This apology to African Americans would be fine if the pasty white elites offered it unencumbered. But the truth is they roll out resolutions like this with a timing that will divert public attention away from one of their hideous crimes being committed simultaneously. One such crime is the strangulation of Single Payer healthcare. We can demand Single Payer healthcare as an active apology. Reject the verbal apology.

Here is the link to text. It looks pretty good to me.

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:S.+Con.+Res.+26:

You can compare, for example, to the Virginia resolution, which also includes an apology to Native Americans:

http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?071+ful+HJ728H2

And for convenience, here is the link and the text together:

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:S.+Con.+Res.+26:

Whereas the legacy of African-Americans is interwoven with the very fabric of the democracy and freedom of the United States;

(Ordered Held at Senate Desk after being Received from House )

SCON 26 HDS

111th CONGRESS

1st Session

S. CON. RES. 26

Apologizing for the enslavement and racial segregation of African-Americans.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

June 11, 2009
Mr. HARKIN (for himself, Mr. BROWNBACK, Mr. LEVIN, Mr. DURBIN, Mr. KENNEDY, Mr. LAUTENBERG, Ms. STABENOW, Mr. BOND, and Mr. COCHRAN) submitted the following concurrent resolution; which was ordered held at the desk

CONCURRENT RESOLUTION

Apologizing for the enslavement and racial segregation of African-Americans.

Whereas, during the history of the Nation, the United States has grown into a symbol of democracy and freedom around the world;

Whereas the legacy of African-Americans is interwoven with the very fabric of the democracy and freedom of the United States;

Whereas millions of Africans and their descendants were enslaved in the United States and the 13 American colonies from 1619 through 1865;

Whereas Africans forced into slavery were brutalized, humiliated, dehumanized, and subjected to the indignity of being stripped of their names and heritage;

Whereas many enslaved families were torn apart after family members were sold separately;

Whereas the system of slavery and the visceral racism against people of African descent upon which it depended became enmeshed in the social fabric of the United States;

Whereas slavery was not officially abolished until the ratification of the 13th amendment to the Constitution of the United States in 1865, after the end of the Civil War;

Whereas after emancipation from 246 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 United States after the Civil War to create separate and unequal societies for Whites and African-Americans, was a direct result of the racism against people of African descent that was engendered by slavery;

Whereas the system of Jim Crow laws officially existed until the 1960s--a century after the official end of slavery in the United States--until Congress took action to end it, but the vestiges of Jim Crow continue to this day;

Whereas African-Americans continue to suffer from the consequences of slavery and Jim Crow laws--long after both systems were formally abolished--through enormous damage and loss, both tangible and intangible, including the loss of human dignity and liberty;

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 the history of the United States;

Whereas those African-Americans who suffered under slavery and Jim Crow laws, and their descendants, exemplify the strength of the human character and provide a model of courage, commitment, and perseverance;

Whereas, on July 8, 2003, during a trip to Goree Island, Senegal, a former slave port, President George W. Bush acknowledged the continuing legacy of slavery in life in the United States and the need to confront that legacy, when he stated that slavery `was . . . one of the greatest crimes of 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;

Whereas an apology for centuries of brutal dehumanization and injustices cannot erase the past, but confession of the wrongs committed and a formal apology to African-Americans will help bind the wounds of the Nation that are rooted in slavery and can speed racial healing and reconciliation and help the people of the United States understand the past and honor the history of all people of the United States;

Whereas the legislatures of the Commonwealth of Virginia and the States of Alabama, Florida, Maryland, and North Carolina have taken the lead in adopting resolutions officially expressing appropriate remorse for slavery, and other State legislatures are considering similar resolutions;

and

Whereas it is important for the people of the United States, who legally recognized slavery through the Constitution and the laws of the United States, to make a formal apology for slavery and for its successor, Jim Crow, so they can move forward and seek reconciliation, justice, and harmony for all people of the United States: Now, therefore, be it

• Resolved by the Senate (the House of Representatives concurring), That the sense of the Congress is the following:

◦ (1) APOLOGY FOR THE ENSLAVEMENT AND SEGREGATION OF AFRICAN-AMERICANS- The Congress--

▪ (A) acknowledges the fundamental injustice, cruelty, brutality, and inhumanity of slavery and Jim Crow laws;

▪ (B) apologizes to African-Americans on behalf of the people of the United States, for the wrongs committed against them and their ancestors who suffered under slavery and Jim Crow laws; and

▪ (C) expresses its recommitment to the principle that all people are created equal and endowed with inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and calls on all people of the United States to work toward eliminating racial prejudices, injustices, and discrimination from our society.

◦ (2) DISCLAIMER- Nothing in this resolution--

▪ (A) authorizes or supports any claim against the United States; or

▪ (B) serves as a settlement of any claim against the United States.

Deepa

How come the "God's chosen country" and the "BEACON of human dignity, equality and rights" has been blind to its own CRIMINAL history, and even to recognising violations of its own lofty claims???

Does this Resolution mean anything in the Racist American society?

-In 2008 the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) based in Geneva, Switzerland, criticised the U.S. for failing to meet international standards on racial equality, and its treatment of American Indians, African Americans, Latinos and other racial minorities.

After considering the U.S. government’s written and oral testimony, the 18-member committee said that it has found “stark racial disparities” in the U.S. institutions, including its criminal justice system, housing, healthcare and education.

Read: "UN Panel Finds Two-Tier Society,"
by Haider Rizvi, Inter Press Service, March 12, 2008.

Deepa

Is the US against slavery?

Read:

- "Close to Slavery: Report Finds Labor Abuses Under Guestworker Programs," www.democracynow.org, March 15, 2007.

- ELIZABETH SCHULTE, "Disposable Workers in the U. S. in Economy: Slavery in the Fields," www.counterpunch.org,
Apri1 10, 2008.

Deepa

Slavery on the land of the US, and by the US around the world is nothing new. This country itself is built on slavery. So it is not surprising that slavery is still continuing on the land of the “champion of the Human Rights”. Slave labour, child labour, and forced labour are actively promoted both by the US government by not signing important labour laws, and the US transnational corporations with the support of the US government.

The United States is one of the two countries refused to sign the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), 1989, an international convention for the abolition of child labour. US has ratified only 14 of the 184 International Labour Organisation (ILO) Conventions and 2 of the 8 Conventions the ILO has identified as fundamental to the rights of human beings at work. Only by ratifying Conventions a country is subject to regular scrutiny of the ILO.
www.fpif.org/outside/commentary/2002/021 Oilo.html

Slavery in the US Approved by the US Congress

Two examples:

1. Slavery in Mariana Islands:

These beautiful tropical islands are described by disgraced House Majority Leader Tom Delay as "a perfect petri dish of capitalism." What's so perfect about Saipan and the other 13 Northern Mariana Islands? Primarily this: items produced there can carry the label "Made in USA" and be sold in the U.S. without tariffs or quotas, but the scandalously low U.S. minimum wage does not apply, and the pathetically minimal rights of immigrants and workers in the U.S. do not apply. There are no labor unions. Any worker can be terminated and deported at any time for no cause.

“The workers, mostly Chinese women, sew clothing for J. Jill, Elie Tahari, Ann Taylor, Liz Claiborne, The Gap, and Ralph Lauren, among others. The workers pay so much money to obtain work and for shelter and food that they can labor for a decade and still not pay it back. They serve, therefore, as indentured servants, sharing rooms and beds, lacking health care, and working extra unpaid hours for the reward of being permitted to also work paid overtime. Pregnancy is unacceptable, costs of it not covered, and amateur abortion encouraged.

“The island of Saipan does great business in prostitution for businessmen and American soldiers. Approximately 90 percent of the prostitutes are former Chinese garment workers. Others had been recruited for jobs like waitressing but were forced into prostitution instead.

“Over the past decade, 29 bills in Congress have sought to apply a minimum wage standard and/or immigration law to the Mariana Islands or to deny use of "Made in USA" to items produced there. Every one of these bills has failed. Some have won support in the Senate but been blocked by the House Resources Committee. Others have won the support of a majority of House Members but still been killed in that same committee.”

2. Slavery in a Shipyard in Pascagoula Mississippi Owned by Signal International

Hundreds of guest workers from India have begun protesting work conditions at a shipyard in Pascagoula Mississippi owned by the company Signal International. They say they spent their life savings in order get an H2B visa to work in the United States. Risking their jobs by publicly complaining about the work conditions, they issued a statement in a press conference.

The statement read in part: "We have been treated like animals here. We have been threatened with termination and salary reduction. We are living in isolation. Visitors are not allowed in the camps. We live 24 men in one container, with two bathrooms for all of us." They also said that whenever they complained about the working conditions, the camp manager would say: “You are living in slums in India. It is better than those slums.” The passports of the workers are confiscated. There are 288 workers in the Pascagoula camp, and more than 200 workers in Texas living in the same conditions.

Reparations now!

Deepa

US Promoted Slavery around the World

Two examples:

1. In the rubber plantation in Liberia owned by Bridgestone Firestone North American Tire Company since 1926, children work 12 to 14 hours a day.

A UN Report “Human Rights in Liberia’s Rubber Plantations: Tapping into Future” notes: “Although management of Firestone…stated that child labour is prohibited within …(its) concession (area), HROs (United Nations Mission in Liberia Human Rights Officers) spoke with a number of children working on …(the) plantation, aged between 10 and 14 years…Reports of child labour on Firestone plantation have also been documented in a report (“Firestone: The Mark of Slavery”) by the NGO, Save My Future Foundation, in March 2005.”

In this plantation the workers are given unreasonably high production quota, which takes a rubber tapper at least 21 hours a day to meet the quota. This forces the workers to bring their wives and children to work in order to meet the quota, or else their already low wages will be halved. It is observed that the workers live in shacks, most of which have not been renovated since the 1920s, while managers live in luxurious mansions with all the modern amenities, including golf courses, and receive huge salary.

2. Slavery and forced labour have been used in the construction of the sprawling 592-million-dollar U.S. embassy (a symbol of imperial occupation) in Baghdad. Forced labour and slave labour in Iraq have plagued First Kuwaiti General Trading and Contracting, which is given the contract of this project. This company has been involved in slave labour and forced labour for several years. In the past, allegations by workers from Nepal and the Philippines were discounted by the U.S. government officials.

The company continued to rack up contracts now totaling several billion dollars from the Pentagon and U.S. State Department. It has been reported by the eye-witnesses that chartered jets in Kuwait loaded with workers from the Philippines, India, Pakistan and Africa holding boarding passes to Dubai, flew directly to Baghdad. Among the complaints by the workers: confiscation of passports of workers, several “missing” workers, crowded quarters, sub-standard food, little or no medical care, and little or no sanitation. When drinking water was scarce in the blistering heat, coolers were filled at the banks of the Tigris, a river rife with waterborne disease, sewage and sometimes floating bodies.

Well, this is very heartening, as far as it goes.

But I hoped they would tag on a rider apologizing to present-day Amerikans for hijacking the political process and refusing to consider single-payer health care.

· Yr Obd't Servant

By all appearances, they are apologizing for the very thing that they are hell-bent on reestablishing. What an enormous waste of time, money, and effort these creatures are.

Apologizing for buying people against their will and then mistreating them - like the Guantanamo Uighurs?

Oh what a land of freedom and democracy we are, finally apologizing for the buying and selling of humans, in this the year 2009. If I were black, I'd be so relieved. Of course, we did set blacks free grudgingly, and didn't enforce it very well, and allowed white bigots (most of the white South and a good portion of the North) to set up Jim Crow for 100 years. And we are still practicing discrimination against gays, hispanics, and oh, yes, Afro Americans. But do apologize, by all means. Now blacks can feel just as good as Japanese Americans-as long as they don't get sick and require medical assistance. Some day congress might even get around to apologizing to gays. Oh, what a bash we will have then--maybe even a parade down Market Street!

I call this the 3 monte game;lets do something that SOUNDS nice but dont mean shit anymore because we have Iraqi and Afhgani's to do the bidding of the elites and any other people who work at "slave wages" and as things dont get done on healthcare and other promises broken then they can apologize to every part of the world where the USofA has decided to be even though it would not cover all the damage that has been done.If I were black or native american I would be insulted because it was only brought up for distraction and if you remember that was a bush ploy.Being of mexican parents born here and it is insulting to me.They got cajones.Tony

A cheap and meaningless diversion from reality. But let's be fair - it only took them 300 years. The vatican took 500 years to apologize for the Galileo affair, and almost 2000 years to apologize for the blood libel against the Jews. That sounds like it's almost progress.

I'm still waiting for an apology from the 'god' who set up this cruel and pointless universe. This is the best an all-powerful being could do? What an idiot! The Gnostics may be right in their belief that the universe was not created by the 'all-highest' but a deranged demi-god instead.

Without reperations--apologies mean nothing. And cost even less to the one giving it. If I steal something from you and apologize for it fifty years from now--but do not compensate you for what I took--my apology is not only an empty gesture--but an insult. Being that president Obama is part of the ruling-class I expect his usual four word answer to the question of reperations. "That's--off--the--table."

Where is my forty acres and my mule?

Does this mean the Afpraqistanis can expect a "sorry" round about 2154?