Date Posted:01:26:34 04/01/07 Sun Author: Martin Author Host/IP: user-5446c42a.lns5-c13.telh.dsl.pol.co.uk / 84.70.196.42 Subject: Re: Should we officially apologise for slavery? In reply to:
Paul_G
's message, "Re: Should we officially apologise for slavery?" on 16:49:23 03/31/07 Sat
>>If so, who should be the one to apologise?
>
>Why do so many people talk as though white people were
>the only ones who practiced slavery, and that it
>didn't exist before 1600?
>
>No-one should apologize for history. It's stupid and
>meaningless. It lowers the stature of the person
>making the apology IMO. Plus immigration has made it
>so that many of the people in the apologizing country,
>and the country recieving the apology, aren't even the
>descendants of the people involved.
>
>Reparations are an even more stupid concept. I always
>found it ironic that Germany paid reparations for
>WWII, when it was the concept of reparations that
>helped put Hitler in power in the first place.
>
>When did all this nonsense start, anyway? This
>apologizing for stuff? I seem to remember it really
>only starting about 10-15 years ago. I can't erember
>it happening as a kid. I remember Japan asking us (the
>US) to apologize for Hiroshima a few years back.
>What's the world coming to?
Surely the fact that other countries practised it is completely irrelevant? Afetr all, Ian Huntley couldn't really use as a defence "I'm not the first person to murder a couple of kids".
In many ways I think the state should apologise, as it the British state has had continuous existence since 1807. In many ways though the fact that we outlawed slavery was ana cknowledgement that it was wrong - the abolitionists have therefore already apologised for us.
However it's copmpletely bogus that white people should apologise to black people. The next black protestor to disrupt some event should be asked to prove that he is descended 100% from slaves and not at least in opart from black slavers - and if he can't he should be made to apologise to himself!
