NJ Lawmakers Consider Slavery Apology

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Linda7NJ

Linda7NJ

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TRENTON, N.J. (AP) -- New Jersey could become the first Northern state to apologize for slavery under a measure due for a legislative committee hearing this week.
"This is not too much to ask of the state of New Jersey," said Assemblyman William Payne, sponsor of the proposal. "All that is being requested of New Jersey is to say three simple words: 'We are sorry.'"
Legislators in Alabama, Maryland, North Carolina and Virginia have issued formal apologies for slavery.
"If former Confederate states can take action like this, why can't a Northeast state like New Jersey?" asked Payne, a Democrat.
According to the proposal, New Jersey had one of the largest slave populations in the Northern colonies and was the last state in the Northeast to formally abolish slavery, not doing so until 1846. The state didn't ratify the constitutional amendment prohibiting slavery until January 1866, weeks after it became law, having rejected ratification in 1865.
Payne's measure is set for a hearing Thursday by the Assembly Appropriations Committee. It hasn't received Senate consideration. The legislative session expires Tuesday.

more at link:

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/S/SLAVERY_APOLOGY?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=US

DUMBEST THING I EVER HEARD!
 
Why do you think its dumb? I don't think it ever hurts to say one is sorry for something, especially if that thing was slavery. I'm sorry for it.
 
Because I had nothing to do with it and neither did anyone else that's alive today. Matter of fact, none of my relatives were involved. I owe no one an apology for slavery. I am very sorry it ever happened and I have no problem saying that. That should be enough.

It's over. Way over.

IMO bringing it up is only going to separate people more. Why do that?

My ancestors are from Germany, I feel horrible what the Nazi's did to Jewish people, Polish people and whoever else they murdered. My ancestors were not Nazis.
 
i dont think anyone is suggesting that you or anyone in the state had anything to do with slavery. its a symbolic apology.

since you brought up the holocaust, there are memorials all over germany as a way to apologize for what was done there. this is kind of the same thing.
 
It is not "kind of the same thing"--Slaves were sold by their own people(albeit different tribes) to the British, Americans, Dutch, Portugese, Spanish--Jews did not betray their own people during the Holocaust--The Holocaust was murder on an unimaginable scale in a short period of time--Although many slaves died en route and after arriving in the USA and other countries, there was no policy of mass extermination--Any comparison between the two(Slavery and the Holocaust) shows a marked ignorance of history--and The Spanish originated Black Slavery in the 1500's, transporting them to the conquered Aztec Nation--Slavery existed throughout North America, South America, the Caribbean, and Central America--Brazil didn't even outlaw it until 1888--and this "symbolic apology' is fine, for what it is--Just a few months ago, the city of Liverpool also formally apologized for being the Hub of shipping slaves to America for hundreds of years
 
Of course, some Jews betrayed their own people during the Holocaust. There is considerable literature on the subject. Joshua Sobol's brilliant play, Ghetto, deals with the Jewish leaders of the Vilna ghetto, who bargained with the Nazis, giving up some victims to save others, reasoning that they were thereby serving the greater "good."

And, of course, there were individual acts of betrayal as well, as there are with any people facing destruction. Desperate people sometimes do unfortunate things (and I am by no means suggesting "betrayal" is common among Jews or that those struggling to survive the Holocaust were unusual in this regard).

I have no idea why the participation of some Africans in the slave trade is supposed to make Western nations any less guilty. Nor do I understand why the existence of slavery in most cultures at some point in the past is supposed to make the practice seem less offensive.

Although there may be no slaveholders living in New Jersey, it is still the same state with the same government. An apology seems quite literally the least the state can do.
 
oh for god's sake. just stop it already. is everyone going to apologize for every wrong thing that was ever done to another nation, group of people, gender, etc.... in the history of humanity???? this could go on forever. so.. NJ's going to issue an 'official' apology, and guess what, most blacks STILL won't be happy. they'll be even more angry, and they'll want more more more.. then they'll be all up in arms that 'we only got an apology, a lot of good that'll do! what else you gonna give us???' they won't be satisfied until they all get a few million dollars a piece. and they'll probably still b*tch.

i think this is just inflaming things more, and playing into their power game, which will never, EVER end.
 
I think it does not matter either way. If NJ wants to make an apology then by all means do so.
What matters is if the citizens of NJ and the entire US think we are equal regardless of race or gender.
 
Jeana (DP) said:
Why do you think its dumb? I don't think it ever hurts to say one is sorry for something, especially if that thing was slavery. I'm sorry for it.
Click to expand...

Why should a whole state apologize for something they had no part of what so ever? I think equal treatment now is a better use of time than apologizing for something that can not be changed. Of course my ancestor's were not even here during slavery. I'm Irish we have our own issues.
 
if ANYONE should apologize it's the african kings who sold off the slaves, the portugese, and the RICH americans who were too d*mn lazy to do their own work. they have ruined the country for the rest of time, now that we are full to overflowing with gangs, crime, drugs, and violence.. in every major city and beyond. thanks a lot idiots!!
no wonder the native americans have such a problem with drinking. who can blame them?
 
1. Not all slaves were sold by their own people. Read Olaudah Equiano's autobiography--he was kidnapped with his sister as a child.
2. I think the apology is simply a statement saying that the state government of the times screwed up by allowing this. Everyone understands that no one personally involved is still alive.
3. I don't believe there will be any attempt at reparations because the people involved are long dead.


IMO it is the right thing to do. I was taught to apologize when I screw up. If more politicians did the same thing, I might like them better. :)

(Since I'm sure someone will think it matters--I am of mixed ancestry: German/Scotch/Irish/Native American/Jewish/Black--the original melting pot. While only two of my ancestors owned slaves, some of my ancestors WERE slaves. My ggg-grandmother was a former slave who passed for white, married a white man, moved to TN and owned slaves w/ her husband.)
 
Unfortunately, IMO, this will open the door for lawsuits... descendants will come out of the wood work saying, "Ok, you've admited you were wrong, now pay us compensation!"

I am not black... my relatives weren't slaves, but my relatives worked the cotton fields and lived in mud shanties, just trying to survive in a day where the rich ruled and the poor suffered. Who's going to say "I'm sorry" to me and mine? Who's going to compensate me for the life my relatives lived? No one...
 
Oh my friends, if this gives some peace to those who need to hear and read the words what difference does it make? Yes some will use it as a springboard for frivolous law suits and yes it will cause those who are still holding on to an antiquated notions that resist the concept of "melting pot" to get their knickers in a twist...Native American Indians are due apologies, as are the Irish, the Italians, the Jews and the Anabaptists-whoever the underdog was at the time depending what city or state you live in. Let's just do a general country wide apology for all transgressions against everyone, level the playing field and all be friends hmm???
 
Tell NJ I'll gladly go along with their plan when the likes of Jackson and Sharpton apologize as well. I'm too young to understand what they did to help both blacks and whites with race relations, but lately these guys have been no good for anyone.

Edit: And to believe09, you're absolutely right about Native American Indians. They should definitely get a HUGE apology as well.
 
reb said:
if ANYONE should apologize it's the african kings who sold off the slaves, the portugese, and the RICH americans who were too d*mn lazy to do their own work. they have ruined the country for the rest of time, now that we are full to overflowing with gangs, crime, drugs, and violence.. in every major city and beyond. thanks a lot idiots!!
no wonder the native americans have such a problem with drinking. who can blame them?
Click to expand...

Gangs, crime, drugs, and violence are all symptoms of poverty, not skin color. Wake up, reb. I'm tired of your borderline racist remarks, you're making the rest of us white-folk look ridiculous.
 
Paladin said:
Gangs, crime, drugs, and violence are all symptoms of poverty, not skin color. Wake up, reb. I'm tired of your borderline racist remarks, you're making the rest of us white-folk look ridiculous.
Click to expand...

I agree 99%

All except the "borderline"? Reb way crossed the line.
 
The only apology I would like is one from my legislature who is wasting preasure time and resources on this aplogy topic. Slavery was an abomination, the Holocuast mankind at its worst. I could site numerous other examples of humanity at its worse. As a citizen I will apoogize anytime to a anyone for the horrors my species as commited on each other. We can not undo the past, however today we are in the drivers seat. It is our legislators and elected officials sitting behind those stearing wheels and I for one would much perfer they spend their prescious time and resources time having meetings about the education of our young, crime and poverty the horrors of the middle east , finding solutions for our dependency on oil, healthcare crisis ...
As a resident of NJ I think it would be perfectly wonderful if our legislators donated a dvd to every public library on the history of slavery during black history month. I prefer they not spend there valuable time and resources in meetings discussing an apology that isn't going to help a single person today.

mjak
 
:clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap:
mjak said:
The only apology I would like is one from my legislature who is wasting preasure time and resources on this aplogy topic. Slavery was an abomination, the Holocuast mankind at its worst. I could site numerous other examples of humanity at its worse. As a citizen I will apoogize anytime to a anyone for the horrors my species as commited on each other. We can not undo the past, however today we are in the drivers seat. It is our legislators and elected officials sitting behind those stearing wheels and I for one would much perfer they spend their prescious time and resources time having meetings about the education of our young, crime and poverty the horrors of the middle east , finding solutions for our dependency on oil, healthcare crisis ...
As a resident of NJ I think it would be perfectly wonderful if our legislators donated a dvd to every public library on the history of slavery during black history month. I prefer they not spend there valuable time and resources in meetings discussing an apology that isn't going to help a single person today.

mjak
Click to expand...
:clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap:
 
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