In , Barbie was finally extradited to France to face trial for war crimes. The U. The decision by President Franklin Roosevelt to round up Japanese citizens and imprison them in camps came just 10 weeks after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, but the effects resonated through American culture for decades.
During World War II, , Japanese-Americans and permanent residents were forced to abandon their homes and belongings in order to live under guard at several camps scattered throughout the U. Not only were Americans deprived of their homes and belongings, but they were offered little during the decades after the end of the war to make up for their wrongful imprisonment.
Backed by American marines, the insurgents forced the Queen to abdicate and dissolve the Kingdom of Hawaii, setting the former island nation on the path to eventual statehood.
They got their wish in , when Hawaii was formally annexed by the U. One hundred years after the seizure,Congress issued a joint resolution formally apologizing to the people of Hawaii for the U. The key point, morally and spiritually, is that the offering of a full and sincere apology is a redemptive act — for the nation, for all of us as citizens, including the victims. Only the president or Congress, acting as stewards of the national conscience, can make this apology.
Some contend that Americans today need not be held accountable for deeds done long ago. This specious view, however, creates moral hazard by encouraging people and nations to shirk accountability in the hope that time will wash away the guilt.
To the contrary, all citizens, including the newest ones, inherit the entire legacy of America — good, bad and ugly. New U. But they also shoulder shared responsibility for the national debt, for example, which they had no part in creating.
Must we not also take moral responsibility for the actions of previous Americans who enslaved others in the name of our country? It also turns out, as Faulkner wrote, the past is much closer than we think. Ta-Nehisi Coates has eloquently reminded us that the scourge of racial inequality continued long after Reconstruction — through the invidious forms of segregation of the Jim Crow era to the insidious patterns of segregation that persist.
Another standard rejoinder is that it is incorrect to judge the past by contemporary standards. This, too, is misplaced.
Slavery was known to be wrong at the time. As early as , for example, Vermont banned slavery. I say this is the leading principle — the sheet anchor of American republicanism. It is also said that slavery was an institution peculiar to the South. This view misses the reality that the entire U.
Because you are a member of panel , your positions on legislation and notes below will be shared with the panel administrators. More Info. The text of the resolution below is as of Jul 29, Passed the House. Apologizing for the enslavement and racial segregation of African-Americans. Whereas millions of Africans and their descendants were enslaved in the United States and the 13 American colonies from through ;. Whereas slavery in America resembled no other form of involuntary servitude known in history, as Africans were captured and sold at auction like inanimate objects or animals;.
Whereas Africans forced into slavery were brutalized, humiliated, dehumanized, and subjected to the indignity of being stripped of their names and heritage;. Whereas enslaved families were torn apart after having been sold separately from one another;. Whereas slavery was not officially abolished until the passage of the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution in after the end of the Civil War;.
Whereas after emancipation from years of slavery, African-Americans soon saw the fleeting political, social, and economic gains they made during Reconstruction eviscerated by virulent racism, lynchings, disenfranchisement, Black Codes, and racial segregation laws that imposed a rigid system of officially sanctioned racial segregation in virtually all areas of life;.
Whereas the system of de jure racial segregation known as Jim Crow, which arose in certain parts of the Nation following the Civil War to create separate and unequal societies for whites and African-Americans, was a direct result of the racism against persons of African descent engendered by slavery;. Whereas a century after the official end of slavery in America, Federal action was required during the s to eliminate the dejure and defacto system of Jim Crow throughout parts of the Nation, though its vestiges still linger to this day;.
Whereas African-Americans continue to suffer from the complex interplay between slavery and Jim Crow—long after both systems were formally abolished—through enormous damage and loss, both tangible and intangible, including the loss of human dignity, the frustration of careers and professional lives, and the long-term loss of income and opportunity;.
Whereas the story of the enslavement and de jure segregation of African-Americans and the dehumanizing atrocities committed against them should not be purged from or minimized in the telling of American history;. The racial bigotry fed by slavery did not end with slavery or with segregation. And many of the issues that still trouble America have roots in the bitter experience of other times. But however long the journey, our destiny is set: liberty and justice for all. Whereas President Bill Clinton also acknowledged the deep-seated problems caused by the continuing legacy of racism against African-Americans that began with slavery when he initiated a national dialogue about race;.
Yet embracing the Benin method would require a political impetus for an apology to occur at all. A recent YouGov poll shows that 54 percent of Americans do not support a formal government apology for slavery, and another 18 percent are unsure.
For many Americans, like many Nigerians, the country is facing more pressing concerns than the ills of slavery or racism. Besides, as some thinking goes, voting in a black president twice must count for something. Slavery itself did not end because of U. Similarly, segregation was not outlawed because the U.
During World War II, Germany dropped leaflets on black American troops reminding them that they were fighting for a country that subjugated them. With some consternation from frustrated owners, they were served at each stop they made.
The change, in other words, had only reached as far as the international politics and national interest required. Absent these catalysts for an American apology for slavery, even the power of spiritual reckoning will be insufficient to summon the nation to action. Skip to content Site Navigation The Atlantic.
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