There's something in the air, and it's not the pleasant fragrance of blooming flowers or those scary carbon dioxide emissions. It's that unmistakable stench of shameless vote-grubbing, and it's wafting from the Maryland State House.
On March 26, the Maryland legislators took a pause from designing new Orioles jerseys and focused their attention on a much loftier cause. In one incredible resolution, the Maryland state government atoned for the worst episode in American history. That's right, the three centuries of the indescribable horror that was slavery has been rectified with two simple words: "We're sorry."
You may wonder what harm there is in issuing this ceremonial apology. Let me enlighten you. Firstly, there are certain things you apologize for and there are certain things you don't. Breaking your friend's iPod merits an apology. Spilling coffee on a friend's term paper: also apology-worthy. A 300-year-long continuous holocaust, however, falls under the latter category.
Secondly, it is 2007. Did every white person in this state wake up last month and say to themselves, "I think it's finally time we said sorry"? You'd think the utter transparency of this resolution would cause the state government to restrain themselves from exploiting an intensely emotional issue. You'd be wrong.
Lastly, I, as a temporary resident of Maryland, am not sorry for slavery. I have never owned a slave nor have I condoned or contributed to slavery in any way. It is possible that one of my distant relatives engaged in the abhorrent practice, but that has absolutely no bearing on my morality. I will not absorb any blame or experience any guilt for something I had no part in just because I'm white.
The murky logic that incriminates today's white population and impels it to apologize is indicative of a larger problem. The state of race relations in America is one of contradictions and confusion.
We are told to be colorblind and at the same time tolerate affirmative action. Every human being is supposed to be a unique, independent thinker and yet candidates campaign for the "black vote" and Congress assembles a "black caucus." Diversity is based on the geographic location of one's home and not on intellectual worldview. Racial humor must be dependent on the comedian's skin color, and racially exclusive groups are only prohibited for whites (there could not be a White Student Union at Hopkins). Justin Park languishes in suspension while Chris Rock expounds the differences between "niggers and black people." This inconsistent enforcement and jumping from hypersensitivity to hyper permissiveness hinders progress towards equality.
A glaring contradiction remains unresolved. Everyone remembers that awkward day in 2nd grade when the substitute teacher told you that George Washington owned slaves. You were perplexed. The most revered man in American history believed that blacks were sub-human and forced over 300 of them to toil on his plantation.
Apologists aver, "He freed his slaves in his will!" That's laughably meaningless. "But it was an accepted custom in George's time period." I have no idea how this fallacious line of reasoning became mainstream. To think the earth was flat before explorers proved otherwise is understandable. To be a creationist before Darwin eloquently debunked it is forgivable. But there was no discovery that revealed that slavery was immoral; it always was. How are whites and blacks supposed to proudly coexist as one people in one country when our American heroes were slave owners?
It is pathetic and tragic that racism still exists in America, but such is the case. The effects of slavery -- inescapable cycles of poverty, subtler discrimination -- have hardly diminished with time. An apology is not going to change this. I implore the Maryland state government to stop seeking votes with phony resolutions and spend meaningful time and money reducing the plight of poor black Marylanders who never had the equal footing that every person deserves.
