In honor of Black History Month - I apologize as a white American

[mandyky]

I guess everyone has to have a Richard Clarke moment or 2 in their lives. Remember when he apologized for 9-11?

Well, I have been sorry 3 times for something my race did.

As a white American I am sorry for slavery and our 100 years of White shame where lynching, segregation and other mistreatment of people of color suffered, and still continue to suffer in many cases.

As a German American I am deeply ashamed of my German ancestry due to Hitler. Luckily, my people had been in the US since the 1700's, so my shame is more for my ethnic group than my direct ancestors.

Because I am a white American with some Native American blood, I am extremely sick over what our country did to Native People.

But it is Black History Month. I would like Black DUers to know I am sorry, and please share your heroes from black history. I know there are a lot of people who have been overlooked in "white history books".
Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King are my heroes in the AA community, but I know there were many more, like Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, inventors, clergy, artisans, that I do not know the names of.

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

3. Mmm.....piss in the punchbowl

The poster spoke for himself.

[physioex]

9. Invasion of the the freepers.....

I don't like freepers, but I kinda agree with what he is saying. Richard Clark and you cannot be compared. He was directly resposible for the security of this country during an attack. You are several generations descended from the people who have enslaved the native americans and africans. I don't think you are in anyway responsible or need to apologize.

[applegrove]

2. Nat Turner, Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington n/t

[Drifter]

4. I'm not Black ...

Hey, you know something people?
I'm not black
But there's a whole lots a times
I wish I could say I'm not white

- Frank Zappa - Freak Out! - Trouble Everyday

Cheers
Drifter

[Name removed]

5. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[shawcomm]

11. If you have a white ancestry in this country

you have an inherent guilt. That guilt ranges from the systemic racism that still is present in this country, to ancestral appropriation of land, wealth, labor, etc. Even if you started dirt poor and were given nothing but what you earned, you still have the guilt of systemic racism about you.

[physioex]

16. You can't group people as a race.......

I choose to judge people as individuals rather than a race. This is just nonsense.

[BBradley]

22. To imply that I should feel guilt over something

that I had nothing to do with is unrealistic. Especially from events that are so far removed from me. My father and mother were certainly not racist, and anyone who was in my family was dead long before I was ever born. I'm sorry that I don't feel guilty for something I didn't do, and for beliefs I never held.

I guess I'll quote on of my favorite songs on this one:


"And they will kill a man for what his father has done
But what my father did
You know it don't mean shit
I'm not him "

[shawcomm]

25. You may not feel the guilt, but it's there.

Are you denying that white people have an instant head start in this country? Another good example are Native Americans. How many times are they denigrated for the poverty they live in, the poor education, the substance abuse? Now, why are they living in the conditions they are in? They are living in those conditions because of the ancestry of the same people who denigrate them. It's an inherent guilt.

If one is white, they naturally lack the obstacles that other races face. One can say, "I didn't do anything." Technically, that may be correct, but the absence of action doesn't remove the inherent racial preferences that exists today.

[shawcomm]

6. hmmm... two new posters spouting the same right wing

denial of responsibility.

[Book Lover]

7. Yes, it is interesting

when folks are coordinated, eh?

[Name removed]

8. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[bryant69]

10. I don't know

I don't feel all that responsible either. At any rate I'm not sure what feeling responsible for stuff that happened before I was born would change.

I mean I am already opposed to prejudice and discrmination. I guess It might push me further towards supporting Reparations.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[physioex]

13. Reparations bad idea....

It's kinda like a handout and failed miserably. I think people need to be provided with an opportuinity to better themselves with things like education.

[mandyky]

14. Reparations starts with an apology

Why would one make reparations for something they don't regret?

[southlandshari]

31. Guilt vs. responsibility

I feel no guilt about slavery or any other event of the past. Unless it is an event that happened during my lifetime in which I played a direct role and in which my role involved actions that wronged another person - in which case, I have eliminated any feelings of guilt by doing whatever was in my power to make amends to those I've wronged. I still have regrets over things in my own past, but no guilt.

Feelings of responsibility, on the other hand, are a whole different ball of wax. I am white, raised in the Deep South in a family of some privilege, and I know good and well my family's station in life - and hence that into which I was born - is related directly to the status quo of the past in this country. Does that make me guilty? Hell no. Does it lay some heavy responsibility on me to do what I can to continue to fight for positive change? Hell yes.

I read the autobiography of Malcolm X my first year out of college and it completely shifted my world perspective. I was already quite active in issues of racial reconciliation at home and abroad, but had never been hit in the face with one important truth - that there is much work to be done in the white community, particularly in circles of power and influence, and no one bears responsibility for this work more than those of us who have traveled in these circles and whose voice might be heard there.

Guilt is a sympathetic emotion, but in the end, it can't hold a candle to a sense of responsibility and drive to action. I make no apologies for anyone but myself. But I hope that through my words and especially my actions, I will be able to live up to the responsibility that fate has dealt me in life and in my community.

[Worst Username Ever]

15. Whoa whoa whoa...

One of the posters in gone, because he was alerted from other posts, but I have to agree with him to a point. I am not going to apologize for something I had nothing to do with, and I don't consider that to be denying responsibility.

[mandyky]

26. Do you feel Black American even today have equal rights?

Yes the right to vote and supposedly discrimination is illegal, but it has to be proven to be dealt with.

I wasn't necessarily implying all white folks should apologize, but like Richard Clarke I apologized in hopes that our leaders might apologize. Our govt was responsible, some day, some leader needs to say I'm sorry and really work at a solution to make up for over 200 years of crap people of color endured....

[BushDoomsEarth]

28. Right Wing and Racist both start with R!!

What we did was an utter disgrace.

And every mention of the INJUSTICE, some republican scum starts bringing up the fact about how they were instrumental in the passage of the Civil rights act and how Gore's dad and Robert Byrd voted against it! These stupid tidbits will NEVER make up for Nixon's entire Southern strategy that even today led to thousands of blacks being denied the right to vote in a massive Black holocaust.

[newyawker99]

29. Hi BushDoomsEarth!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[kittenpants]

12. With privilege comes responsibility

so even though I don't feel personally at fault, I feel guilt.

[bigtree]

17. I felt apology were due

To an insulted sky
-Emily Dickinson

[Connie_Corleone]

18. I'm black...but

I don't see why you're apologizing for things you had nothing to do with. Just because you're white doesn't mean you're responsible for all the bad things that other white people did.

There were white people who were not for slavery and lynchings and all the other things you mentioned.

[physioex]

21. Right...

Let's forget the work of the Quakers and the Underground Railroad. There were many whites who were against this from the beginning and bravely fought in the civil war.

[canadianbeaver]

23. no...true....but we still feel sorry for those actions and the...

feelings that came from them.....we are all humans and feel the pain of others...those of us that feel!
It still hurts to think of what African Americans had to endure and still do!, as well as others!
I am a person of peace and hope...I just wish the world could take care of these issues...for all of man/womankind! I want world peace and hope to live there one day.....

OK now off to La La land for me so please take care of yourselves and the ones you love!!

Peace Out!!

[mandyky]

24. I have bigots in my family

I could have easily been one. Fortunately, I think I have an old soul that knew better. I have always identified with other cultures and ethnic groups.

A few of my family members who were pretty bigoted have outgrown it to a degree. I grew up hearing the "N word", but my next youngest sister when she was about 3 broke my parents of using that word!! LOL

[canadianbeaver]

19. You don't have to have done any of it to be sorry.......

I too am very sorry for previous, and present actions against people...of many races


Thank you for your apology...I am not black..but it made me think about the wrongs done....I would also send along my apologies....it doesn't matter that I am not American either...as I feel that what was done to all three races was wrong..among so many more...It must have something to do with this superiority complex that White persons have had since who knows when...people really need to be examined....As Rodney King said "why can't we all just get along"....I wish all would treat everyone the way they want to be treated!!

I am sorry!

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

20. I interrupt your thread with a funny but true story

Only because the manner in which you opened the thread made me recall it.
I live in So Cal and the day the verdicts were read in the Rodney King case, all hell broke loose in So Cal. Fires, riots, etc.

My heart hurt when that verdict came out...that 12 people in Simi Valley could be so wrong.

I work with several black people, one at the time was a very light skinned woman. We were in the lounge at my office and I looked at her and said, "I'm almost ashamed to be white today." She laughed and said, "YOu think YOU have it bad...I have to drive home to Compton and you think it's gonna be easy looking like me and convincing people that *I AM BLACK*??"

We laughed our asses off.

Sorry for the interruption.

I am indeed sorry for the manner in which racism is ingrained in so many of our institutions. I am sorry that poor white has been pitted against poor black even though this manipulation amounts to a subjugation of BOTH their economic interests.

I am mostly sorry that we came so far only to regress in matters of race.

[southlandshari]

32. Well said, as usual, NSMA!

n/t

[libnnc]

27. I'm sorry too

I know for a fact that my ancestors profited from the labor of slaves. The entire US owes an apology to people of African descent. Not just the south. The whole country's economy hinged on slavery. Facts are facts. Can't ignore it.

So, I am truly sorry for 350 years of a dehumanizing and brutal institution and the fact that this nation was built with forced labor.

[mandyky]

30. Kick