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LMAO - I hope they feel better now...

Texan

Well-known member
Virginia apologizes for role in slavery

By LARRY O'DELL Associated Press Writer
© 2007 The Associated Press


RICHMOND, Va. —
Meeting on the grounds of the former Confederate Capitol, the Virginia General Assembly voted unanimously Saturday to express "profound regret" for the state's role in slavery.

Sponsors of the resolution say they know of no other state that has apologized for slavery, although Missouri lawmakers are considering such a measure. The resolution does not carry the weight of law but sends an important symbolic message, supporters said.

"This session will be remembered for a lot of things, but 20 years hence I suspect one of those things will be the fact that we came together and passed this resolution," said Delegate A. Donald McEachin, a Democrat who sponsored it in the House of Delegates.

The resolution passed the House 96-0 and cleared the 40-member Senate on a unanimous voice vote. It does not require Gov. Timothy M. Kaine's approval.

The measure also expressed regret for "the exploitation of Native Americans."

The resolution was introduced as Virginia begins its celebration of the 400th anniversary of Jamestown, where the first Africans arrived in 1619. Richmond, home to a popular boulevard lined with statues of Confederate heroes, later became another point of arrival for Africans and a slave-trade hub.

The resolution says government-sanctioned slavery "ranks as the most horrendous of all depredations of human rights and violations of our founding ideals in our nation's history, and the abolition of slavery was followed by systematic discrimination, enforced segregation, and other insidious institutions and practices toward Americans of African descent that were rooted in racism, racial bias, and racial misunderstanding."

In Virginia, black voter turnout was suppressed with a poll tax and literacy tests before those practices were struck down by federal courts, and state leaders responded to federally ordered school desegregation with a "Massive Resistance" movement in the 1950s and early '60s. Some communities created exclusive whites-only schools.

The apology is the latest in a series of strides Virginia has made in overcoming its segregationist past. Virginia was the first state to elect a black governor — L. Douglas Wilder in 1989 — and the Legislature took a step toward atoning for Massive Resistance in 2004 by creating a scholarship fund for blacks whose schools were shut down between 1954 and 1964.

Among those voting for the measure was Delegate Frank D. Hargrove, an 80-year-old Republican who infuriated black leaders last month by saying "black citizens should get over" slavery.

After enduring a barrage of criticism, Hargrove successfully co-sponsored a resolution calling on Virginia to celebrate "Juneteenth," a holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the United States.


http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/nation/4579638.html
 

Cal

Well-known member
They didn't offer free tickets back to Africa with this apology?? Then I geuss it was just lip service.
 

aplusmnt

Well-known member
Cal said:
They didn't offer free tickets back to Africa with this apology?? Then I geuss it was just lip service.

I wonder how many of today's Blacks if faced with the ability to change history would have chosen for their ancestors to have never been slaves, which would mean they would be raised and living in the Bush in Africa in present time. Or their Ancestor were slaves but now they live freely in America.

I suspect when faced with how it would affect their lives currently many would not want it to change and they head over to the Jungle. I suspect they would sell out their people much like the tribes did in the day of slavery as they sold their people to the slave traders.

Bet Obama would not be very fond of living in a grass hut and carrying water 2 miles a day for his family.
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
Pretty well sums up the PC situation anymore..... :(

2/26/2007 9:06:00 AM


It’s The Pitts: Sad Life Of A Humorist



I had a knee-slapping story to tell you today that would have made you laugh till your sides hurt but I can’t tell it because it might offend some hypersensitive victim.



As a humorist I must say that it’s not very easy being funny these days because most potentially amusing subjects are now out-of-bounds and off-limits because they might hurt someone’s feelings. There used to be entire genres of jokes that friends used to swap: brunettes would tell jokes on blondes, Lutherans would poke fun at Catholics and Italians would make jokes at the expense of Portuguese. And vice versa. Texans told funnies about Californians, North Dakota heard jokes about its weather and New Yorkers ganged up on New Jersey. It was all in good, clean fun. But we don’t tell such jokes much any more because they might make someone feel ill at ease. We think of ourselves as being more sensitive and I think that’s the problem... we’re all just a little too thin-skinned if you ask me, and life sure is a lot less funny as a result.



To be on the safe side a person can’t write about women, wolves, whiskey, gays, Methodists, bankers or fat people any more. Oh I’m sorry, I should have said “gravitationally challenged” instead of fat. If I mention a cowpoke was driving a Ford the Chevy drivers get mad. Praise the Duroc breed and the Yorkshire breeders get their undies all in a bunch. Talk about headers and the heelers get their feelings hurt.



I don’t even know what to call people any more. Is Michael Jordan an African American or a black? Am I white, Caucasian or a honky? Do unwed women like to be called Miss or Ms.? Do people from Mexico prefer to be called Latino or Hispanic? Is the word Mexican acceptable or have I just committed another social injustice?



We don’t have the time or the space to tell interesting stories any more because we are so busy apologizing. I know the Indians were treated poorly in the settling of this country but folks, this may come as a surprise to many of you and I know I’m getting old, but I WASN’T THERE when it happened. I never killed any Indians, although I do try to apologize every time I go to the casino by giving them lots of money.



Mere words cannot begin to express the degree to which I am sorry about the inhumane treatment of workers in China and the disappearance of wild animals in Africa. Sure I feel terrible that people and animals are being treated so horribly but I have never gone on safari and I don’t shop at Wal Mart. There is not a single head of water buffalo hanging in my house nor are there any zebra-skin rugs. I do, however, own a piano with fake ivory keys. I hope that is all right with everyone.



I suppose I should do what Congress did and issue a formal apology for slavery but, for the record, I have never owned a slave. Although, I must admit that my wife is married to one. I am not making light of a terrible scar on this country. Slavery was inexcusable, it’s just that how can I issue a heartfelt apology for something I didn’t do? It would be like a politician’s promise: meaningless.



Not that I’ve been a choir boy. I have written some things that, in retrospect, I see now may have been offensive. I hit the trifecta of insensitivity when I said that many Hollywood PETA members were outscored on IQ tests by single celled organisms. I was totally out of line and I apologize to amoebas everywhere.



I probably should not have said a Washington bureaucrat had the personality of a garden tool and so, once again, I apologize to all the bubbly hoes, shovels and rakes out there. And deep down in my heart I know that I shouldn’t have named a horse Bean Dip just because he suffered from equine irritable bowel syndrome and had more gas than the Goodyear blimp. Oops, there I go again. To the blimp people, lentil lovers everywhere and Bean Dip, both the horse and the delightful but sometimes gaseous snack food, I offer my sincerest apology. Please don’t sue me.
 

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