Re: Virginia apologizes for slavery... why?
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It's not a matter of choice or culpability. It's matter of unfair advantages and rectifying them. It's saying, "We're sorry we completely [censored] you guys up for many generations. We will try to make sure you have the means to better yourselves."
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But how do you derive the "we" part? Let's say I live in Virginia (I don't): as a Virginian I'm still not part of the "we" in question, because I didn't screw anyone over, much less for generations.
I bear zero responsibility for anything that happened before I was born.
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First of all, that's the not the issue at hand. You didn't apologize, Virgina did. Again, Virginia isn't just "every person in Virgina". It's a state.
Second of all, you can still be sorry. Sort of like I might say "I'm sorry about your loss" when your mom dies even though I didn't kill her.
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Maybe I'm taking words too literally but the poster did say "I'm sorry we completely screwed you over for generations".
If he then goes on to say that that "we" should "make sure that you have the means to better yourselves" that sounds an awful lot like reparations - which, if the state paid for it, would come out of the taxes of the people of the state today and go to the descendants (suppposedly) today so in effect it would be a forced wealth trasfer from some people today to others today. The state wouldn't pay out of its immense coffers of money saved and invested for many decades as would an Exxon Mobil. The state would take from Mr. White today and give to Mr. Black today thereby royally screwing over millions of people who bear absolutely zero responsibility for actions of the long past.
If by "we" he means the state, you must realize that if reparations are made, some independent entity named "the state" isn't going to be stuck with the reparations bill. It will instead be paid for by plain old citizens: who today bear no more responsibility or accountability for the evils of American slavery, than they bear for the slavery that existed 3000 years ago in Egypt.
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