Commentary 9- NJ Apology

Slavery: Is it time for New Jersey to apologize?

Posted by Kelly Heyboer January 03, 2008 5:30PM


If an apology comes 161 years late, does it still count?

That's the question lawmakers will be asking in Trenton today as an Assembly committee begins debating a measure that would make New Jersey the fifth state in the nation to apologize for slavery.

Assemblyman William Payne (D-Essex) is sponsoring the bill to make New Jersey the first northern state to express official remorse for allowing residents to own slaves. The measure calls only for an apology and does not advocate paying reparations to the descendants of former slaves.

"All that is being requested of New Jersey is to say three simple words: We are sorry," Payne said.


My Commentary:


Inappropriate? Alert us. Post a commentPosted by Zemack on 01/03/08 at 8:40PM
The bill before the New Jersey legislature to officially apologize, on behalf of the state, for slavery practiced in the 19th century is being billed as a step toward rectifying the lingering injustice of racism. Racism, it is said, is a remnant of the enslavement of blacks in the early years of America. It is said that by apologizing for whatever part early New Jersey residents played in regards to slavery, a step will have been taken toward ending this vestige of slavery. But this apology bill will do no such thing. In fact, it will only reinforce whatever racism exists in the minds of people.

This is because racism is not rooted in slavery. Slavery and racism, in fact, are two separate and distinct evils, although they share the same philosophical base... collectivism. While American slavery may have had racist overtones, it must be remembered that America, at its founding, inherited slavery, which had been practiced for thousands of years. One of the greatest contemporary historians, Thomas Sowell, said of slavery:

"Slavery existed all over this planet, among people of every color, religion and nationality....[A]nyone familiar with the history of slavery around the world knows that its origins go back thousands of years and that slaves and slaveowners were very often of the same race...Whites enslaved other whites in Europe for centuries before the first black slave was brought to the Western Hemisphere; moreover, Asians enslaved other Asians, Africans enslaved other Africans, and the native peoples of the Western Hemisphere enslaved other native peoples of the Western Hemisphere...[and] Thousands of free blacks owned slaves in the antebellum South." (These quotes were taken from two articles written by Mr. Sowell and published in the New York Post some years ago, although regrettably I don't have the dates.)

Racism, on the other hand, is a mindset that views other people not as individuals but as subordinate members of a group. 20th century philosopher Ayn Rand, the greatest defender of individualism, defines racism as follows:

"Racism is the lowest, most crudely primitive form of collectivism. It is the notion of ascribing moral, social or political significance to a man's genetic lineage--the notion that a man's intellectual and characterological traits are produced and transmitted by his internal body chemistry. Which means, in practice, that a man is to be judged, not by his own character and actions, but by the characters and actions of a collective of ancestors.... [R]acism invalidates the specific attribute which distinguishes man from all other living species: his rational faculty." (From her essay "Racism" in the book Return of the Primitive)

What racism and slavery have in common is that they are both rooted in collectivism. Collectivism is the philosophical doctrine, which holds that the individual has no value and that the standard of value in human affairs is the group to which he "belongs". The common traits that tie him to the collective (the tribe) may be nationality, religious belief, race, social or economic status, etc. When members of one group or collective take slaves from another, it is collectivism at work. The tribal warfare that goes on generation after generation in various parts of the world is collectivism in action...with the warring groups holding each other responsible for wrongs perpetrated centuries ago regardless of the fact that the individuals comprising these groups had nothing to do with the ancient events. The individual is held responsible simply by sharing certain characteristics of the group.

The logic behind the official apology being contemplated by the NJ legislature is derived from the same collectivist doctrine as racism and the institution of slavery. While it is being billed as an official act of the state, the implication is that the current residents are held to be guilty of the wrongs of their predecessors some 200 years ago, simply because of the color of their skin and their current residency. This implication is unavoidable since the NJ State officials who sanctioned the slave institution were elected by and acted in the name of the people of New Jersey.

If New Jersey adopts this bill, which is likely a precursor to the adoption of the even more evil "slave reparations", it would officially be adopting the same essential philosophical premises of slavery and racism. (Slave reparations would compel innocent people to make financial "restitution" to modern day profiteers on the injustice of past slavery, which would itself be a new type of slavery.)

The best thing any New Jersey resident, or any American, can do in protest against the evil of slavery is to do as I have done. Reject collectivism and adopt individualism as a moral and philosophical absolute. This means to pledge to treat every person you encounter as a sovereign individual and to judge him solely according to his own ideas, actions, and overall character, while never ascribing to anyone any sort of group identity. It further means to pledge to never accept any unearned guilt because of the actions of others.

If New Jersey "officially " apologizes for slavery; I hereby disavow any connection to this act. I will not accept any guilt or responsibility for the evil deeds perpetrated by those who came before me.