An apology for slavery doesn't quite cut it

BlackonomicsAre Black folks special or what? The U.S. Senate, and maybe soon to be followed by the U.S. House of Representatives, issued an apology for the enslavement of Black people in this country.

How cool is that? After a couple of centuries of being enslaved and 145 years after we were so-called "freed," we finally get a formal apology. Despite Congressman Thaddeus Stevens' 1867 resolution for reparations to Africans in America, we have finally reached the pinnacle of respect: An apology.

The timing of this apology is obviously suspect. It comes at a time in our history when we are constantly being made to believe that everything is fair now, that relationships between the races have reached the ideal point of "equality," and Black people have nothing more to complain about when it comes to our progress in this nation. After all, we have Black president.

In my opinion, apologies are highly overrated, especially those given to Black people for slavery. Here's why: Jews got apologies and reparations. Japanese got apologies and reparations. Native Americans got apologies and reparations. And now, Filipino veterans are scheduled to get "reparations" from the Stimulus Package to the tune of $15,000 for residents of the U.S. and $9,000 for non-residents.

Want a parallel? Check this out: Speaking on behalf of the stimulus for Filipino soldiers, Senator Daniel Inouye said, "It's a matter of honor and the good name of the United States." He noted that in 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt promised the benefits, but Congress reneged on the pledge in 1946.

That sounds similar to General William Sherman's field orders that called for 40 acres of land to be given to formerly enslaved Africans, which was revoked by President Andrew Johnson. That was in 1865.

Want a more recent example? In 1921, after the destruction of Black Wall Street in the Greenwood District of Tulsa, Okla., the president of the local Chamber of Commerce released a statement to the press that contained the following:

"The deplorable event is the greatest wound Tulsa's civic pride has ever received . Leading businessmen are in an hourly conference and a movement is now being organized . to formulate a plan of 'reparation' in order that homes may be rebuild (sic) and families as nearly as possible rehabilitated."

Nice words, but it never happened, folks. The latest case taken to the U.S. Supreme Court for reparations for the survivors of the Tulsa Riot, petitioned by Professor Charles Ogletree and his team of lawyers, was turned down by the court. Everybody else gets reparations; Black folks get apologies. They get substance; we get symbolism.

Suggestion to the U.S. Senate: Don't stop with an apology; that does absolutely nothing, in and of itself, for the economic empowerment of Black people. If you ask me, it is insulting.

With all of the precedents for reparations for people who were abused in some form or fashion, not only should an apology have been issued long ago, somebody should have picked up where the U.S. Congress, during Stevens' time, left off. Imagine how things would be for Black people now if someone with a backbone, someone with a conscience, someone with a moral and ethical foundation, would have insisted and acted upon the appropriate response to the aftermath of slavery.

It would have been great if someone would have just paid Black people, given them some land and then followed Frederick Douglass' advice when he responded to the lingering question of his time: What to do with the Negro. Douglass simply said, "Do nothing with us."

He intimated that Black people, without interference, terrorism, racist laws and Black codes, and equal opportunity, would be all right; we would economically empower ourselves by supporting one another and advancing in our individual fields of endeavor.

We demonstrated that acumen in Tulsa on Black Wall Street, but angry White folks burned it down.

Douglass was really on to something, but even after 250 years of enslavement, Black folks still suffered under the latest racist act du jour, whether it was in the form of negative public policy, private sector exclusion, Klan nightriders, voter intimidation, criminal injustice, prejudice, and discrimination.

After all of the trauma, the torture, the maiming, the lynching, the racism, and exclusion, don't you think a mere apology to Black people is way too little and much too late, that is, unless that apology is followed by some form of reparations?

Get a clue, U.S. Senate. And you too, House of Representatives. You can keep your apology. Where do we sign up for our 40 acres?