I find this insensitive. The US can apologize, and blacks should accept it and "get past it"? I think that minimizes the degree of cruelty and injustice that occurred under slavery, and that continued to occur in the open into the 1930's in lynchings and beatings, sometimes for a reason, and sometimes because an individual was bold enough to put a name on the injustice of the local white people. This continued into the 1960's, when I remember going to the dr. office, and having two waiting rooms, one for the blacks and one for the whites. I remember the white restaurants where blacks could pay their money and pick up a plate of food in the back at a dutch door with a sign on top that read "Colored". I remember the whites telling everyone they provided "separate and equal" schools, but we lied and instead provided "separate and UNequal" schools and funding for the black community. That was only 40 years ago. And because the supreme court struck down "separate and equal" as the unjust sham it was, and we integrated the public schools, I can guarantee that all of the prejudice and injustice has not gone away. I know this first hand from members of my own family, I'm disappointed to say.

Blacks should be closer to getting past it today, but if they haven't, maybe we shouldn't blame them, maybe we should blame our white community. The blacks know what happens if they are stopped by a white policeman in the wrong town at 3 AM. I very seldom hear of white prisoners dying in jail here in Houston, but I hear about the black and hispanics who mysteriously die in jail.

Maybe blacks could get past it if prejudice and hatefulness didn't still exist, and to the degree that it does.

But, the KKK still exists, and here in Texas hateful people still abduct nice middle aged black men and chain their feet to the back of pickup trucks and drag them to death, or at least until their head is popped off by a concrete culvert. And you see, us white folks don't have to worry about that (unless you are gay and caught in the wrong place at 3 AM).

An apology for the horrible abomination that was slavery 200 years ago would be a decent thing to do. The end of slavery did not end the prejudice, hatred and oppression. It continues today. Maybe that's why black americans don't just "get past it".

Run this thought experiment (not Mastermind). Imagine yourself as a black person. You are informed that your family was slaves in the south. Oral history verifies that the father of your oldest identifiable family unit was sold to a different plantation when your great great grandfather was 8 years old. How do you feel about white people? Maybe an uncle who resisted discrimination in town was lynched by the Klan at he age of 40. How would you feel about white people. Maybe you were stopped by a white police officer at 3 AM while you were driving home and arrested even though you were not speeding, just to hassle you. It's unjust, how do you feel about it? Is that ok? Maybe in Wal Mart last week, you overheard some white teenagers putting you down using coarse racist epithets. How would you feel about that today?

Do you think you would definitively feel it was time to "get past it". Just 30 years ago, the courts had to ORDER major american companies to hire blacks in percentages that represented their numbers in our society, to end blatant discrimination.

Has white society "gotten past" the prejudice, the hatred? Why would you expect the black society to do so?

I have run the thought experiment, and I've thought long and hard about it because of black friends I've made in the workforce. I've thought about how their experience of life has been different than mine. I marvel that so many show such acceptance of us whites without more animosity. Those that I know appear to be in the same place that I am, we try hard to accept people for who they are and what they do, and not the color of their skin. I don't think this is true in general across the US. Thankfully, it IS getting better, vs. 40-50 years ago.

And you are right about slavery it was a long time ago and it should be forgiven on both sides. Your generation deserves all the credit in the world for the civil rights movement and congressional acts. However, Jim Crow and desegregation, wasnt that long ago and some people are still angry over that, so excuse me for being a bit skeptic sometimes.I understand the dixie heritage, but I dont think thats the same as being bought and sold as a human being, beat and humiliated for free thoughts, then being told you are free, but you cant vote, eat, live in the same neighborhood or go to school with someone who has a different skin color then you. But I agree with you once again alot of positive progression has been made and I cant argue with that fact. Like I said, no one ever has to apologize to me, I aint sitting around waiting on a check complaining about someone keeping me down. :thumb:

You don't have to leave Baton Rouge to find parts of town that seem forgotten; many of those areas are "black areas". We've come a long way, but there is still work to be done. Slavery is not unique to US history, however; it is a part of human history and not alone on the list of mankind's atrocities. Racism has largely been torn down, with prejudices being more subtle and unconscious than ever. Some part of this is just human nature, which is harder to fight and for which regulation and intervention is harder to justify.

It is the US government that would be apologizing. that is very different from an individual descendant of slave-owners apologizing (although if they are now fat cats because of it, they should apologize, at least.)

it is appropriate for the US govt to apologize. just doesnt mean anything.

and im not sure comparing it to treatment of various immigrant nationalities is valid. were there many cases of federal law discriminating against italian-americans?

Yeah. Prohibition.:hihi:

Now lets snap the peas and pick these greens:hihi:

You always have to take a shot at Bush, don't you. :wink:

Red,

That was a good reply, I enjoyed reading it. Ok, you're back to "reasonable". Thanks for taking the time to clarify!