i could go on, and there's so many, infact too many factors i am missing, and i care not to go into right now, because its so saddening, but this is something for those of you to think about.
thank you for your time, and i didn't mean for the term paper, but its simply not a yes or no answer.
honeychild.