The Senate Apologizes for Slavery and Jim Crow Laws — But Why?
This entire essay is intellectually dishonest at best. Yes no American’s alive are guilty or slavery nor are any direct victims of it. However the sons and daughters of slaves and slave owners are still alive in many instances. Yes they are all over the age of 80 but they are still here. Also, many of the victims and perpetrators of Jim Crow are alive today. My father grew up with segregation in Virginia and various forms of institutional racism all of his life. I am only 28 and am the first generation in my family to truly be free in this country. It is an uncomfortable and unfortunate fact, but is a fact nonetheless. I don’t say this as a victim, but as a victor whose family has survived and thrived in the nation for hundreds of years and only recently have had equality under the law within the last generation.
