"Are we going to force the Jews to apologize for killing Christ? [...] I personally think that our black citizens should get over it." Virginia Republican House delegate Frank Hargrove on a proposed state apology for slavery
"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." - George Santayana
Dear Delegate Hargrove:
I write you as a Jewish Virginian, and one who is proud to live in the state that produced George Mason and his Virginia Bill of Rights, Thomas Jefferson and his Virginia Statute on Religious Freedom and Declaration of Independence, James Madison and his Bill of Rights, George Washington and his example of serving as a restrained democratic leader and not a tyrant.
We owe our current freedoms to the example set by leaders such as these who governed with intelligence, integrity, foresight and care. Whether we remain in freedom depends in no small measure on our ability to continue to find leaders with these qualities.
The Founding Fathers also excelled in the study of history. They understood that history is not a museum piece but a living thing that we continue to create under the ever-present shadow of the past. History is not something you "get over" - it lives on in our streets, our institutions, our language, our bones.
The impact of slavery on Americans, both black and white, is so profound that its scars can be found everywhere - if you bother to look. Many African Americans have mixed racial features as descendants of black slaves and the white owners who raped them. How does one "get over" something like that? And even today, black households continue to lag white households in median net worth by a factor of ten. Even our vaunted capitalist economy thus cannot "get over" the effects of slavery.
Clearly for you, Delegate Hargrove, the crucifixion of Jesus a full two millenia ago is not something you can "get over" - nor should anyone expect you to do so. You have every right to honor, remember and learn from history. But it is essential for government leaders like you to get your history correct and to use its examples responsibly. The claim that Jews killed Jesus is one of the nastiest and most discredited slanders ever thrown up against the Jewish people. It has been used to justify every manner of oppression, harassment and murder through the centuries. You may not have heard, but the Episcopal Church disowned this claim in 1964, as did the Vatican in 1965 and many others since.
The fact that this smear was on the tip of your tongue is not a good sign. It tells me that you don't care much about getting the facts of history right or - even worse - about the consequences of getting them wrong. It may be painful to dwell on the suffering of the past, but it is worth it when it allows us to prevent more suffering in the present and future.
You choose to remember the suffering that Jesus went through because you believe that doing so will make yourself a better person and the world a better place. You should understand and respect, then, the need to remember the suffering that so many others experienced more recently. Whenever we do make the mistake of "getting over" history is precisely when the forgotten nightmares of history come back to haunt us.
I met with a Chamblee in Washington DC to share family history. I showed her the birth and army records my father put together to make his family tree.
She showed me a bill of sale.
Her descendants had been freed by a man who was likely their father. He set the sons up in trades like smithing. With the 1-2 generation jump on education, the family members today are doctors, lawyers, and professionals. Their progress parallels many immigrants who come here and work hard to make a better life for their kids.
For many African Americans of Prince Edward County, Virginia, they didn't have the option of education. From 1959 to 1964, the country closed its public schools rather than comply with Brown v. Board of Ed. The county provided a private school vouchers to white children.
This created a generation of people who not only did not get an education, but grew up to be parents who could not help their own children with their homework, creating a cycle of poverty that's hard to "get over," especially when schools in poor areas continue to lag behind other schools.
And a simple apology is too much to ask for?
Thanks for sharing this, Andrea.
On the Al Franken Show, Hargrove just was named the "Crazy State Legislator of the Day".