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Highlands Today

Give Obama His Due For Denouncing Reparations

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 3, 2008

Whatever his motives, and plenty of people will speculate on that, Sen. Barack Obama made a gutsy and appropriate move when he told an audience in Springfield, Ill., that he opposes slavery reparations and even apologies for the darkest corners of our nation's history. He'll be lambasted by all sides for saying it, of times, but we give him credit for putting it out there.

Obama has made these statements for some time. He mentioned it on an NAACP questionnaire in 2004 as well. He's made it since then. He's also said apologies are nice, but don't do anything to change a thing. But it's become big news this week.

Obama understands that slavery reparations and apologies mean nothing so many generations after the abomination that was slavery was abolished. If anyone should apologize, it should have been slaveholders and the people in power who allowed it to happen. And if reparations should have been made, they should have been paid to slaves following the Civil War.

There's no discounting what 400 years of oppression did to African Americans and the attempted extermination of Native Americans. In every culture, in every race, in almost every century of our human existence, there has been oppression of one kind or another. It's a sad fact of human nature. Hopefully we're beyond that, but requiring people who had nothing to do with such crimes against humanity pay for them or feel guilt because they happened is nonsensical and unfair.

A group of U.S. congressmen and women have discussed apologies for slavery and the treatment of Native Americans. Groups have formed promoting these causes. It's not a new issue but it just won't go away.

Obama said lifting all Americans who struggle - black, white, Indian or whatever - should be the goal we set for the future. A payout of some kind, or a hollow apology from legislators and members of Congress for crimes committed long ago, serves no one.

We can now brace for the people who dislike Obama to claim this is a political ploy. And we can prepare for those who support reparations to say he's only doing it to gain white voter support. There's no stopping this criticism, so it just doesn't matter. All we can do is either accept what he said - or not.

We choose to praise him for taking this stand, regardless of whether he should be our next president. If only others would take such bold stands on these lingering issues, we would be better off in the long run.

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