Weeping As He "Apologises" For Slavery
For crying out loud, why?
Before an audience of politicians, writers and dignitaries, he twice paused during his address. As he voiced the apology, the US civil rights leader the Rev Jesse Jackson walked over and placed his arm around the mayor. Mr Livingstone completed the long awaited statement, dabbing tears from his eyes, his voice shaky.
Before leaving office Tony Blair expressed “regret” for Britain’s involvement in the slave trade, but he was criticised by some - including Mr Livingstone - for not going further. (The Guardian)
Why, for fuck’s sake, why?! Why is Ken Livingstone apologising for something that has not happened for nearly two centuries? Slavery is not something that has been done by, or even in the lifetime of, anyone alive. Many generations have been and gone since slavery was abolished, through the 1807 and 1833 Abolition of Slavery Acts, and the efforts of William Wilberforce.
As I wrote not long ago, you can’t apologise for something you didn’t do. It is just an empty gesture! How can you apologise for something that you (a) didn’t do, and (b) weren’t alive to do anything about anyway? No, slavery is hardly a high point in British history, but since it was carried out before, and after, by Africans, any claim that we should apologise is just a load of utter bollocks. It annoys me that anyone can claim any apology from a descendent of the guilty party, especially when they themselves have never been affected by it - like the recent apology from a Papua New Guinea tribe for their ancestors eating someone else’s ancestors. It is all just a load of rubbish. You can’t apologise for what someone else has done, and neither should you.
Why is Ken Livingstone, the Mayor of London, apologising for slavery? He said:
But you don’t have that right, Ken. No elected official does. You can apologise for yourself, if you really think it’s worth it, but not for anyone else.
It has been claimed that Ken has set “an example” by apologising, one which Anti-Slavery International thinks
Just fuck off, Anti-Slavery International. Just fuck off. I’m not apologising for something I didn’t do, and neither should anyone else. In Britain and her Empire, the slave trade ended two hundred years ago, and slavery as a whole 174 years ago. Don’t you think it’s time you just let it go? Just move on with your life and stop dragging up old, divisive, arguments about slavery. Everyone considers it a bad thing, it;’s not going to happen again here. Go look at Africa and stop it happening there right now, rather than wasting your time asking us for a pointless and totally illogical “apology”. If we were to take the argument they make for an apology, everyone would have to apologise to everyone for some minor slight back in the mists of time. Let’s just move on.
Source: The Guardian
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Some good points, what Red Ken also forgot was the involvement of Africans in the slave trade.
Mali became very rich as did the moslem Barbary states of North Africa, then we have the Ottomans who funded their Islamic empire through the slave trade.
None of whom Ken even dreamed of mentioning, after all this is not so much about regrets, as making the rich white nations salve the middle class guilt complex.
And we cant be blaming moslems and fellow blacks for the suffering the slaves endured.