Sender: |
|
Date: |
Fri, 22 Feb 2008 12:01:26 -0500 |
Reply-To: |
|
Subject: |
|
MIME-Version: |
1.0 |
Content-Transfer-Encoding: |
7bit |
In-Reply-To: |
|
Content-Type: |
text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed |
From: |
|
Parts/Attachments: |
|
|
The Museum of Slavery is under construction
in Fredericksburg, VA.
Elizabeth Whitaker
Independent Scholar
Alexandria, VA
[log in to unmask] wrote:
> Ah well. Reparations is another matter entirely.
>
> In a moral sense, I am responsible for my own actions. I do not, and should not, feel guilt that many of my ancestors owned slaves; nor, for that matter, should I feel shame that at least one of my ancestors was enslaved. I am responsible for my actions and my choices.
>
> Disentangling the economic benefits that have accrued to me in the present because slavery was for so long a central element of the United States economy is an extraordinarily difficult task. In a practical sense, I don't know how one would do it.
>
> It certainly does seem possible, however, for us to memorialize this element of our collective past. I find it striking that we have a National Museum to memorialize the Holocaust, an event in which the United States was tangentially involved, and nothing at all to memorialize slavery and segregation, in which we as a nation were profoundly implicated. What does that say about our collective priorities, or for that matter about the way we fashion our public sense of our own history?
>
______________________________________
To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe please see the instructions at
http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html
|
|
|