Truemors
Many people view the Congressional apology on July 29 for slavery and Jim Crow-era segregation with some reserve. The House’s apology was met with mixed reviews from the black community. Whereas many feel a sense of relief that Congress formally acknowledged the wrongs done against African Americans and their ancestors, the Congressional apology is viewed by others as being too little, too late. In fact, numerous people like J. Whyatt Mondesire, president of the Philadelphia Chapter of the NAACP, regard the apology as a mere publicity stunt.
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The apology invigorated discussion regarding reparations to African Americans for centuries of government-sanctioned slavery and discrimination, comparing the Congressional apology unfavorably to the reparations paid to Japanese Americans who were interned in U.S. concentration camps during WWII.
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Democracy Now
February 18, 1999
http://www.democracynow.org/1999/2/18/wwii_reparations_japanese_american_internees
WWII REPARATIONS: JAPANESE-AMERICAN INTERNEES
The Justice Department closed the books this week on a $1.6 billion reparations program for ethnic Japanese interned in American camps during World War II, and will settle with 181 ethnic Japanese from Latin America who suffered similar treatment. *******************
As a Christian, I would like to believe that Congress is sorry for the centuries my ancestors were enslaved and decades of Jim Crow discrimination. The Bible implores us to be ever willing to forgive and forget past wrongs. But what are African Americans to believe about Congress’s apology when it was given in the face of continuous and ongoing discriminatory practices in the government that still negatively impact the lives of many people?
Thus far, 2008 has probably been the worse year for incidents of police brutality in recent history, but officers are seldom punished for beating or killing black citizens. Prison statistics indicate that one out of nine black men between the ages of 20 and 34 are incarcerated today.* Many hold that the disproportionate incarceration rate of African Americans is due in large part to discriminatory sentencing laws, profiling of African Americans, and inadequate legal representation resulting from poverty that is a lasting result of slavery and Jim Crow. African Americans account for approximately 13% of the country’s population according to 2000 U.S. Census, but about 41% of death row inmates.
Of course, one cannot look into the heart of another and determine whether an apology is issued in good faith. All I really know is that mine is the only American family in the 21st Century to have a member secretly arrested and returned to his family as a corpse with no explanation, apology, excuse, full autopsy report, arrest records, and denied any investigation.* I can only assume that my poor brother’s citizenship rights are dishonored because he was Negro. Apparently, my disabled brother was deemed undeserving of the “right to life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness” protection that resounds throughout our nation’s treasured documents, from the Declaration of Independence to the Bill of Rights. The right to life is held as being an inalienable right for all citizens. Most families expect and receive some accountability for lives cut short. Search as you will, and you will not find exclusion for Larry Neal in those sacred national documents, or for any of the other African Americans who died this century under mysterious circumstances involving police.
According to Wikipedia, an alternative phrase "life, liberty and property,” is found in the Declaration of Colonial Rights, a resolution of the First Continental Congress. Other countries, like Japan and the Republic of Vietnam, have emulated America’s protections for citizens by including that wording in their constitutional documents. Similar phraseology is in France’s guarantee to citizens, "liberté, égalité, fraternité" (liberty, equality, fraternity), and Canada’s “peace, order, and good government.” It is interesting to note that Article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights reads, "Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person."***
In view of the fact that Larry Neal has been dead five years and a week and my family is yet denied any accountability, and in the face of other current civil rights violations against African Americans that are unsatisfactorily resolved, I cannot say that I believe in the sincerity of Congress’s apology. I am sorry for that. Perhaps until the civil rights of all Americans are really protected, it would have been better for Congress to remain mute on the issues of slavery and descrimination against black citizens, just as the U.S. Senate and White House did.
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References: * OpEdNews Front Page Article (8/2-3/08): Larry Neal’s Secret Incarceration and Wrongful Death Cover-up
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Mentally-Ill-Patient-s-Sec-by-Mary-Neal-080802-527.html Wrongful Death of Larry Neal Website
http://wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com ** National News Article: America’s New Slavery: Black Men in Prison
http://www.blackpressusa.com/news/Article.asp?SID=3&Title=National+News&NewsID=15529 *** Wikipedia Encyclopedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life,_liberty_and_the_pursuit_of_happiness *******************
Thus saith the LORD, Keep ye judgment, and do justice: for my salvation is near to come, and my righteousness to be revealed. Isaiah 56:1
Mary Neal
Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill
Website: http://wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com
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