Something about these assertions from Carol Swain bugs me:
I am astonished at how easy it is for some Republicans to deny their party has a serious race problem. In a few days, I anticipate releasing an advice letter I wrote to President Bush about this matter. I am very aware of the grand history of the Republican Party and would love to see the party reclaim the mantle of Lincoln and integrate its membership with Americans who share the values it once espoused.
Lastly, my desire to pursue an apology came after I became an active participant in the reparations debates associated with Harvard law professor Charles Ogletree and TransAfrica founder Randall Robinson. Although I oppose slave reparations, I believe much good could come from an apology. I have heard scores of elderly African-Americans state that they had no interest in monetary reparations. In fact, many said that there was not enough money in the world to repair the damage done to their ancestors. They expressed a desire for the government to acknowledge the injustice of slavery and the Jim Crow period that followed.
Likewise, I have had numerous Southern white women approach me with tears in their eyes to offer personal apologies for what their people did to my people. Clearly, I am not the appropriate person to receive an apology for what the U.S. government failed to prevent. My pursuit of an apology is a consequence of my hearing the pain of real people. It is clear to me that America would benefit by dealing with this issue in a forthright manner. The voice-vote Senate apology fails to meet my standards for how the matter ought to have been handled.
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