Should America Say Sorry

All I found on the "Apology Act" was about Canada?
I found this on American Indians link

link
An Apology for Slavery and the Jim Crow laws

Few things compromised the core values of the U.S. Constitution and left as lasting a mark on American society as 246 years of institutionalized slavery and the subsequent discrimination of the Jim Crow laws that marked African-Americans as second-class citizens. As such, few people were more deserving of a formal apology than the millions of black Americans whose ancestors were forcibly brought to this country and had their freedoms stolen from them.

The formal apology for slavery and Jim Crow issued by the U.S. House of Representatives in 2008 was unprecedented, even after decades of lawmakers trying to push the government to finally apologize, NPR reported at the time. In introducing the resolution, Representative Steve Cohen (D-Tenn), noted that despite the government issuing an apology for interning Japanese citizens and later pressuring Japan to apologize for forcing Chinese women to work as sex slaves during World War II, the American government had never formally recognized and apologized for slavery. While the apology was primarily symbolic, by officially recognizing its role in perpetuating the horrors of slavery and Jim Crow, the American government took a step forward in addressing and atoning for one of its greatest wrongs.

I'm I missing something? Is this what you meant by an apology?

I get it. As someone who is alive only because my grandparents (all four of them, separately - each met their spouse in the US) escaped the Armenian genocide - Turkey refuses to acknowledge it at all.

However, hasn’t America already apologized? For slavery, for Jim Crow, for all of it? Additionally, do the changing of the laws not indicate acknowledgement that something was wrong and needed fixing?

I’m not trying to be obtuse. What would you consider an ideal apology? A blanket apology is a representative speaking for a group who may or may not agree. Unfortunately, you will never get 100% of the people on the same page - on anything in life. What would you consider an acceptable apology?

As someone whose family was on the other side of the world during slavery, I can’t truly *personally* apologize for something we had no part of. What I can do is say that I’m sorry it happened and acknowledge that black Americans have had to overcome a lot of prejudice to enjoy life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. They have had to jump more hurdles, higher hurdles, than white Americans. A routine traffic stop doesn’t strike fear in my heart the way it does for people of a different skin color.

It ought not to be that way. I’m so sorry that it is.

The ability to trace ancestors back into slavery is extremely varied.  It depends a lot on whether the family stayed in the same area after the civil war and it is aided tremendously if they kept their previous owners name or bore children allowing DNA to help.  I have tried to help several people with their research and you're lucky to trace one branch out of five.  

Generational wealth is a whole other discussion.  I think you'll find very little of the current wealth disparity between races is due to to slavery.  Between immigration patterns (there were tremendous numbers of immigrants post civil war) and historic events like the great depression which disrupted finances of the vast majority of people in the US at the time.  As the majority of American's wealth is tied up in real estate ownership and has been for several generations, I imagine housing segregation and discriminatory lending practices have had a much bigger role in the current wealth disparity.  

Good grief Olan!  I was not trying to be derogatory with the word diluted.  I don't know another way to say it.  All I meant, was that it would be very difficult to use DNA evidence to determine who was directly descended from slaves because once non-black dna was introduced, whether by choice or by force, any potential offspring from that union would be, at best, 50% black.  And the percentage of African blood from the enslaved person would be further reduced through inter-marriages, etc, through the following generations.

I sincerely apologize to anyone who was offended by my use of the word "diluted."  I did not mean it to be offensive.  In fact, I have looked at synonyms for the word, but they all seem to be more offensive in the context of this dialog.  I was using the word for its scientific meaning in regards to using DNA for possible reparations that has been discussed.  Specifically, how one could calculate reparations now after so many years of inter-racial relationships, etc, combined with the fact that their have been other people to come to the US from those same African regions who did not come here as part of the slave trade.  

If this is truly what you think an effective apology would be, then no, I am afraid that will never happen.  No one can force people to treat other people in a different way.  We have laws aganst hate crimes, but hate still exists -- not only against blacks, but against latinos, asians, jews, gays, and myriad other groups.  And I have to put this out there -- as I said before, I have lived all my life in the deep south, and there are a lot of black people here who are just as guilty of promoting racism as any white person.  This is not my opinion.  This is a fact -- I personally know people like this, work with them, see them spending every minute of every day just looking for something to be offended by.  I worked with a girl like this, and I called her on her bs.  I am not a racist.  I don't care one whit what color your skin is or where you came from, as long as you are a decent person who treats me and others as friends and equals.  Again, I point out that there are a lot of very successful black people in America.  And there are a lot of black people in my world who will not go to school, will not work, subsist on entitlements from the government, and cry that they are not treated the same as everyone else.  Well, the white people who refuse to go to school, refuse to get jobs, form gangs and commit crimes are treated the same way.  Pulling yourself up out of generational poverty is hard.  You have to want it more than anything else.  And there are people and systems that will help.  But you have to go out and look for them.  

I truly wish that was the case and that it would happen.

With that said, your OP asks, “Should America say sorry?” I guess my question is, until that day arrives, could there be an apology from America that would be... I don’t even know what word to use... satisfactory? Or would it be seen as lip service?

Honestly Olan, I feel like you've lost credibility with this thread. It's obvious you feel something is owed to you, but it's ridiculous to assume you should be allowed to skip paying your federal and state taxes for several years because your ancestors may have been slaves over 150 years ago!

Why should you be allowed to stop paying taxes when all the rest of us have to pay our taxes? Do you benefit daily from all the things your taxes (and mine!) help to pay?

You seem to research everything and you post links all the time. I'm curious if you've researched your family tree through genealogy? Do you even know for sure if your ancestors were slaves? Just because you are black doesn't automatically mean your ancestors were slaves - especially if they were from the north. It's also extremely difficult for African Americans to trace their ancestry. Most slaves were listed with a first name and age only. So unless you are really good at researching genealogy, I doubt you even have proof that your ancestors were slaves. You just assume "I am black, my ancestors were slaves and I am owed something".

I'll go on record as saying that yes, my ancestors owned slaves. I've researched my family tree for years and when I found that documentation, it was a kick in the stomach.

I had my suspicions before I found the documentation. Our family had a plantation in Virginia. Not a huge, rich plantation, but yes, it's listed as a plantation. And yes, there were slaves. I hate that part of my family history - but - it was over 150 years ago and in no way do I feel that I personally had anything to do with it.

I can tell you for sure that there is no generational wealth that was passed down from this plantation. I don't feel like MY family in present day or from a few generations back, has benefited from the hard work of black slaves.

My grandparents were extremely poor (this would be the generation after slavery) and my father remembers and tells me stories of how difficult their life was. The boys all quit school early to work and help feed the family.

My parents worked hard to give us a better life and we work hard now to have the life we have. We were able to send our children to college and now they have a better life than we had. All from hard work, not hand outs, not wealth passed down to us.

My family tree is public on Ancestry.com. If I was contacted by anyone that had ancestors that were slaves on my ancestor's plantation, I would certainly apologize to them on behalf of my ancestors. But again, I don't feel that *I* personally enslaved them or owe anything to them because it was over 150 years ago!

I also wonder if you've watched any episodes of Finding your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr? I love this show because of my interest in Genealogy. I can tell you that a lot of his black guests have slaves in their family trees. But, I can also tell you that a lot of them are confronted with the news that their black ancestors also owned black slaves. Several of his guests are black activists and one even wrote a book on reparations. I wonder if their opinion has changed after learning that their ancestors also owned black slaves?

No question slavery was awful. One of our darkest times as Americans. And knowing my ancestors owned slaves really bothers me.

Olan, I know you bring up reparations in a lot of threads. I feel like with this thread though - that your true feelings and agenda have been revealed and that you want something for nothing.