The Kind of Conservatives that Deny the Impact of Slavery

All over the web today, I saw conservatives mocking the decision by the US House to apologize on behalf of the country for slavery. However, I know that there are also conservatives that are more enlightened. Acknowledging that it takes quite a bit of time for a community to recover from centuries of hard labor and abuse is not beyond conservatives.

For those conservatives who think this simply pandering, how much pandering does a 90% voter block need? As a conservative, I would think you would be concerned about the condition of the black *family* as a result of slavery than you appear. Since the 500 years of enslavement led to the total breakdown of families and family lines for that extensive time period, and we have had only 4 generations since former slaves got the chance to try and repair gender relationships, everyone should be granted free therapy at the least. Slave-owners deliberately sent children of slaves to other plantations, couples were split up. Describe any other long term annihilation of families in history! By the way, you should be horrified to know that slave-owners deliberately split up families.

How many slaves with post traumatic stress disorder or depression raised children with mental health problems? Then, after slavery, segregation laws and an atmosphere of terrorism (lynching in the South and sundown towns in the North) that only ended one generation ago.

Having just helped one of my black students finish a paper on the Atlantic Slave Trade, I could drown you in the evil details of raw white capitalism and how this country would not even be prosperous without centuries of free labor. But, for the discussion, the history is less important than the contemporary circumstances of this generation of African American people. I work with 75 black students who come from families that never recovered from slavery. It is easy to trace their lives quickly back to a former slave. Their dire poverty, life under another 3/4 century of Jim Crow laws, and you expect all to be well overnight? In addition, the economic benefits slavery continues to bestow on the white descendants--coupled with study after study showing continued job discrimination--makes clear that to compete with whites economically is a stacked game. The least folks deserve is an apology.

Given that historical memory is typically many centuries long for most peoples in this world, are you actually suggesting that black people are not entitled to someone speaking an apology on behalf of the *state institution* that our Congress is? Maybe it should have happened 100 years ago, but it didn't. So when would you have the country issue its due apology?

As a conservative, aren't tradition and history supposed to be paramount to you? As a society, conservatives say we are not supposed to disconnect from our past. Do you actually believe that what is current today is NOT heavily influenced by the conditions of our ancestors?

For a conservative role model on how to handle the history of slavery, see Senator Sam Brownback (R), a conservative whose family actually worked as abolitionists. He fully supports the program for first generation, low-income that I work for, as do many other conservatives. Why? They actually have an awareness of history.

To see how a mature white person reacts to the history of slavery, I recommend watching the documentary, "Meeting David Wilson". It tells the story of how black David Wilson met white David Wilson, the great grandson of his family's owners. Their conversation has a lot of depth lacking in a knee-jerk denials typical of some white people. And for people outside the US or immigrants to the US, I can recommend at least one book that tells the story of how your particular country benefited economically from the slave trade. Throughout Asia, Europe, people gained on the backs of others. But there wouldn't have been any long term repercussions of all that now would there? Given the smallness of many white men who feel threatened that their being asked to share the country, I expect them to deny there is any advantage granted them from birth. It is just so much more noble and honest to see the millions of White men who can actually accept the truth and say they are sorry it happened.

Ms. Melanie Interviews me on Spark Radio