Apologizing for Slavery

(This article has been revised. It was originally posted 6/6/07 6:46 PM)

I originally wrote this article on June 6th, 2007 when the governor of Arkansas expressed doubt that an apology for slavery was needed, and then today on June 19th, 2009, a nearly empty US Senate chamber unanimously apologized to all African Americans on behalf of the people of the United States for slavery and segregation.

In a future article I will address the topic of discrimination, but this article limits the discussion to the question of what is owed to the descendants of slaves solely as a direct result of slavery itself - and not as a result of subsequent injustices, such as Jim Crow laws. I leave open the possibility that subsequent injustices merit reparation and/or apology.

Of course, everyone knows that no one alive today was a slave or a slave owner, and that no one alive today ever knew anyone who was a slave or a slave owner. Nevertheless, I suppose if you buy the tenuous argument that the United States "government of the people" today is the same "government of the people" as in 1792 (even though none of "the people" are the same), then that government should apologize to those people who were slaves. Note that such an argument would not merit an apology to any individuals who are the descendants of slaves nor would merit an apology by the descendants of slaves owners. Only that government would be apologizing and only to those individuals who actually were slaves.

Certainly an apology now will in no way benefit those individuals who were slaves.

Some have argued that the government, or the descendants of slaves owners, or all white people … owe something more than an apology to the descendants of slaves - specifically as a result of slavery.

Given that slave labor created wealth – all of which was stolen by slave owners, I would argue that the slave owners owed all of that wealth to the slaves and their descendants; however, consider that all of that wealth has long since been spent, lost, or wasted, but more importantly, that America paid a huge price to free the slaves that was greater than all the wealth created by slave labor. Therefore, tenuous arguments trying to trace present wealth to slave labor are pointless because America has no net wealth created by slaves that survived the Civil War.

Let us never forget the true cost to free the slaves. 650,000 Americans died. The economies of the North and the South were diverted to war mobilization, and the cities, infrastructure, and wealth of the Confederate nation were destroyed. To add insult to injury, some slaves actually fought for the South! Did I mention that many of those 650,000 Americans died to free those slaves? Why didn't the slaves ever flee or rebel in numbers approaching every other time and place where humans were enslaved?

So given that there is no wealth (created by slave labor) to distribute to the descendants of slaves, the only remaining question of what is owed to their descendants (solely because of slavery) is determined by whether their descendants have experienced a net loss as a result of the enslavement of their ancestors - by whether they would rather be Africans or Americans today.

If any descendants of slaves genuinely believed that the enslavement of their ancestors was a net loss for themselves, then they would have moved to Africa – but they have not. They much prefer to be in America. In fact, the people of Africa and every other land have been trying desperately to come here for a long time, but the descendants of slaves are already here.

Clearly, those who have profited most from slavery in America are the descendants of slaves themselves.

On the other hand, some claim that the reason the descendants of American slavery prefer to stay in America is because American and European slavery set Africa back hundreds of years by removing a significant percentage of its healthy young people from about 1700 to 1820, and that without this loss, Africa would be as advanced as any nation on earth today. Of course, we know this claim is baseless because African cultures never embraced democracy and free markets; whereas, countries like Japan went from losing a war to becoming rich nations in less than 50 years after changing their culture to embrace the American and European concepts of democracy and free markets.

On a related note, consider that the traditional African cultures embraced superstition rather than science, democracy, and free markets, and that the slaves brought this culture to America with them and passed it down to their children. If any traces of these elements of traditional African culture exist in the African American population today, then the impact will be to reduce the success of African Americans. Now let’s get back to the impact of slavery.

Even if slavery had never existed in America or European colonies, then Africa would still be far less advanced than America today because no African cultures ever embraced the American and European values of democracy and free markets. Clearly, any lingering impact of American and European slavery on Africa today is thus so minimal that it should be a non-issue.

As for myself, I understand the reality that the atrocities committed against my Scottish, Irish, and Native American ancestors simply cannot hurt me unless I decide that it does.

However, past slavery is a big emotional issue solely as a result of divisive politicians, and as usual, the key to our freedom is a big dose of reality. The reality is that maybe a third of Africans were enslaved (or indentured) by other Africans for centuries before America existed. These African slave owners sold many of their slaves, thus making slavery possible in America. In fact, Africans continued to enslave millions of other Africans well into the 20^th century – long after slavery ended in America.

We no longer recognize these rather simple truths because political leaders have made a career trying to divide us against each other – telling us that we owe each other – that we have wronged each other – that they will make things better.

Even those few who understand that modern unhealthy and divisive feelings about slavery have been manufactured by what is essentially a political PR campaign, often fail to acknowledge that these feelings are nevertheless real, and thus an apology has a real effect to sooth real feelings of hurt. However, in addition to soothing feelings, an apology would make the politicians and media stronger, and they would only use that strength to create more divisiveness.

What about racism today? Consider that America is not only the first Western democracy to elect a black president, but also America has been ready and eager to elect a black president for the last 20 years, and for at least 30 years, anyone in America could easily become financially successful (upper middle class).

So how is it that America is becoming even more divisive?

The real problem – the reality – is that politicians use, exacerbate, and even fabricate divisive issues in order to get more power – supposedly to resolve those issues. Of course, why would politicians ever let a divisive issue (real or imagined) be resolved? That is how they get more power. Why would they kill the goose that laid the golden egg? Machiavelli figured this out hundreds of years ago, and I'll bet he wasn't the first.

I know that the freed slaves were very thankful for the price America paid to free them, but somehow their descendants are less thankful. I don't see how the descendants of slaves can fully heal until they are thankful for the price America paid to fee their ancestors, and I don't see how white people can fully heal until the political left stops making frivolous accusations of racism, but none of this healing will ever happen as long as we continue to place our faith in politicians and the media.

Consider that in 2004 Obama wrote, "I fear that reparations would be an excuse for some to say we've paid our debt and then avoid the much harder work."

Given that Obama thinks reparations aren’t nearly enough, Obama thus has the most radical and extremist position on reparations I have heard from any public figure, but more importantly, Obama’s is thus a slave to feelings that are negative, unhealthy, and un-American.

Most of us are thus prisoners in our own minds - luxuriating in our negative feelings while simultaneously paralyzed by fear - holding us from back from our true potential. The reality is that our prison is purely the creation of some political elites. We are in fact free - as soon as we decide to be.

The Promise of Reality is Freedom.