I Apologize for Nothing

This just makes me choke on my Cheerios. The State Legislature of New Jersey has voted to apologize to the descendants of slaves (but essentially to all blacks in general) for the evils of slavery. A lousy 10 (count'em TEN) legislators had the balls to vote "no" on this resolution.

There is so much wrong with New Jersey apologizing for slavery it's difficult to know where to start. How about New Jersey abolished slavery long before the civil war, was not a confederate state, and many New Jerseyans paid the highest price to end slavery during the Civil War. How about apologizing for slavery is beyond meaningless considering every actual slave (as well as every slave owner) has been deceased for the better part of a century.

None of that really matters though because the express purpose of the resolution is to make blacks "feel better" today. The full text of the resolution runs below so you can appreciate the sheer amount of words, time and effort wasted on this horse shit legislation. Blacks today are still experiencing the "vestiges of slavery" according to the resolution. This signals its true purpose. It's nothing more than a naked ploy to advance the case for reparations (notwithstanding the statement in the resolution that "it can't be used in litigation" -- wait did someone suggest litigation?). Well, that's just great.

New Jersey doesn't owe blacks reparations or even an apology for slavery for that matter. How do you quantify the damages inflicted on the descendants of slaves (blacks who emigrated here voluntarily after the emancipation, you're out of luck, caveat emptor)? The answer is you can't, it's just just too attenuated to show how anyone has suffered because of slavery. And if this resolution is directed at apologizing for the "ills inflicted upon African Americans" in general, which seems to be the case, then Mr. Surly wants his apology for the discrimination that held his drunken ancestors back from achieving their full potential. A quarter for every "No Irish" sign ever posted ought to do.

I'd like to cut through all this apology and reparations nonsense with a modest proposal. I would support reparations for blacks (hell, I'd make this offer to anybody who wants it) under certain conditions. I won't even ask for credit for all my tax dollars that have gone to fund predominantly black Abbott school districts. I only want a few things in return for reparations: the end of affirmative action programs, the reform of employment law, civil rights law, education law, housing law, and welfare programs that sacrifice sound policy in the name of redistributing income, creating victims, encouraging the politics of race and dividing people along racial lines, and protecting people from being offended. Oh yes, and one more thing. If you accept reparations, you must renounce U.S. citizenship, be repatriated to an African nation and never return to the United States.

Any takers? I thought not. The hard truth for many to accept is that, as evil as slavery was, the descendants of slaves are better off because their great-great-grandparents came to this shore no matter how they got here. Unpleasant as life was for their ancestors and despite any indignities which are currently borne by minorities, on the whole, their life is better today in the U.S. than if they had been born in Africa (and most of the rest of the world frankly). The truth of this statement is proven by the millions of people who want to emigrate here, many of whom die trying to come here. The United States is the greatest and most benign nation that has ever existed. We enjoy freedoms and a standard of living which is the envy of the world. Wouldn't it be wonderful if we as a nation could focus on that simple fact and put aside our differences and stop focusing on past wrongs. Perhaps we could all begin to consider ourselves Americans first instead of some hyphenate. It would be wonderful. But I am not going to hold my breath. This nation has endured over 50 years of entitlement programs and civil rights laws which have encouraged minorities to think of themselves as victims and failed to enfranchise them. As long as these policies continue (and they will for the time being because Democratic leaders derive political advantage from them) minorities will continue to see themselves as a group separate and apart from the rest of America, as victims who are owed a debt, and America will never escape the shadow of slavery.

ASSEMBLY CONCURRENT RESOLUTION No. 270

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

212th LEGISLATURE

INTRODUCED NOVEMBER 8, 2007

Sponsored by:

Assemblyman WILLIAM D. PAYNE

District 29 (Essex and Union)

Assemblyman CRAIG A. STANLEY

District 28 (Essex)

SYNOPSIS

Expresses New Jersey’s profound regret for its role in slavery and apologizes for wrongs inflicted by slavery and its after effects in the United States.

CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT

As introduced.

A Concurrent Resolution apologizing for the wrongs of slavery and expressing New Jersey’s profound regret for its role in slavery.

Whereas, Slavery has been documented as a worldwide practice since antiquity, dating back to 3500 B.C. in ancient Mesopotamia; and

Whereas, During the existence of the Atlantic Slave Trade, millions of Africans became involuntary immigrants to the New World, and millions more died during passage; the first African slaves in the North American colonies were brought to Jamestown, in 1619; and

Whereas, The Atlantic Slave Trade was a lucrative enterprise, and African slaves, a prized commodity to support the economic base of plantations in the colonies, were traded for tropical products, manufactured goods, sugar, molasses, and other merchandise; and

Whereas, Some African captives resisted enslavement by fleeing from slave forts on the West African coast and others mutinied aboard slave trading vessels, cast themselves into the Atlantic Ocean, or risked the cruel retaliation of their masters by running away to seek freedom; and

Whereas, Although the United States outlawed the transatlantic slave trade in 1808, the domestic slave trade in the colonies and illegal importation continued for several decades; and

Whereas, Slavery, or the "Peculiar Institution," in the United States resembled no other form of involuntary servitude, as Africans were captured and sold at auction as chattel, like inanimate property or animals; and

Whereas, To prime Africans for slavery, the fundamental values of the Africans were shattered; they were brutalized, humiliated, dehumanized, and subjected to the indignity of being stripped of their names and heritage; women and girls were raped, and families were disassembled as husbands and wives, mothers and daughters, and fathers and sons were sold into slavery apart from one another; and

Whereas, A series of complex colonial laws was enacted to relegate the status of Africans and their descendants to slavery, in spite of their loyalty, dedication, and service to the country, including heroic and distinguished service in the Revolutionary War, Civil War, and all other conflicts and military actions involving the United States military; and

Whereas, New Jersey, with as many as 12,000 slaves, had one of the largest populations of captive Africans in the northern colonies; and

Whereas, In 1786, the State of New Jersey enacted a law that prohibited the importation of slaves into this State and made owners punishable for the mistreatment of slaves; and

Whereas, Although the State of New Jersey passed a gradual emancipation law in 1804, it was the last northern state to emancipate its slaves, and required all children of slaves born after July 4, 1804 to remain the “servant of the owner of his or her mother” until they were twenty-one years of age for women or twenty-five years of age for men; and

Whereas, New Jersey had one of the severest slave codes in the northern colonies and was one of the few northern states to sanction the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which permitted authorities in free states to return runaway slaves to their owners, with the result that Underground Railroad passengers had to proceed with utmost caution in this State; and

Whereas, In 1846, New Jersey passed a law officially abolishing slavery; and

Whereas, The system of slavery had become entrenched in American history and the social fabric, and the issue of enslaved Africans had to be addressed as a national issue, contributing to the Civil War from 1861 to 1865 and the passage of the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution, which abolished slavery and involuntary servitude on December 18, 1865; and

Whereas, New Jersey adopted the Thirteenth Amendment on January 23, 1866 only after originally rejecting it on March 16, 1865; and

Whereas, After emancipation from 246 years of slavery, African-Americans soon saw the political, social, and economic gains they made during Reconstruction dissipated by virulent and rabid racism, lynchings, disenfranchisement of African-American voters, Black Codes designed to reimpose the subordination of African-Americans, and Jim Crow laws that instituted a rigid system of state sanctioned segregation in virtually all areas of life and lasted until the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act; and

Whereas, Throughout their existence in America and even in the decades after the Civil Rights Movement, African-Americans have found the struggle to overcome the bitter legacy of slavery long and arduous, and for many African-Americans the scars left behind are unbearable, haunting their psyches and clouding their vision of the future and of America's many positive attributes; and

Whereas, Our nation acknowledges the crimes and persecution visited upon other peoples during World War II lest the world forget, yet the very mention of the broken promise of "40 acres and a mule" to former slaves or of the existence of racism today evokes denial from many quarters of any responsibility for the centuries of legally sanctioned deprivation of African-Americans of their endowed rights or for contemporary policies that perpetuate the existing state of affairs; and

Whereas, In 2003, during a trip to Goree Island, Senegal, a former slave port, President George W. Bush stated, "At this place, liberty and life were stolen and sold. Human Beings were delivered and sorted, and weighed, and branded with the marks of commercial enterprises, and loaded as cargo on a voyage without return. One of the largest migrations of history was also one of the greatest crimes of history.... For 250 years the captives endured an assault on their culture and their dignity.... Small men took on the powers and airs of tyrants and masters. Years of unpunished brutality and bullying and rape produced a dullness and hardness of conscience. Christian men and women became blind to the clearest commands of their faith and added hypocrisy to injustice.... We can finally judge the past by the standards of President John Adams, who called slavery 'an evil of colossal magnitude’.... My nation's journey toward justice has not been easy, and it is not over. 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 ...; and

Whereas, In New Jersey the vestiges of slavery are ever before African-American citizens, from the overt racism of hate groups to the subtle racism encountered when requesting health care, transacting business, buying a home, seeking quality public education and college admission, and enduring pretextual traffic stops and other indignities; and

Whereas, European and African nations have apologized for their roles in what history calls the worst holocaust of humankind, the Atlantic Slave Trade, and racial reconciliation is impossible without some acknowledgment of the moral and legal injustices perpetrated upon African-Americans; and

Whereas, An apology for centuries of brutal dehumanization and injustices cannot erase the past, but confession of the wrongs can speed racial healing and reconciliation and help African-American and white citizens confront the ghosts of their collective pasts together; and

Whereas, The story of the enslavement of Africans and their descendants, the human carnage, and the dehumanizing atrocities committed during slavery should not be purged from New Jersey's history or discounted; moreover, the faith, perseverance, hope, and endless triumphs of African-Americans and their significant contributions to the development of this State and the nation should be embraced, celebrated, and retold for generations to come; and

Whereas, The perpetual pain, distrust, and bitterness of many African-Americans could be assuaged and the principles espoused by the Founding Fathers would be affirmed, and great strides toward unifying all New Jerseyans and inspiring the nation to acquiesce might be accomplished, if on the eve of the commemoration of the 400th anniversary of the first permanent English settlement in the New World, the State acknowledged and atoned for its role in the slavery of Africans; and

Whereas, Acknowledging that there is a difference between wrong and right, and that slavery as an American "institution" was a wrong committed upon millions of African Americans and that their descendants continue to suffer from the effects of Jim Crow laws, segregation, housing discrimination, discrimination in education, and other ills inflicted upon African-Americans; and

Whereas, The State of New Jersey, the Governor, and its citizens are conscious that under slavery many atrocities and gross violations of human rights were imposed upon African-Americans, and that acknowledging these facts can and will avert future tragedies, be they in the Sudan, or other parts of the world; now, therefore,

Be It Resolved by the General Assembly of the State of New Jersey (the Senate concurring):

1. The Legislature of the State of New Jersey expresses its profound regret for the State’s role in slavery and apologizes for the wrongs inflicted by slavery and its after effects in the United States of America; expresses its deepest sympathies and solemn regrets to those who were enslaved and the descendants of those slaves, who were deprived of life, human dignity, and the constitutional protections accorded all citizens of the United States; and we encourage all citizens to remember and teach their children about the history of slavery, Jim Crow laws, and modern day slavery, to ensure that these tragedies will neither be forgotten nor repeated.

2. It is the intent of the Legislature that this resolution shall not be used in, or be the basis of, any type of litigation.

3. Duly authenticated copies of this resolution, signed by the President of the Senate and Speaker of the General Assembly and attested by the Secretary of the Senate and the Clerk of the General Assembly, shall be transmitted to the New Jersey Secretary of State, all New Jersey branches of the National Association for the Advancement for Colored People, Garden State Bar Association, the Amistad Commission, and the New Jersey Commission on Higher Education.