"In the end they will lay their freedom at our feet and say to us, 'Make us your slaves, but feed us.'"
29 July 2008
House Apologizes for Slavery
The U.S. House of Representatives has passed a non-binding resolution apologizing for slavery and Jim Crow. The poll question is: Is this pointless symbolic politics, or a long overdue statement that has real meaning?
3 comments:
Anonymous
said...
I voted for "symbolic, but harmless", though of course my country has no history of slavery so you should probably down-weight my opinion accordingly.
I don't understand the American tradition of having political bodies make symbolic gestures, though I guess it keeps them out of trouble. When my government wants to "send a message" they pass laws, and I don't recommend that.
In the U.S. we have a tradition of making our kids apologize to each other when they've been fighting, even if they don't mean it. Perhaps that explains it?
We have symbolic apologies too, but they're always by the Prime Minister as part of a ceremonial occasion. Parliament doesn't issue non-binding declarations except under unusual circumstances (there was a motion expressing condolences on 9/11 for example).
3 comments:
I voted for "symbolic, but harmless", though of course my country has no history of slavery so you should probably down-weight my opinion accordingly.
I don't understand the American tradition of having political bodies make symbolic gestures, though I guess it keeps them out of trouble. When my government wants to "send a message" they pass laws, and I don't recommend that.
In the U.S. we have a tradition of making our kids apologize to each other when they've been fighting, even if they don't mean it. Perhaps that explains it?
We have symbolic apologies too, but they're always by the Prime Minister as part of a ceremonial occasion. Parliament doesn't issue non-binding declarations except under unusual circumstances (there was a motion expressing condolences on 9/11 for example).
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