Virginia apologizes for slavery... why?

[pvn]

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Who's "we"? In order to "give them several sizable states" the party doing the giving would need to own those several sizable states, don't you agree?

If you want to give a native american your house and property, nobody will stop you.


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Oh, I think we could work it out. Surely you must agree we owe the American Indian much more than we've given. We committed genocide, and to make up for it gave them some little reservations and shacks to live in. Then we again took away even those reservations when we deemed it to our benefit to construct dams or what have you.

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I don't know if "we" can work it out if you can't even tell me who "We" is. *I* didn't commit genocide. I didn't give anyone a reservation or a shack. I didn't take even that away. I didn't build a dam.

How many of those acts did you participate in?

[pvn]

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To John K., pvn, etc.,

I'm sure we could go back and forth for a few weeks, maybe more. I think I see your view clearly enough now that I'll stop here. There's nothing more to be gained.

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Still wondering who "we" is, and how many indians you personally killed.

[ShakeZula06]

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No American Indian today is any more trapped in poverty than any white person born today into equally poor circumstances.

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No one is sayng that. However, because of the American Government's acts Native Americans are more likely to be trapped in poverty or in poor circumstances.

[elwoodblues]

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"Virginia" didn't play any part in the slave trade. People did. Those people are dead. The people that are living today did not play any part in it. The people who apologized apologized for someone else's actions.

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This is one of the most disingenuous arguments coming from someone who constantly rails against the government. You can't have it both ways...either the government/state is a unique entity that can do both good and bad things or it isn't.

The US isn't taxing you...individual people are. The state US didn't invade Iraq...individual people did. Virginia didn't do anything wrong in the slave trade...individual people did. The Virginia/"the government"/ABC corporation are all (appropriately so) treated as "people" albeit in a slightly different way...they are people whose life can theoretically last in perpetuity.

[AzDesertRat]

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No American Indian today is any more trapped in poverty than any white person born today into equally poor circumstances.

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No one is sayng that. However, because of the American Government's acts Native Americans are more likely to be trapped in poverty or in poor circumstances.

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It doesn't help that the BIA is one of the most mismanaged departments in the federal government--a full blown audit has been attempted several times and it is estimated this agency has $100 billion unaccounted for since the turn of the 20th century.

Now you know why they are building casinos--they aren't getting jack from the government.

[xorbie]

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How does "Virgina" apologize? Did "Virginia" pick up the phone and call "Black People" up and say "Oh, sorry bout that, mmmkay?"

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Before I answer your completely inane question, I'll ask you this. How did Virginia apologize?

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That's exactly what I just asked you.

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Did every single person in Virginia stand up and apologize all at once?

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Well, if that happened, that would be "every person in Virginia apologizing," not "Virginia apologizing."

So are you going to answer the question now?

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I am quite aware that I asked you the same question you posed to me. My point is that for the elected officials of Virginia to stand up and say "we apologize for what the state of Virginia did" is fairly clearly what is meant here. I don't know why everyone seems to want to read more than that into this.

[xorbie]

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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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Since when is life supposed to be fair?

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Since enough people said so.

[xorbie]

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Your calling me racist !!!!! For what.

affirmative action is a reality. Your calling me a racist because I'm stating a fact. WTF is with that.

Rocky Balboa said it best. "The world does not owe anyone anything"

Screw giving someone money 150 years later. If a person who has ancestors who were slaves let them get revenge by burning down the houses of the former slave owners familys but stay away from my tax dollars.

I want my taxes going to build weapons of mass destruction not to people who don't want to get off the couch.

Racist I think not.

It's funny how even bringing up a subject like AA which is so REVERSE discriminatory. Get's someone called a racist.

WTF happened to america. You open your mouth and your a racist .....unless I agree with YOUR point of view.

And please don't come back at me with how LOGICAL your argument is I don't spell check I don't care if my punctuation is good or not.

Or if you do want a Logic contest here's one for you.

What's logical about hiring someone who's not qualified for a job. Period.... give me some logic behind this.

I will insta join your cause if you can do this.

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First of all I didn't call you racist, I said what you were saying was fairly racist. Which it is, and I won't apologize for saying so. Frankly all this "anti PC" stuff is a lot more popular with people than PC can ever hope to be, so I'm not exactly impressed with your claims to martydom here.

Second of all, I didn't say anything about reparations (which I do not support as such). I didn't say anything about affirmative action (most manifestations of which I do not support). I'm saying that an apology is quite fitting. Stop complaining about how opressed white people are for a bit and just try to appreciate the situation for what it is.

[Money2Burn]

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This session will be remembered for a lot of things, but 20 years hence I suspect one of those things will be the fact that we came together and passed this resolution," said Delegate A. Donald McEachin, a Democrat who sponsored it in the House of Delegates.

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This is hilarious. They are patting themselves on the back for what? They have done NOTHING. Oh sure it's a nice gesture it sounds good and I'm sure a great many Virginian politicians will spin clever slogans showing how much they "care about the plight of African Americans". It's all a load of BS.

[Money2Burn]

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...to express "profound regret" for the state's role in slavery.


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It's not like we invented slavery. Slavery existed for thousands of years before our country was founded. Once we decided that it was wrong it was abolished. Sure the South fought hard to keep it, but that was becuase their entire economy was built on it. In my opinion the more deplorable part of our history was the period of segregation trumped only by our treatment of native americans.