By Gabe Bullard
Filed Monday, December 10, 2007 at 1:07 PM
150 years after the Dred Scott decision, the House Committee on Slavery Impact will discuss an apology for slavery in the same building where Scott made his case. Labels: History, Race, TD_El-Amin
At 2:00 PM tomorrow in the Old Courthouse downtown, the group will hold a committee hearing to discuss House Resolution 26, which calls for Missouri to apologize for its role in slavery.
"I think what's bigger than an apology is the opportunity to open a dialogue about the disparities that exist," says Committee Co-Chairman T.D. El-Amin. "There's a direct connection between those disparities and slavery."
El-Amin co-chairs the committee with Rodney Hubbard*. Other local representatives on the committee include Jeanette Mott Oxford and Scott Muschany.
El-Amin says the resolution has bipartisan support in many offices across the state. He lists House Speaker Rod Jetton, Attorney General Jay Nixon, Senator Claire McCaskill, Congressman Wm. Lacy Clay, State Auditor Susan Montee and Lieutenant Governor Peter Kinder among those who have shown support for HR 26.
Click here to read HR 26.
19 Comments:
Does this mean that people who never owned slaves, never would have owned slaves, whose ancestors weren't even here are being asked to apologize for something they had nothing to do with?
Are the African chiefs who sold their people into slavery and their descendents who moved here being asked to apologize?
Are the Arab slave traders who continue to trade in slaves even to this day and their kinsman now living here being asked to apologize?
Who is the subject of the apology and who is the object of the apology? With all the millionaire African Americans today and many others who are wealthy and well off, who exactly is suffering directly from slavery?
12/10/2007 2:40 PM
The entire gesture is more than meaningless; it is apololying!
As for those who never owned slaves, what you fail to realize is that you benefit from it now and it is more than about owning slaves. It is about the destruction of a people and an insurance policy for bigots that guarantees that the descendents of the slaves continue to suffer from the oppressive genocide that continues to take place. Case in point, the voter's right act. It is just an act. Ask yourself why African Americans are the only group in society who have to have their right to vote reevaluated every 25 years.
I don't think anyone should apologize because an apology doesn't change anything, and to continue to oppress people of color here and abroad is ignorant at best.
Life is recipricol and karma will take care of it. Look around, it already has started to happen.
Personally, I wish every other black man would hook up with a white female. We're not prejudiced anymore right?
YOU AND I KNOW, WHITE PEOPLE WOULD DISAPPEAR WITHIN 50 YEARS!
12/10/2007 3:39 PM
Ok, Antonio. I have been doing some fact checking. Yesterday there was comment made on the radio regarding all the many meetings throughout the state. Its interesting all the public records I've called for only mention this one for tomorrow. Why lie on radio?
12/10/2007 4:16 PM
Po righteous teacher, I just wish you were a bit more "righteous" in some of your facts. The black race has not been destroyed as have not the white and Asian slaves of ancient history. St. Patrick was a slave in Ireland.
More blacks today suffer under other blacks than from whites. Most of the whites' ancestors in this area didn't arrive until the early 1900s.
And women didn't get the vote until the last century either.
Oh, and for your statement, "Personally, I wish every other black man would hook up with a white female..." look at all the black children sired by some irresponsible black man who doesn't care for them or support them. No wonder so many fatherless black children miss out on opportunities available today. So that's what you want to visit upon white women too? How about Asian women as well?
Nothing "righteous" about you, man. But there sure is a lot of racism in those veins.
12/10/2007 4:20 PM
Well-loved song of the 30s and 40s:
"Sometimes I feel like a motherless child, Oh,yes, Lord."
Potential song of the 90s and 21st century:
"I wish I weren't a fatherless child, Oh, yes, Lord. I wish that man kept his sperm to himself, Oh, yes, yes, Lord." (sung by the millions)
12/10/2007 4:44 PM
My facts are correct and the civilizations that existed are destroyed!
Secondly, I'm not a man.
Thirdly, you can not compare the African slave trade to the other forms or incidences of slavery you mentioned.
In other countries, slavery was a class system.
To even attempt to draw an analogy between them would amount to river wading as in deNILE!
Other blacks don't refuse to make the Voter's Rights Act a law instead of a renewable contract with a 25 year expiration date. After the survivors of the deadly voyage built this country, their ancestors are born here, and are still not constituents, meaning constitutional rights don't apply unless the amendments are renewed!
Apologizing for slavery doesn't stop me from worrying about my son getting questioned and harassed and being made to prove ownership of the vehicle he is driving after committing no traffic violations to be stopped for in the first place. Oh I forgot, young black men are not expected to go to college, only jail. They're not expected to pay for cars, only steal them. Their parents couldn't possibly loan them the family car, because Willie Lynch ensured the father and mother would never be together for the duration of the child's life to begin with.
If stating the facts the way they exist from my life experiences make me a racist by anyone else's definition, who cares!
I dare you to come out and condemn the US Senate for passing the Gang Abatement Act September 21, 2007. I dare you to denounce and vote out any US Senator who did not support the Black Caucus when objections were raised over the first G Dubya elitetion. I dare you to demand that congress make the Voter's Right Act a permanent law or lose their seats.
As far as black men not being there for their families, who was in the positions that mandated that no assistance would be given to families unless the man wasn't present? Give the wynch a fish instead of allowing her husband to fish himself.
Black children with and without fathers miss out on opportunities because society shuts the door in their faces.
My son stayed on the gifted waiting list from Kdg to 7th grade because he was a black male. Yes THE OFFICE OF RECRUITING AND COUNSELING OF THE ST LOUIS PUBLIC SCHOOLS TOLD ME THAT IF THEY GOT A SEAT FOR AN AFRIKAN AMERICAN, IT HAD TO BE FEMALE!
That didn't come from other blacks. That came from institutionalized racism!
And yes I meant exactly what I said about black men inpregnating white women.
The Asians didn't go around the globe, screaming at people, asking them "do you speak English?", and bragging about being unilingual, or invading people by discovering their backyards and then confining them to a reservation as if they asked for lodging or building the Suez Canal to divide African and call part of it the Middle East to bolster the fabricated "Holy War" or sign the Luciferian doctrine in 1776 which was in itself a pact with the devil...............
I have plenty of facts, and don't feel a need to be deemed righteous by you or anyone else!
The fact that I teach the youth the truth by teaching them to investigate and think for themselves makes me rich in ways you will never overstand and righteous in ways that time will never erase!
Comprende nancy?
12/10/2007 5:14 PM
No comprende because there is more rant than fact. Slavery in ancient history was not simply a class system.
If you are "righteous" enough and can read the Bible, read about Joseph being sold into slavery by his brothers. Read about Paul's pleas to the slave Onesimus' master, Philemon, to take him back as a brother after he escaped.
If anyone doesn't expect young black men to go to college, it's their own peers who think being educated is acting white.
As for the St. Louis Public Schools, the administration and top-echelon officers have been predominantly African American for decades. And the Deseg plan was pretty much instituted by the NAACP and government courts that required that no white city chid could participate, only county white children and city black children. The quotas were agreed upon by African Americans and the courts. Blame them, not the school district that has to submit to the rules.
And please tell me what exactly is "the first G Dubya elitetion" so I can know how to answer.
The "survivors of the deadly voyage," did not build this country alone. They built southern plantations perhaps, but they didn't build the industrial north or the West. Please give credit to the very diverse groups of people who were here and came here and participated in the building.
Regardless of how public assistance would or would not be given, moral women would not have allowed themselves to be used by men or have children of many different fathers. Even the black community is sick of that kind of behavior. What is destroying the black community today? Sexual promiscuity, sexually transmitted diseases, and ganbangers killing innocent people, the elderly and children--in other words violence and irresponsibility.
Opportunity awaits for those willing to go after it.
Throw off the blinders; and if you teach, teach positive virtues instead of hate. You might be surprised what your son will accomplish with having a mother with a less prejudicial bent and a more positive attitude toward people who do her no harm today.
12/10/2007 5:44 PM
Rough Rider, I have no idea what you're talking about. Are you saying I lied about something? I never discussed this subject on the radio Sunday.
12/11/2007 9:50 AM
I would rather see an apology for things like Pruitt Igoe and Peabody Darst Webbe. Urban Renewal and public housing has had a huge negative impact and some who had a role in this are still around. But with slavery an apology is appropriate even though it may be too little too late.
12/11/2007 11:28 AM
Doug, who exactly should make the apology? Half of my family had not yet arrived. The other half included strong abolitionists (one very well known) and Yankee soldiers.
Missouri's history in that whole kettle of worms was very mixed.
And then there is the mysterious 3000 plus black families who owned black slaves. Shouldn't someone look into them and ask for an apology?
12/11/2007 1:07 PM
Nancy Drew
Voter Rights Act!
12/11/2007 4:04 PM
Po righteous teacher, "It was signed in 1965, and signed for a 25 year extension by President George W. Bush on July 27, 2006."
So Bush extended it for another 25 years. What's your beef? And I am not a Bush fan.
And by the way, in St. Louis African Americans are the majority, not the minority.
12/11/2007 4:26 PM
Po righteous teacher, this is what is killing the black community. Can you do anything about it?
"ST. LOUIS -- A man and a woman were shot this afternoon outside a mortuary where a funeral was being held, people attending the funeral told the Post-Dispatch.
The shootings occurred at the A.L. Beal Mortuary, 4746 West Florissant Avenue in St. Louis. St. Louis police were unable to comment, but two funeral-goers said they heard multiple gunshots from outside the funeral home as the ceremony was nearing its end.
Natasha Byrd of St. Louis said she didn’t witness the shootings but heard a flurry of gunshots. Byrd said the female victim was brought into the mortuary before being taken to a hospital. The male victim appeared to be in much worse shape, she said. It appeared he’d been shot four or five times in various areas of his body, she said.
Both victims are listed in stable condition and are expected to recover,according to police.
Jackie Bennett of Memphis, who was inside during the ceremony, said there about 50 people inside during the funeral and other people outside. Neither Byrd nor Bennett said they knew who the shooting victims were. Bennett said she is the sister of William Shockley, 34, whose funeral it was. Shockley, of the 4700 block of Beacon Avenue, died early Friday after being shot in the heart Thursday night near East Grand Boulevard and North 20th Street. Shockley’s girlfriend told police at the time that she had gotten into their car when she heard gunfire. Shockley jumped into the car and said he’d been shot, so his girlfriend drove him to Barnes-Jewish Hospital, where he died about 12:30 a.m. Bennett said her brother was to be buried today. But, after the shootings, his body remained in the funeral home."
Reporter Elizabethe Holland contributed to this report
12/11/2007 4:45 PM
nancy drew,
Is your right to vote re-evaluated every 25 years?
The fact that you know about this differential treatment and you don't see a problem with it, or understand what the beef is, makes my point exactly.
You are incapable of overstanding!
12/11/2007 5:04 PM
Po righteous teacher, I didn't say I didn't see a problem with it. I don't understand why we don't have a clear cut law that covers everyone and every situation regardless of race.
I looked it up. I do not know all the laws Congress has enacted or what they entail. Do you?
I am not incapable of understanding and have always spoken up, spoken out, and written for true justice to all.
I know the black race has suffered in this country. My ancestors fought against the injustice, and I have always been very vocal about it.
At the same time, there is an overkill on blaming individuals who have or had nothing to do with the injustice. Would you like to be blamed for all the killings of the gangbangers? Don't you want others to know there are African Americans who value the life of others? Well, some of us would like you and other militant racists to know that we never played a role and never would in injustice toward any race of people.
We fit into the category of Martin Luther King's call to be colorblind and to judge according to one's character and not skin.
Direct your outrage as to the temporariness of the Voter Rights Act to the people who can do something about it: the President, Congress men and women.
12/11/2007 6:36 PM
Following is a statement by a syndicated African American: "The major problems confronting a large segment of the black community have little or nothing to do with racism -- problems such as unprecedented illegitimacy, family breakdown, fraudulent education, crime and rampant social pathology. If white people became angels tomorrow, it would do nothing to solve problems that can only be solved by blacks."
12/12/2007 8:05 AM
Po:
Calm down and read some information on the Voting Rights Act. The right of African American voters is guaranteed by the 15th Amendment to the Constitution, not the Voting Rights Act. The Voting Rights Act was enacted to make sure states did not try to make voting difficult or limited by means of adding literacy tests or other qualifications to the right to vote which unfairly impacted African Americans. It provides for federal oversight of voting laws in states which proved, in the past, to be untrustworthy about passing unfair hindrances to the rights of African Americans to vote. There was consideration of not renewing it in 2007 because there has been no evidence of non-compliance for many years, and the need for federal oversight seemed to have become unnecessary. This reissuance of the act in 2007 came about mainly due to uproar caused by misinformation about it not unlike what you have expressed. It spread quickly over the internet, causing African Americans to fear needlessly that their right to vote was at stake. This was never the case. The right of African Americans to vote is a Constitutional right, just like free speech, protection from cruel and unusual punishment and the right of women to vote (which came later, by the way). There are enough real issues to be charged about without misinformation being added to the mix. But then, prejudice is the child of ignorance.
12/12/2007 10:16 PM
My point is that institutionalized racism exists whether or not Nancy Drew cuts and pastes unrelated isolated incidents or not.
There are legislative measures being adopted nationwide to destroy the black male.
I am more calm than most. I just cant believe the ignorance with which she speaks regarding blacks being the cause of the plight of blacks asif there is no residual effect of the Atlantic slave trade.
12/13/2007 10:10 PM
So, if a black guy kills another black guy, then we should pick out some random white guy to punish? Since, as we seem to think, all of black people's problems can be traced back to the evil white men, isn't it fair that we get to the root of the problem (those damn white people)?
12/15/2007 6:08 PM
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