Recently our United States House of Representatives formally apologized for the violent enslavement and imposing of discriminating (“Jim Crow”) laws on African-Americans in this country. Now, I can understand the emotions of users like darnelic who asked: “What does that mean for me today”. It might seem like the apology doesn’t matter in 2009 but in actuality, it means a whole lot more for us tomorrow than it does today.
Because our government has taken the official position that what they enforced in the past was immoral and wrong, we can better understand how we got to where we are today. That makes it possible to better shape the future. People make claims that slavery ended hundreds of years ago and therefore today’s apologies don’t matter, but really the systematic enslavement and social oppression of Blacks didn’t start to die down until the mid-1960s. Which, at that point, made it over 450 (I say again, over 450!!!) years since the beginnings of the Atlantic Slave Trade. To compare, it was just a mere 40 years ago that Black people were finally recognized with the full freedoms that an American citizenship provides. Ya dig? Think of how many people you know right now who are over 40. Doesn’t seem too long ago anymore does it?
Whether it was being granted the right to vote or something as simple as dining at a restaurant counter, the 1960s gave African-Americans our first glimpse of Dr. King’s vision “at the mountain top”. The end of Jim Crow marked the rise of the “American Phoenix”. The time in our country where those who had been subject to centuries of oppression by our own Government, were able to better comprehend the grief their ancestors had fought through in order to lead this country to a new social destiny.
And to think, tomorrow’s future was all set off with one formal apology (as well as a possible Black President).
Maybe reparations are next… (*fingers crossed*)
