The Garden State Steps Up

My home state of New Jersey apologized for slavery yesterday. I wasn’t going to blog about it until I read what a Republican assemblyman had to say about it according to the Associated Press:

“But this was a sin that was atoned for in blood 150 years ago by the death of 650,000 Americans,” [Richard] Merkt R[epublican]-Morris [County] said, referring to the Civil War.

“America does not and has never accepted the notion of collective guilt,” Merkt said. "We can all, and should all, express profound sorrow about the evils of slavery, but none of us can truly apologize for the institution because neither we nor anyone we represent was in any way responsible for it.”

PLEASE! I’m so tired of that “our ancestors came here after slavery, we have nothing to do with that” mantra, I can’t tell you. TIRED. He couldn’t let his fellow legislators do a good thing, he just couldn’t.

Here’s what I have to say to Assemblyman Merkt and all those other white folks who have the temerity to ask me “haven’t we finished paying the price?”

No.

I wasn’t born here either. I was born in Germany (although, by virtue of the fact that my father was an American citizen when I was born, I was declared an American). My brown infant self came over here in 1962, a little less than 100 years after the Civil War. Yet, as a black person, I could have been subject at any time to racism both overt and subtle, and have been. Not soul-crushing racism, but if could have been demoralizing if my parents hadn’t taught me to believe in myself and ignore racist morons and their ignorant, bottom-dwelling ways. So even though I came here on a boat, I’m still subject to the consequences of being black in America, just like all the white immigrants have had the opportunity of reaping the rewards of the unearned privilege of being white in America. Pure and simple. My mom, who most of you know is white, tells me that other white folks make all kinds of assumptions and say all kinds of things to her they’d never say if my black father had been with her. They think it’s okay to say racist things to her because she’s in the Caucasian Club. It’s not okay with her. Never was, never will be. She came over on the same boat I did. Got that Assemblyman Merkt? My dad was on that boat too. In a uniform.

The resolution said it best, offering an “apology ‘for the wrongs inflicted by slavery and its after effects in the United States of America.’

It states that in New Jersey, ‘the vestiges of slavery are ever before African-American citizens, from the overt racism of hate groups to the subtle racism encountered when requesting health care, transacting business, buying a home, seeking quality public education and college admission, and enduring pretextual traffic stops and other indignities.’”

So thank you. Thank you. It’s officially acknowledged in the state record books. That may seem like just another empty gesture to some, but it means plenty to me. My publisher, colleagues and I spent the better part of nearly a decade trying to get unacknowledged black people, who helped build this country, acknowledged in print.

I might add that New Jersey is the first northern state to do this. If you’d like to read about the history of slavery in New Jersey (although it abolished slavery on a gradual basis beginning in 1804, the state didn’t free its final slaves until 1846) There’s a good summary at the Web site Slavery in the North.