CHARLOTTESVILLE, Virginia (AP) -- The University of Virginia's board marked founder Thomas Jefferson's birthday with an apology for the school's use of slave labor between 1819 and 1865.
The school was built 180 years ago, and now the school apologizes for having been built by slaves?
Slavery was legally and socially acceptable then. It's not now, a fact for which I'm grateful, but I'm consistently struck by the liberals' hypocrisy on this matter. After all, aren't all cultures equally valid? Heck, today's liberals value cultures that practice misogyny, kill homosexuals, destroy the planet by providing global-warming-inducing fossil fuels like petroleum, and in some cases still practice slavery, but liberals howl like stuck pigs about something done 180 years ago.
Let's not forget, this country fought a long and bloody war over the issue of slavery. Our debt is paid. We mustn't forget the blot on our national character, but we must not practice a belief in original sin, either. No one alive today had anything to do with building that university, and no one alive today owned slaves, so the apology is meaningless.
What good came from that announcement? Who was helped by it? Whose life is better because of it? What is accomplished except the furthering of a culture of victimhood by people who aren't victims?
My last question identified the harm. My comment about original sin--blaming the children for the sins of the fathers--identified the harm. Who was helped, 180 years later?
5 comments:
This is just another example of the self-hating liberal culture. How does apologizing for something you had nothing to do with have any meaning whatsoever to anyone. Your original sin statement is right on the money. There are those among us who blame America for every ill all over the world. They are riddled with guilt for living in America in relative wealth while some in the world aren't so lucky. Go do some charity work to assuage your guilt, but leave me out of it. I wasn't born when slavery was legal and I abhor the thought of it. However, I can not apologize for it because I didn't do it. Unless of course the fact that I am of European descent makes me somehow culpable. Back to your original sin statement. As you said victims love victimhood status. It gives them a lot of cover.
My Texas high school has recently had a "cultural heritage" festival, where kids could pay a few bucks and get out of classes for several hours to watch what amounts to presentations of "ain't Hispanic culture swell" cheerleading. My gripe isn't against anyone being appreciative of their culture. My gripe is against anything that takes kids out of my class. I'd be upset if they left for a "middle aged, advantaged, white male heritage" festival. But hey, our school really sent a message of cultural appreciation and inclusion. Sigh.
Just like those apologizing for slavery, too many are interested only in making statements, sending messages, or expressing solidarity. When are my people, the Irish, going to get the apologies they're due for the poor treatment many Irish immigrants received?
If you want to send a message or make a statement, take out an ad in the New York Times. They're all about that over there.
This is entirely in character.
Liberal express their generosity with other people's money. Liberal resistance to tyranny incurs no risk. Liberal apologies are on behalf of people other then themselves.
Same old, same old.
It made the liberals feel better about themselves. That was the point. Why do you think they buy carbon offsets? You don't really think they're stupid enough to believe that they're doing anything, do you?
Feel good, feel good, feel good.
Islamic societies--such as Iran, perhaps.
I've never practiced slavery, so I see no reason to apologize. Those who did practice slavery were beaten in a war by people who didn't. Again, the slavery debt is paid.
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