One of the bigger (and more useless) debates going on in New Jersey right now is whether or not the state should officially recognize the evils of early American slavery and then apologize for slavery. This seems like a nice gesture and I guess there is no material harm done by issuing an official, “My bad,” for slavery. I do wonder, however, the relevancy of such an apology given that it’s 2008 and the slaves were freed in 1863…145 years ago.
Not only was no one who is currently alive on this earth alive back in 1863, but many people in America (especially the Northeast) are second and third generation families of immigrants. My grandparents on my Father’s side only came to America in the late 1800’s/early 1900’s! And, being of Italian descent living in New York City, they were subject to many types of racial and ethnic discrimination. Of course you never hear about the American-Italians asking for apologies or reparations…
So I don’t have an ideological problem with New Jersey saying sorry, but I certainly would not add my voice to that chorus. I have no reason to be sorry because my family wasn’t here during that time period and further, my “people” were discriminated against in their own way (I’m Irish and Italian – my “people” got beaten up in many different ways!). I am, however, somewhat sad to hear that this is what New Jersey legislators are debating. You would think lowering the state’s expenses, finding a way to equitably fund schools, saving the thousands of New Jersey homeowners who are stuck in bad subprime positions, and ensuring that suburban sprawl is minimized while smart growth is maximized would be at the top of the agenda. I guess not…
I think you raise some important points about the nature of apologies.
And your central question seems dead-on to me: “I do wonder, however, the relevancy of such an apology given that it’s 2008 and the slaves were freed in 1863…145 years ago.”
But I don’t believe that the answer to that question is what you think it is. Those who were enslaved in N.J. and elsewhere for generations were eventually freed. But that simply meant they were dumped out into society with nothing, and certainly not any of the things they had in their homelands (family structure, culture, religion, values, as well as land, a living, and material goods).
The freed slaves, and their descendants, then endured another century of official discrimination and dreadful treatment (from lynchings down to the lack of equal access to jobs). I think it’s little wonder that their descendants today have not yet caught up with the rest of society, and feel that our country hasn’t fully acknowledged what happened, or how it left the survivors.
Our immigrant ancestors, by contrast, arrived here of their own choice, and while many had little money, they generally had family, culture, and religion, and usually had some education, or at least strong values, to guide them. And they usually had white skin, which until the 1960s meant that they weren’t held back by the legal discrimination and open racism of much of the country. Even today, of course, blacks often face unofficial discrimination or prejudice that the descendants of other immigrants often do not.
So I think it’s hard to argue that the legacy of slavery isn’t with us today.
Thanks,
James
Thanks for the comment, James! I would only add that if having white skin color can replace the time when one’s ancestors arrived in this country for deciding whether or not someone is a part of the negative legacy of slavery, then it would only be fair to allow olive-colored skin, red hair, thick accents, and being a member of certain religious groups to take the place of that arrival time reference.
In other words, if my white skin puts me at some type of fault for slavery that took place before my people arrived in this country, then my ancestors’ red hair on one side of the family and heavy Italian accents on the other side of the family need to be taken into account. There are still parts of this country where if your last name ends in a vowel and you like pasta or if you have a “Mc” or an “O” beginning your last name, you get a snide look (thankfully, though, not so much in the Northeast any more).
But you raise excellent points regarding the institutional racism that black folks faced after being freed. Yet there was institutional racism that effected many other foreign peoples with descendants in living in American today, too. And there were other people (most notably the Irish and Chinese), who were forced into slavery and brought to this country against their will during the last few hundred years.
What would be best, I think, is for any slavery apology to be inclusive of all ethnic groups who were discriminated against in the form of slavery/forced labor.
I am with you on this one. My family came here after the Civil War and were treated in many ways worse than if they were slaves. Anyone remember the “Irish and dogs need not apply” signs? And as for Italians they too have a bad history with their treatment as well. The idea of white/Caucasian is so very recent yet prior to WWII there was definitely a breakdown where your ethnicity was akin to race. Heck it was scandalous that my father an Irish-Catholic married my mother a Norwegian-Lutheran in 1959. Yet today it barely gets noticed like when I married my Latvian-Lutheran wife.
Right and excellent point about ethnicity once meaning as much as race means today. People are all too quick to forget that it was major national news that an Irish Roman Catholic ran for – and won – the US Presidency in 1960.
I used to have a great analogy that I used in Graduate School about the current perception of racial politics versus the reality of it to younger generations. I forget the details, but the analogy had to do with likening the use of racial politics to riding a bike and Al Sharpton (among others in the older generations) constantly riding this bike while everyone below a certain age had figured out that there is a better, more effective way to travel if you just stop hanging on to ideas that are almost half a century old, etc. I forget the details, but I think yesterday’s victory of a black man in a 95% white state (carried on the shoulders of young, white people) tells the same point even better.