http://my.ev1.net/english/news/newsarticle.asp?articleID=34700030&subject=headlines Group to Show Penitence Over Slave Trade Leonard Blackshear of the Maryland Kunte Kinte- Alex Haley Foundation is shown in his office in Annapolis , Md., Tuesday, Aug. 3, 2004. Blackshear is organizing a group of people to march in downtown Annapolis, Md. in a "reconciliation march" that will have white people marching in yolks as a penitence for slave trade. The march will take place in nine other cities as well. (AP Photo/ Matt Houston) White marchers will wear chains on their hands and yokes on their necks while being escorted by black people, and everyone will wear T-shirts with a message of apology as a group of African and European Christians visits the United States this fall with a message of reconciliation. The Lifeline Expedition will visit 10 U.S. cities, starting in Annapolis. The group's organizers say it is an effort to bring "reconciliation" and "healing" in Africa, Europe and North America through symbols of penitence. "I believe that it helps, or potentially it helps, white people to think in a different way," said David Pott, who started the London-based organization to "reverse the damage" of the slave trade. It has held similar demonstrations in European cities linked to the 18th and 19th-century industry. "We're not divisive in saying, 'Here's black, here's white,'" he said. "We're saying, 'We are brothers and sisters in our common humanity.'" Annapolis' City Dock memorializes Kunta Kinte, one of 98 Gambians brought by Lord Ligonier into the narrow harbor in 1767 and sold into slavery. Kinte was also featured in Alex Haley's book and television series "Roots." Some people are uneasy about remembering a link to slavery, and the march plans have attracted attention from a neo-Nazi group. The City Council voted 7-2 to waive the estimated cost of $2,000 for police services and roadblocks for the walk from the water's edge through the historic city to a statue of Thurgood Marshall, the first black U.S. Supreme Court justice. But Mayor Ellen O. Moyer said she opposed the waiver because it was too early to know how large the Sept. 29 event will be and how much it will cost the city. Moyer, who is white, also disagrees with Lifeline Expedition's tactics, although she said she supports any group's right to demonstrate. "I think it's a private matter," Moyer said. "The way that we all choose to reconcile issues that deal with man's inhumanity to man is private." Some people choose "good works, unheralded" to express concern for injustices of the past, she noted, and the city has had local groups that offered a dialogue on race relations. The Kunta Kinte-Alex Haley Foundation is the local sponsor for the walk, working to raise $75,000 with organizers in Europe to pay for travel and event costs for between 14 and 20 demonstrators. Foundation President Leonard Blackshear, who is black, said he shares a mission with Lifeline Expedition. "Racism is a cancer eating away at the American soul," he said. "This activity is simply one type of chemotherapy that we are looking to apply to the cancer because we believe the patient can and wants to be healed." Blackshear is looking for local volunteers to take part in the event and said local churches have signed on to help. Moyer said the city had received inquiries from potential counter-protesters and she's apprehensive about keeping the event positive. Pott acknowledges that staging such a demonstration in a U.S. city may bring a harsh reaction and said he is praying that things go smoothly. The neo-Nazi National Alliance, based in Hillsboro, W.Va., wants Annapolis residents to protest the march. The group left 1,500 fliers last weekend at homes all over city, urging people to "Say No to White Guilt" and object to the city's waiver of expenses. Rather than promoting healing, the event takes slavery and "rubs it in the faces of white people and says they're guilty of something," said Shaun Walker of the National Alliance. He said the group has not decided whether to attend the demonstration. Lifeline Expedition also plans to walk through the streets of Baltimore; Boston; Charleston, S.C.; New York; Richmond, Va., and several other cities. Carol Palmer volunteered to walk in chains in Richmond, where she is helping to coordinate the U.S. tour. "A huge part of the tragedy of what happened years ago is that it was supported by Christians," said Palmer, who works for a missionary organization called Youth With A Mission. "As Christians, we're asking for forgiveness because we were in the wrong." ___ Associated Press writer Gretchen Parker contributed to this report. interesting - Rocket River
If they're really losing sleep over it, maybe they could actually become slaves themselves for a couple of years. Let's move on, people.
I'm all for making people aware of the lingering effects of slavery, but this is ridiculous. All it does is turn a rather ugly historical fact into a carnival sideshow. I'd rather this group spent the money on improving the resources used when teaching the history of slavery.
An excellent metaphor, as chemotherapy indiscriminantly destroys dividing cells, meaning both cancerous and healthy cells are killed off; additionally, it causes side effects such as skin rash, hair loss, persistent nausea and vomiting, appetite loss, weight loss, severe irritation of the mucus linings, and just all-around feel-like-**** syndrome.
What a crock. What purpose exactly does this serve? None the whites in the "yolk" ever owned slaves, and none of the blacks in the parade have ever spent a millisecond doing slave labor in their lives. The white guilt trip is really ridiculous.
I can understand the feeling that there is a need to make such a gesture, but these gestures never accumulate. No number of I'm Sorries will ever make it okay. It won't compensate for the wrong and it won't make anyone who feels guilty feel as though they were forgiven. It's just an eternal self-flagellation. Anyway, march on if you (that is, they) feel the need. It certainly won't hurt anything.
What they SHOULD do is just kill all slave holders. Those jerks. We should kill them all. Every last slaveholder in America should be put to death right now. That should teach them a lesson. I hate slaveholders. Whose with me?!?! Let's go round up all the slave holders!!!! After we kill all the slave holders we should set the slaves free. Every former slave in America should get $10 million and get to punch the guy who owned him/her in the belly before we kill them. The government should give every slave in America $10 million right now. I would not mind one bit paying a little extra tax if it meant giving every single slave in America some money and killing all the slaveholders.
Supermac, you do understand that we do today have slaves and slaveholders in this country. They're not in the antebellum mold, but there is an increasing problem of human trafficking here and abroad that victimizes mostly women, mostly foreigners, mostly for sex. We do punish harshly, though we don't execute the slavers. And, we don't compensate their victims nearly so well. I'm sure you are familiar but it sounded as if you may have not considered that aspect when you wrote your sarcastic post.
Bigtexx and Supermac, Well said. But, if it makes these people feel better, more power to em. I am a slave to my children....but a willing one !! DD
I guess you are right, but this particular demonstration isn't addressing that issue. Heck...if you want to go get those slave traders here today, I'll get my shotgun.
