New Jersey apologizes for slavery
They’re not sorry for repealing the death penalty against the wishes of victims’ families of all races and backgrounds, but New Jersey lawmakers are offering an apology for slavery centuries ago:
New Jersey tonight joined a list of states that have apologized for slavery, after lawmakers overwhelming passed a resolution expressing the state’s regret. The resolution merely offers the Legislature’s opinion and would not require the governor’s signature. It would be recorded in the state annals of declarations. The resolution’s sponsor, Assemblyman William D. Payne (D., Newark), noted that New Jersey had 12,000 slaves and was the last Northern state to free them. Last night, New Jersey became the first Northern state to apologize. “This is an apology for their descendants . . . and all mankind,” he said.
Not everyone in New Jersey is completely overwhelmed by p.c. run amok:
…Assemblyman Richard A. Merkt (R., Morris) said that the resolution was the first step toward reparations – the controversial idea of compensating slavery’s descendants. He said he would have supported a resolution expressing the state’s regret, but not an apology. “Most of the ancestors of today’s New Jersey residents did not even arrive in the U.S. prior to the emancipation of the slaves,” he said. “None of us can truly apologize because none of us was responsible for it.” The resolution passed the Assembly 59-8, with eight members abstaining. It passed the Senate 29-2, without debate.
As a native South Jerseyan, I am not surprised by these misplaced priorities.
On a lighter note, I also know there are a lot of other, more immediate offenses New Jersey should be apologizing for–starting with that foul, mystery odor that blanketed South Jersey over the weekend.
Ewww.
What else should NJ apologize for? Feel free to chime in with your suggestions.
***
Flashback: I still want my reparations! Russell Simmons, you owe me:
Russell Simmons, a wealthy hip-hop music executive, is marketing the reparations gospel to black youths under the modernized demand for “40 acres and a Bentley.” He’s also using the movement to sell his own line of “Phat Classic” sneakers…
…My ancestors from the Philippines were enslaved by Spain and forced to build and man the galleons that brought Hispanic explorers to America. During World War II, my relatives were subjected to extreme physical and economic oppression under Japanese occupation. During the 1920s, the states of California and Hawaii imported 50,000 laborers from my ancestral homeland to toil on American farms. Filipinos also worked on agricultural fields in Oregon, Washington, Arizona, and Montana. In addition, my people built levees in the San Joaquin Delta and slaved away in fisheries and lumber mills up and down the West Coast in horrid conditions.
During that time of servitude, Filipinos faced rampant societal and governmental discrimination. They were barred from voting, owning land, or starting businesses of their own in California. Anti-miscegenation laws in 16 states kept my ancestors from legally marrying white women. Until 1947, it was illegal in California for Filipinos to marry whites. In Alaska, cannery workers from the Philippines were segregated and barred from many establishments that hung signs like “No dogs or Filipinos allowed.”
Crunching the reparations numbers, every American of Spanish descent owes me $514,000 plus compound interest. Adjusted for inflation, every fellow countryman of Japanese descent owes $750,222. California residents owe my family an even $300,000. Alaskans, Hawaiians, Oregonians, Washingtonians, Arizonans, and Montanans must pay $75,000 to atone. And anyone else — white, black, or otherwise — whose family members ingested Filipino-harvested asparagus, peas, cauliflower, onions, tomatoes, grapes, or fish, or who burned Filipino-cut firewood, or who lived in homes built of Filipino-sawed lumber from 1923-1947, can settle their debt by sending me a check for $999.99.
As for Russell Simmons, you owe me, too. A free pair of your $65 Phat Classic shoes should cover my pain. I wear a women’s size 6-1/2. No sneakers, no peace.
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Categories: Political Correctness
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TXRose,
We are headed to the South, not sure just how far south though. Thanks for the invite. Much appreciated.
30 pcs of silver,
Oklahoma is great. I’m sure people on the coast laugh at that but seriously, lots of open space, decent housing and great friendly people. I am originally from Missouri and have lived in Lousiana, Texas and Oklahoma and Oklahoma is my fave state so far.
What about Wyoming? Anyone out there from The Cowboy State? I hear you are free there.
Thanks jenmom. Any Pharma out there? That’s why we ended in NJ.
Ft Monmouth is supposed to close, moving the services there to Aberdeen….i can not WAIT until this happens.
and i thought i was getting a bargain moving from DC to NJ….HA.
Resolutions such as this one are goofy wastes of time. However, anybody trying to rally the troops by saying that reparations are next is demagoguing (sp?).
Pretty borderline comment pokenhorn. Guessing you’d go further if it wouldn’t get you banned.
Ever since watching a hilarious Chappelle Show skit about the chaos that would ensue if reparations were ever paid, I chuckle when I hear stuff like this. That’s right folks, just imagine something FUNNY to block out this PC-run-amok nonsense.
I live in Oregon so I have the same gripes as Traveler49. But the blackberries are to die for. Oh, and in the winter at least, I like sitting in my car and letting someone else pump my gas in the rain and wind
mom2jack,
My favorite Chappelle show skit is the black, white supremacist. Pure genius.
I know the skit to which you refer and it’s a good’n.
just a quick history lesson about reparations:
it was first introduced after the civil war by a southern sympathizer that was looking for a quick way to start the southern economy.
but, let me just say…i thought i was the only conservatives that loved the Chappelle show.
bloghooligan,
You are not alone.
I have to agree being in Orygun myself.
Can’t get much bluer than Orygun, starts with the incompetant, ignorant(actual meaning) Governor and works itself down to the school crossing guard.
As far as reparations…political correctness in all areas of life will be our downfall.
Yes! Yes! I love that gas pumping thing.
Rightisright…I can’t wait for some of these big conservative blogs to do a little expose on our pedophile enabling Governor. It makes me sick how it is ignored and swept under the carpet.
well, you know what? i’ve NEVER been in a state where there’s been a line to get gas. i wasn’t alive during the oil crisis.
in NJ, look along the turnpike when you come…lines full of cars waiting to get gas. i’d rather pump it myself…OR drive into a “full service” isle on the days i don’t.
but we’re so needy in this state, we need high school drop outs to pump our gas.
i hate this state.
As a nearly lifelong Jersey-an (-ite? as they call us in NY?) who only recently left the Garden State as home, if they’re going to apologize for something others did for which we weren’t responsible, lets make an honest list, eh?
1. Sound Barrier Walls. The horrible sound barrier walls set up where even none were needed along major highways such as I-80 and 287, probably arranged to keep the mafia-run construction industry well- heeled ayt the expense of thousands of home-owner property values which sank to the nottom of the barrel because of them (many bought beautiful homes with views only to have the views replaced by a huge brown wall – guess how much the property was worth then?). Also, those walls were certain to become grafitti canvases and they have been, but guess what? That too was defended because, get this, it gave a way to employ state workers at the taxpayer expense – to clean off the grafitti which wouldn’t have been there if it wasn’t for sound barriers most people didn’t need! (the world as Hillary and Obama would have it)
2. Black on white violence. I’m sure state lawmakers were’nt directly responsible for that either, but plenty of hapless whites have been murdered in Newark, Paterson et al because of racial hatred. How about an apology to their families?
3. Hispanic on white violence. Just like number 2, above, only moreso in Patterson than Newark.
3. Alowwing NJ to become a Mafia Breeding ground. Everyone knows it, but it isn’t a cute TV show plot – it’s serious.
4. The Nations Worst Motor Vehicle Agency. You don’t know what waiting is until you’ve been there. Pick any office throughout the state, one is usually as bad as the next.
5. Illegal Immigration Running Wild. Not Mexican so much but easterners from countries that sponsor terrorism. Areas of the state are a hotbed, and these people are skating over weak laws and serving you your coffee at 7-11. Predicition: when the next big act of terror comes, watch and see that some of the terror cell were operating unwatched and unmonitored in the Garden State. NJ jas gone insane as far as turning a blind eye to illegal immigration.
7. Some of the highest taxes and highest auto insurance in the Nation. Apologies need to be offered on those counts to be sure.
I love my home State, and a respectable percentage of the people there tend to be pretty practical. However, as they say in creative writing , “it needs work”.
.
We’ll keep that little detail to ourselves
Haha the Confederate states did it long ago. Who’s the racist now?
These types of issues are always brought about by the same people: sniveling minorities and self-hating white liberals.