U.S. Govenment Apologizes For Slavery; Now It’s Our Turn

July 30th, 2008 | By

When I was about 11 or 12, my mother rented all the episodes of ROOTS. I tried to watch it, but I couldn’t. I got real emotional and left the room. My siblings stayed and watched, but my mother joined me in another room. She told me it was O.K. because it was the past. It’s important to know the past. I didn’t watch the complete Roots, until I was 20.

When I was 14, we went to the slavery museum in Baltimore, Maryland. It’s a wax museum with a duplicate of a slave ship. I almost vomited when they started explaining what it might smell like, how long they had to endure these conditions, and how many of them killed themselves. I hated it.

I’m not big on apologies though. I never had to ride on a slave ship. I never wore chains around my feet, waist, and arms. I never had to endure 1/10th of the things slaves had to endure.

If the United States government wants to apologize, do it to all the people that love excuses. I love progression. If it weren’t for slavery, I wouldn’t be an American. If it weren’t for slavery, black people wouldn’t be apart of this great melting pot. That’s the truth.

The real apology should come from us Black Folk. I know I’m going to catch some flack for this, but fuck it.

I want to apologize to my Ancestors that were once slaves.

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Once you were shackled and chained, separated from your children, and sold and traded like chattel. You were told were to live, how to live, and sometimes when to die. But you continued to sing songs of praise, and upliftment. You had a million and one things to complain about, but instead you put your faith in God to get you through.

I’m sorry we refuse to follow your example.

I want to apologize to Martin Luther King Jr

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You knew this fight would probably cost you your life, but you fought anyways. I know you didn’t think you would see the changes in your life time, so that meant you were fighting for the changes in my life time. Your work wasn’t easy, but boy did you throw your heart and soul into it. I thank you.

I apologize for letting your death mean the opposite of your life. Your fight wasn’t about making excuses, it was about changing perception. You didn’t want black men in the streets creating violence, you wanted them at home with their families. You wanted them to teach their children the lesson you taught them. How we let you down.

I want to apologize to Malcolm X

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Your life showed the struggle of a black man. When all that surrounds you are things to bring you down, you found light. You looked inside yourself to find what was missing. You allowed to see that growing is inevitable, not something to be ashamed of.

I apologize for not realizing that it takes all of us to make a positive change. If we want white people to start giving us respect, we first have to learn to respect ourselves. We wear pictures of your face and hold you in reverence, at the same time we’re spitting on the lesson you taught us.

I want to apologize to Rosa Parks

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How much nerve did it take for you to sit at the front of that bus? I smile to myself thinking about it. That is a moment in American History were black women had some power. As black women, we always want to help out a black man, but sometimes that means showing them how to do some things. I get that from you.

I want to apologize for the place black women have allowed themselves to dwell. You proved our actions could have major repercussions. You showed us that our voice could be mighty. We pay you back by dancing on stripper poles, chasing niggers with temporary money, and refusing to realize we can make our own money with our brains and actions, not just our bodies. We owe you so much more.

I want to apologize to every single white person that participated in the Civil Rights Movement

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You had no real reason to stand beside us. You did it because you felt it was the right thing to do. You marched with us, you got arrested with us, and you were subject to the same mistreatment as us, all by choice. Thank you.

I want to apologize for the attitudes we still carry; all white people are racist and won’t give a black man a chance. I know that there are white men that create black charities. I know there are white men that give black men opportunities. I know that there are white men that can look at a brother and not see color, but see a man.

Think about these things next time you want the government to apologize for the past. Alot of people fought to get us were we are today, and instead of looking for hand outs, follow the lessons left to us by some pretty remarkable people at a time way worse than it is today.

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