Legacy of slavery not something we can just “get over!”

by Mikel Kwaku Osei Holt

“Get over it!”

That’s what Virginia State Delegate Frank Hargrove told Black state lawmakers who were proposing an official apology from the state for its role in the slave trade.

Hargrove noted that no one currently in the house played a role in that horrific system and thus it was disingenuous for Virginia to issue a public apology to the descendents of slaves.

In Hargrove’s distorted worldview, an apology is nothing more than modern day ‘political collectiveness’ run amuck. “Maybe the Jews should apologize for (killing) Jesus,” he said, adding blasphemy to his racist mantra.

So, he said to Black America, as far as slavery is concerned, it’s time for “you (people) to get over it.”

Get over it, as in shut up and go sit in the corner. As in, ‘no one in present day Virginia had anything to do with slavery, and no one today is being forced to plant tobacco and cotton. So, get over it.’

I guess given enough time for a few more sound bites, the 80-year-old descendent of ‘property owners’ probably would have added that Black Americans should get over the failed Reconstruction experiment as well. And since we’re being told to be in a forgiving mood, we should also get over Jim Crow, being denied the vote, and thousands of lynchings.

Get over being denied the right to sit at the same lunch counter as White patrons, drinking from the “colored” water fountain and being forced to sit in the balcony at the movie theater and in segregated seats at the Baptist, Methodist and Lutheran Churches.

Get over being restricted to the back of the bus, train and horse drawn wagon or buggy. Get over separate and unequal housing, education and lending.

Get over housing covenants that stopped Black Americans from living in better neighborhoods. Get over racial profiling. Get over mortgage rejection rates, disproportionate incarceration rates, substandard educational opportunities.

Yeah, get over slavery, racism, apartheid and all of the other remnants of slavery.

Actually, I’m not among those who view the proposed apology as anything more than a symbolic exercise in feel good politics. I would feel better if they named the street in front of the Virginia capitol after John Brown, or the descendent of Thomas Jefferson who finally acknowledged that he truly was the “father of our colored country.”

But in all seriousness, I recognize that no politicians representing the Confederate states today is old enough to have participated in that “peculiar institution”' And I take for granted that most who would participate in the symbolic exercise today probably wouldn’t fully embrace their action with sincerity or even as a true admission of wrongdoing by their political, civic and religious ancestors 150 years ago.

Yet, if my history serves me correctly, Virginia was also the birthplace of America’s independence, and the native soil of the Founding Fathers, most of whom were slave owners themselves.

As such, they were directly or indirectly involved in one of the most inhumane practices known to mankind, a system that legalized the murder, torture and rape of Africans who they viewed as subhuman (including Jefferson). Virginia was also home to guiding principles that later set up legal barriers to an integrated society, and established what by all definitions is a system of apartheid that continues to this day.

Yeah, so while I understand that no present day delegate to the Virginia house can be held legally responsible for Virginia’s crimes against humanity, there is an issue of morality and justice that dictates a response that will lead to the healing of America. (It also ticks me off that some would fight so vigorously to derail a simple admission of past wrongdoing by their ancestors; a simple gesture that by itself won’t alter many hearts, much less tear down any walls.)

An apology is only a few words, they could even hum it if they are short of breath from smoking all that tobacco. What’s so hard about that? The Germans apologized to the Jews; America apologized to the Japanese Americans after interning them during WWII. So, what’s the big deal?

Apologies can be good for the soul. Plus, as someone once said, you can’t really begin the healing process until you diagnose the underlying illness. The state of Virginia has never done that. But it’s not alone; there are 49 other states that owe us...

But, that’s too much like right. An apology, in the minds of the protagonists would be an admission of guilt. Thus, it is far better that they just flip the script and tell us to “get over it.”

And that’s not a line of thinking restricted solely to Virginians. I would tend to believe most White Americans feel the same way. Not that the Jews should forget the holocaust. But Black and Native Americans should forget ours? Native Americans should forget that the ancestors of Americans in the north, south, east and west, used a concept called Manifest Destiny to undertake a century of genocide against Native Americans? They made the American Indian out to be the “savages,” which opened the door for the “civilized Christians” to steal their land, murder man, woman and child, and finally force them on reservations where most starved or died of disease.

And those acts of genocide were not restricted to the so-called west, as we were taught by the propaganda cowboy movies. Next time you drive down Atkinson Avenue, think about this little history note: The street is named after a famous Wisconsin army general whose claim to fame was slaughtering the Potawatomi. During one engagement, General Atkinson reportedly ordered his men to rip the babies out of pregnant Native American women, and to have the horse soldiers’ use their steeds to stomp on the heads of Indian infants.

Yeah, tell the Potawatomi to “get over it.”

I listened to part of Jeff Wagner’s talk show Monday when he posed the question of whether the Virginia legislation was worthy of consideration. Was Hargrove right in his call to “get over it?” The only person to call in with support for the resolution was a Black man. Every White caller found fault with the proposal, and most echoed Hargrove’s sentiment for Black people to “get over it.”

Sadly, I wasn’t surprised.

On the flip side, White Americans take comfort in realizing that people of African decent (or most of us) are spiritually connected, and take our religions seriously. Thus, we’re the most forgiving people on the planet. We actually try living the example of Jesus. We’ve been socialized to turn the other cheek, and to forgive our transgressors. All you need do is apologize, to make even a half-hearted attempt at reconciliation, and we’re butter in your hands!

But, if you’re unwilling to do that...well, we can seek redress through some other means. Such as a financial payout. One of the lost gospels says something to the effect that “if the transgressor isn’t willing to utter a few words, hit them where it hurts the most, in the pocketbook.” There’s a difference between prayers, and being preyed upon, you know.

A case in point is illuminated by the recent actions Mark Bratton, the Milwaukee brother who was accosted by two Whites while fishing in Waukesha County two years ago.

One of the “upstanding citizens” of the area, Mark Weber, confronted Bratton and his family with a gun after ordering them to leave the area. He threw in a few racist epithets to make his point.

Fellow racist and North Lake Fire Chief Terrence Stapleton, who said something about Black folks being afraid of dogs before ordering his hound to attack the family, joined Weber.

Fortunately, several true Christian White folks saw and reported the incident.

Because of the epithets, both men were charged with hate crime enhancers. Last month, Stapleton was sentenced to 12 months probation and 100 hours of community service, which some say he will serve at a Milwaukee social service agency.

Weber was sentenced earlier this week.

Bratton appeared at his sentencing hearing, and asked for leniency. The two men (make that one and half) had met earlier face to face to discuss the incident, during which Weber apologized.

Judge Lee Dreyfus Jr. (who I believe is the son of the former governor who, while chancellor of a UW campus, made a quasi racist statement during a Black student protest back in the ’70s) took the apology into consideration and gave Weber a 30-day sentence. Bratton said Weber was a changed man. (I’ll believe that when I see him sitting across from me at church Sunday with a Black date.)

By the way, Bratton reportedly has received a monetary settlement. Redemption always comes easier with a few bucks of sincerity.

As a matter of fact, that’s what’s missing from the Virginia apology. For me, it would go down easier if Virginia, and all of the southern states, kicked in some reparations. Then I wouldn’t care if the apology were sincere or not.

Of course, you can make a case as Hargrove did that the current population had nothing to do with slavery. But you can make a stronger case that the descendents of slave owners--and southern Whites in general--have benefited from the blood, sweat and tears of our ancestors. I can also make a case that we’re still in chains, psychological bondage, while standing under the cloud of slavery, which is manifest in the system of apartheid that replaced that “peculiar institution,” as they called it.

So apologize, and then send me a check. Or cash will do. You know, that green stuff with pictures of dead presidents who held my ancestors in bondage on it.

Hotep.