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.

James Hanley said...

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?

Anonymous said...

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).