I never understood why people want to hide the ugly history of this country. If we don’t learn from the past we are doomed to repeat it. It says nothing about those of us who are alive today to acknowledge the wrongs of yesterday as long as we try to do better now & make things right.
Acknowledging the horrors of the Holocaust and asking forgiveness from Jews and others annihilated then is one of the reasons Germany has been able to construct a solid present and move forward into its future. Until Americans do this, we are forever stuck in 1850.
And Germany never needed to erect any statues of Adolf Hitler or any other NAZIs to remember their history. They read about it in books. Here, they put up statues of racist traitors & censure & burn books.
Many Americans are uncomfortable when they visit Berlin because there are so many “stumbling stones,” brass plaques embedded in sidewalks commemorating where Jews last lived. There are 5,000 in Berlin, 100,000 throughout 30 European countries. Plaques contain name, dob, place and date of death.
Much less 1650
The Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism issued this statement about reparations: rac.org/issues/repar...
“Reparations can take many forms and…may manifest as congressional hearings, a national apology, the institution of government programs, creation of tax incentives for Black-owned businesses, educational stipends for Black Americans, individual or community compensation, or other approaches.” YES!