Slavery and Its Legacy:
FACING OUR UNHEALED PAST
WITH HOPE
FOR
TRANSFORMATION, JUSTICE, AND RECONCILIATION
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Slavery and Its Legacy:
FACING OUR UNHEALED PAST FOR TRANSFORMATION, JUSTICE, AND RECONCILIATION |
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Some time ago, a group of us, friends brought together by a common desire to confront racism, traveled to New York City to see The Maafa, A Healing Journey. The Maafa is a moving and enlightening theater piece about slavery and its vestiges through the ages. When a local friend mentioned that she hoped to stage a similar production with a focus on our area of western Massachusetts, we were prompted to think about how we, a group of whites, could contribute to this healing journey. We decided that we wanted to offer a formal apology to African Americans and all other descendants of those who were enslaved in the United States. With guidance from African American and Native American activists/educators, we have written this apology for slavery, including commitments to restorative action. We hope that other people of European descent might want to be involved in some way – perhaps by adding their names to our statement and/or joining us in working toward reparations. Who are we? We are not anthropologists or historians; we are ordinary people who are deeply troubled by the racial inequities in our society and by the justifications our culture creates for these inequities. We created this website to share our statement and commitments with others who also feel a passion for justice. We address this difficult topic as a step toward resolving some of the often unspoken conflict and division between the descendants of European immigrants and the descendants of those who were enslaved. (Because we live in Massachusetts, we have included information from this state in some of the sections below.) While we are not individually responsible for the great wrongs of slavery, we do feel strongly that it is our responsibility, as whites, to end the system of white privilege that gives clear benefit and preference to people of European descent at the expense of people of color. People of color have told us that healing the wounds of our collective past cannot occur without a sincere acknowledgement of those wrongs. This statement of apology is the result of our work. Sharin Alpert, Shelburne Falls MA Teegrey Iannuzzi, Pelham MA Annie Keough, Greenfield MA
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