Sunday, January 21, 2007
Is slavery apology what Va. needs?
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Shanna Flowers is The Roanoke Times' metro columnist.
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A group of black state lawmakers wants Virginia to apologize for slavery.
It's a sincere gesture, I'm sure. But to quote the old lady from the Wendy's commercial: Where's the beef?
Once we get beyond "I'm sorry," then what? When you look behind the eloquence of the proposed resolution, what does it really accomplish?
We've made advances in closing the racial divide, yet not enough.
But is the solo act of an apology that would make people feel good for a few moments the way to go?
The legislation has the feel of what Newsweek columnist Robert J. Samuelson characterizes as "the politics of symbolism."
What ails politics, Samuelson wrote last week, is "it's mostly about gestures and giveaways; it's not about hard choices.
"Politicians resort to symbolic acts that seem more meaningful than they actually are. ... What results is a politically expedient world of make-believe that takes many sensible compromises off the table."
So yes, I'm having difficulty getting beyond the symbolic feel of the proposed apology.
At the same time, I rebuke Del. Frank Hargrove, R-Hanover County, for his remark urging blacks to "get over" slavery. He added insult to ignorance by including Jews in his web of insensitivity.
Some 142 years after slavery ended, we -- black and white -- live with its legacy still.
When neighbors cringe because a black family looks at the house for sale next door, the legacy is alive.
When a white teacher writes off a 6-year-old black boy so early in life, the legacy is alive.
When Black Muslim leaders have referred to whites as "devils," the legacy is alive.
And for Hargrove and the silent masses he spoke for when he said he never owned slaves and thereby has no role in slavery's legacy: You still benefit from a system forged during slavery.
So as we confront these circumstances, I urge Virginia lawmakers to move beyond symbolism.
"If you want to put sorrow into action, let's talk about issues affecting black people," said Ted DeLaney, a history professor at Washington and Lee University.
Rather than expend political capital on a symbolic gesture, fight for issues that affect all Virginians but which acutely affect black residents.
Early childhood education. Day care for mothers trying to go to school to become self-sufficient. Recreation programs as a diversion from the criminal justice system. Adequate higher education funding.
Black clergy and NAACP leaders parading to Hargrove's office to demand an apology makes for great television. But it also has the feel of, as Samuelson wrote, "rituals that usually get us nowhere."
Shanna Flowers' column runs Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays.
