Our Tragic Past?
July 30th, 2008 at 02:24am Mark Noonan
So says Obama:
Sen. Barack Obama, speaking to a gathering of minority journalists yesterday, stopped short of endorsing an official U.S. apology to American Indians but said the country should acknowledge its history of poor treatment of certain ethnic groups.
“There’s no doubt that when it comes to our treatment of Native Americans as well as other persons of color in this country, we’ve got some very sad and difficult things to account for,” Obama told hundreds of attendees of UNITY ‘08, a convention of four minority journalism associations.
The Hawaii-born senator, who has told local reporters that he supports the federal recognition bill for native Hawaiians drafted by U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka, noted other ethnic groups but did not mention native Hawaiians when answering a question about his thoughts on a formal U.S. apology to American Indians.
“I personally would want to see our tragic history, or the tragic elements of our history, acknowledged,” the Democratic presidential hopeful said.
“I consistently believe that when it comes to whether it’s Native Americans or African-American issues or reparations, the most important thing for the U.S. government to do is not just offer words, but offer deeds.”
That, by the way, comes pretty close to Obama endorsing the monunentally unjust idea of reparations for slavery. Outside of that, I’d like to find a day over the past 30 years when we weren’t noting the tragic elements of our past…and counter that its time we started concentrating on the glorious aspects of our past. To be forever digging up the ghosts of slavery, Jim Crow and Wounded Knee does no one any good - it doesn’t help those who were treated unjustly (they are all dead), it doesn’t harm those who carried out the injustices (they are, also, all dead) and it makes it harder for us to reconcile in the modern world and, like the Seneca at Appomattox, say “we are all Americans here.”
Entry Filed under: Campaign 2008, Democrats
5 Comments
1. The New Conservative | July 30th, 2008 at 2:46 am
I’ve always said the Indians should be the one’s complaining their still living on those Reservations.
http://www.thenewconservatives.blogspot.com/
2. Rana Quijotesca | July 30th, 2008 at 3:48 am
I’d say we do a pretty good job of recognizing both the good and bad in our past in this country, and it does us no good to brush over either.
As the descendant of Irish Immigrants (potato famine) and Eastern European Jewish Immigrants (19-teens), I have a little bit of a personal connection to some of the sins of our past (antisemitism, anti-Irish, and anti-immigrant sentiments in particular). My family succeeded and prospered in spite of this–though I don’t think it quite amounts to slavery in the slightest.
However, in terms of policy, I don’t mind symbolic “I’m sorry” bills in the Congress, but legislation that singles out ethnic groups just prolongs the problems that our country has with race by breeding resentment among other groups and assuming that some groups need more “help” than others.
Yes, it is important to recognize the problems of our past, but it is just bad policy to give one ethnic group a leg-up over any other, regardless of what we did to their ancestors.
3. Magnum Serpentine | July 30th, 2008 at 11:22 am
Mark,
How do you feel about returning First Nations land to them, that was taken illegally or through less than legal means and by trickery? Other land was taken by treaty but then the United States broke the treaty. Some land was stolen with the blessing of the US Government
some may say those the land was taken from are dead or that it doesn’t matter any more, but their children still live and are still very bitter over loosing their land and it does indeed matter to them. There are still many hurt feelings with-in the First Nations community.
I feel something needs to be done to correct this wrong.
4. phnx | July 30th, 2008 at 12:50 pm
Each of the candidates should be asked what their position is on reparation payments to African Americans and to Native Americas. Once the public finds out that Obama supports these measures…game over. Most americans are sick and tired of this topic and are in no mood to endorse this blatant transfer of wealth.
5. Thornsnail | July 30th, 2008 at 3:40 pm
My family was not here prior to 1895, we were dirt poor Irish & Norwegian Swedes and according to the present legal system I do not have to pay for the sins of the father. I am so damned sick of this reparations crap that I want to put them all on a reservation, in China. Enjoy.