Caucasians United for Reparations and Emancipations
PO Box 156, Red Oak, GA 30272 /

http://www.reparationsthecure.org

*FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE*[/b]

Virginia Remorseful But Not Responsible?
White Reparationists Ask Virginia To Take the Next Step


Date: February 27, 2007

Contact: Ida Hakim, 770-964-3963,
hakimida@reparationsthecure.org
Larry Yates, 540-436-9357,
llyates@shentel.net


"It seems that Delegate Frank Hargove got his way," said Ida Hakim, founder of Caucasians United for Reparations and Emancipation (CURE). Ms. Hakim was referring to a member of the Republican majority who, earlier in the Virginia General Assembly session, suggested that African Americans just needed "to get over slavery." The public response demanded that something be passed. But Hargrove's sentiment found its way into the adopted resolution.

The resolution's sponsor had asked the Assembly to adopt a resolution including this language: "That the General Assembly hereby atone for the involuntary servitude of Africans and call for reconciliation among all Virginians;"

Yet, as adopted, the resolution now reads: "That the General Assembly hereby acknowledge with profound regret the involuntary servitude of Africans and the exploitation of Native Americans, and call for reconciliation among all Virginians;"

"CURE members know the difference between atoning and offering profound regret," stated Ms. Hakim. "We wonder if Virginia’s General Assembly is really saying to the world, 'We profoundly regret that our tourism industry's promotion of the 400th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown is tainted by our role in bringing chattel slavery to the continent.'"

"If the Virginia Assembly can acknowledge that its state hosted the introduction of slavery into North America in 1619;" continued Larry Yates, who lives in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley, "if it can admit that in 1924 it adopted the 'one-drop rule'; and if it can confess that it resisted the abolition of slavery by enforcing Jim Crow in place of the abolished Black Codes, then why can it NOT apologize and atone for its role in this history?"

The resolution, a product of negotiations among House and Senate conferees, states: "…the moral standards of liberty and equality have been transgressed during much of Virginia's and America's history." Yet, it proceeds to portray Native communities giving their children over to the Reservation School System as a means to "[ensure] their children's education" in the face of Virginia's own segregated educational system.

The resolution, as adopted, acknowledges that: "…slavery, having been sanctioned and perpetuated through the laws of Virginia and the United States, ranks as the most horrendous of all depredations of human rights and violations of our founding ideals in our nation's history, and the abolition of slavery was followed by systematic discrimination, enforced segregation, and other insidious institutions and practices toward Americans of African descent that were rooted in racism, racial bias, and racial misunderstanding;…"

It goes on to state: "…the most abject apology for past wrongs cannot right them; yet the spirit of true repentance on behalf of a government, and, through it, a people, can promote reconciliation and healing, and avert the repetition of past wrongs and the disregard of manifested injustices;"

"We see this expression of regret by the General Assembly as a small step, at best, in the moral journey of whites," stated CURE member and former Georgia Green Party candidate Hugh Esco. "Every day, white denial perpetuates the harms of America's 'peculiar institution.' And we will continue to suffer the fallout for our forbearers' immoral ideas about commerce until we can not only acknowledge this history, but apologize for our role in it and take substantive steps to repair the damage these choices created and which our own denial perpetuates."

"If a government or an individual really has 'the spirit of true repentance' spoken of in this resolution, it will propel them beyond mere verbal expressions of regret and into action," continued Donna Lamb, CURE’s Communications Director. "While we are glad this resolution was passed, we continue to support the call for full and complete reparations to descendants of slavery, which we see as the only true means to the reconciliation and healing so needed by this country."

Did it just get cold in here or is it me?