Make No Apology
Tony Blair professes his “sorrow” over Britain’s role in the slave trade, and is criticised by an African anti-slavery group, Rendezvous of Victory, because he refused to say the word ’sorry’:
“It’s adding insult to the lingering injuries of the enslavement of African people by the European ruling classes. The message is that if you commit crimes against African people you cannot be held responsible; even when you acknowledge that you have done wrong, you do not feel it necessary to apologise.” (The Guardian)
What a load of utter bullshit they are talking. As I posted before, there have been no slaves at all in Britain for at least 173 years. Britain was also the first big slave trading nation to end the trade and did it on moral grounds, and actively worked prevented it by others, through the West Africa Squadrons.
So, why should we, who have never owned slaves, apologise to those who have never been slaves for something that ended nearly two centuries ago! Ever since slavery was abolished in Britain through the 1807 and 1833 Abolition of Slavery Acts, all ex-slaves have had the same basic rights as ever other British person. There has never been any colour bar as to
what a person could do in Britain, unlike there was the US. Once all British men got the vote in 1918, all black men in Britain got the vote as well.
Thus, I will not apologise for what my ancestors did when it ended nearly two centuries years ago. I have never been a slave owner, and they have never been slaves. It has not affected them that their ancestors may have been slaves, since there has never been any legislative racial segregation in Britain.
If want an apology, tough. You’re not getting one.
Sources: BBC, The Guardian
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