Pedersen pulls support for slavery resolution
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BY JoANNE YOUNG / Lincoln Journal Star
Nebraska will express no regrets about slavery this legislative session.
Sen. Dwite Pedersen of Elkhorn took a point of personal privilege Tuesday afternoon to tell senators he would withdraw a resolution that would have expressed regret — not an apology — for slavery in the Nebraska territory and condemned racial discrimination in any form toward African Americans.
“I do not do it with anger, without thought or without hurt,” Pedersen said.
The Judiciary Committee’s taking the word “apology” from the resolution has weighed heavily on him the past four days, he said.
“I cannot take up the time of the Legislature for something I cannot personally support,” he said.
The resolution was to have been discussed and voted upon Wednesday by the Legislature.
Pedersen introduced a resolution late in the session that called for an expression of regret to those who were enslaved and an apology for wrongs inflicted by slavery and its aftereffects in Nebraska.
The resolution also encouraged Nebraskans to teach their children about the history of slavery and its effects so such tragedies would be neither forgotten nor repeated.
When the Judiciary Committee discussed the resolution last week to decide whether to send it to the full Legislature, the committee voted to take out the apology and leave only an expression of regret and condemnation of racism.
Committee Chairman Brad Ashford and Vice Chairman Steve Lathrop, both of Omaha, argued against the apology.
Ashford said it would be more appropriate to pass laws that promote fairness, equality and equal opportunity.
Lathrop said it was not the role of the state to say “I’m sorry.”
After Pedersen withdrew the resolution, Omaha Sen. Ernie Chambers also took a point of personal privilege to support Pedersen’s decision. To present the resolution in a watered down form would be “a trivialization of a very serious, serious matter,” he said.
Six state legislatures have passed resolutions similar to Pedersen’s, with apologies, he said. Other countries, including German and Australia, have apologized for wrongs committed against groups of people there.
“All that has been shown by this exercise is the depth and breadth of racism in this state,” Chambers said.
He and others still bear the psychological scars of what slavery did to black people, he said, including the destruction of families and self-belief, and the harm to religions, culture and traditions.
“To be owned and treated like animals and bred and sold like animals is something, obviously, which my colleagues cannot understand,” he said.
He appreciated that Pedersen made the resolution a moral principle, he said, and that he would not compromise.
Ashford said withdrawing the resolution was probably best.
“It’s a complex issue,” he said. “It’s not a matter we should be taking up in the last few days of the session.”
Leola Bullock, a Lincoln civil rights and social justice advocate, said she had not been satisfied with the changes to the resolution by the Judiciary Committee.
Leaders of the state, she said, have shown an unwillingness to stand up for all Nebraskans.
Attorney General Jon Bruning’s unwillingness to support the requests of the Nebraska Equal Opportunity Commission, and Gov. Dave Heineman’s and Bruning’s sponsorship of a bill that would have taken away in-state college tuition from undocumented immigrants who attend high school in Nebraska show they weren’t working for all people in the state, she said.
“I reluctantly say that sounds racist to me,” Bullock said. “Nebraska should be better than that.”
All Nebraskans are not white, she said. There are many people of color who should be recognized, too.
“It’s really too bad,” she said. “I feel our state leaders have let us down.”
Reach JoAnne Young at 473-7228 or jyoung@journalstar.com.
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regardless of the color of your skin, religion, etc.,
isn't it about time we 'all' stop living in the past, and get on with better our future? Just like any person...every country in the world has made some mistakes over the years....thus why don't all Americans
stop spending their energy and time rehashing the past
couple of hundred years....and use that energy, time and money making life in the future better for 'all' Americans. That's my story and I am sticking to it, folks. "
The elimination of American Indian tribes wasn't right either but you don't hear them forever bringing it up.
None of us are the people who had slaves or supported it. "
P.S.- Kurt, this very publication ran copies of old ads with slaves on the auction block in...Southeast Nebraska. Care for more evidence? "
I fail to see that after over a century, Ernie knows how this would feel any better than his colleagues, be it that racism still exists or not. He has certainly never been bought, sold, or bred.
"
As far as our State Senators, it's time you stop introducing resolutions to just to be introducing resolutions. I'm seeing more and more resolutions that have nothing to resolve the heavy tax burdens this state continues to place on taxpayers. Start looking at ways reduce the government and huge burden you place on the taxpayers. Quit making trivial laws, enforce the ones we already have. You can start with undocumented workers in the state of Nebraska and be a leader to the nation instead of waiting for the federal government. "
To argue that the Civil War victory was the apology and end of slavery is small minded and silly at best. "
The notion that we hold no responsibility for our ancestors or our offsprings actions is a mistaken one. The concept of the individual is an important one, but if people also understood that relatives, freinds, and future generations will be paying for their actions we would have fewer atrocities in our world.
The State owes an apology for its acceptance of slavery not to any individual or group of individuals but to the entire world for all the harm it has caused. perhaps the best thing that could come from an apology would be some eduction is clearly is sorely needed juding from some of these comments. Yes Kurt there were slaves in Nebraska they were brought to Nebraska, bought in Nebraska and sold in Nebraska, occasionaly by the Stae itself. Also, while illegal there are still slaves in Nebraska. Slavery has long been illegal in the entire world but we all know that doesn't stop supply and demand There are still despicable people in the world who want to buy people for housekeeping, farm labor, sex etc. And plenty of desparte families willing to sell their sons and daughters to human traffikers. "
The apology is not about accepting direct responsibility for slavery, it is about acknowledging a horrific wrong that was done to a specific group of people. We are supposed to care about what harms others in our community, but it is clear we don't when it steps on our conscience. It is clear that the guilt that white people feel about the history of racial oppression that is still being perpetuated in America is far to overwhelming for them to deal with.
Besides, apologizing assumes that you want to change the oppressive behavior and it is clear many of you do not. The more people argue about how much they "don't need to apologize for the past," or demonstrate insensitivity by saying things like, “get over it," the more I realize how far we have to go. How disappointing. "
Just because modern day white people and others do not think this amendment is needed does not make them racists. What about the black people in Africa that also participated in stealing members of other tribes and selling them to the slave traders. Did they not profit from such actions? Perhaps their descendants are in America. Should they have to apologize also?
As a genealogist, my ancestors participated on the Union side of the Civil War. Several loss their lives defending the Union and Lincoln's act to eliminate slavery. I believe this supreme act speaks volumes and no apology is needed.
We can't relive the past, but we sure can learn from it. Stop being a 'slave' to the past and blaming what happened more than 100 years ago for the actions of others today. I realize many people of color suffer discrimation, but so do so many other people.......women, the disabled, etc. We need to work on making the world better today. "
It's ridiculous to apologize for something that one (and especially one's ancestors) is not at fault for. Most of the ancestors of whites (those who hadn't immigrated after the Civil War) in the US fought against slavery.
I think there is something mentally and societally ill about most of this slavery reparations movement. "
It is an obvious reflection on the residents of this state that an apology is too much even though it costs nothing.
It's convenient for the majority pop. in a state that has 4% Black population to believe the reamins of slavery don't exist anymore. "
The slavery apology and reparations game is by its very nature not progressive but is instead backwards looking and actually memorializes and perpetuates the racist attitudes it purports to remedy, because it enables the victim and guilt trip (with associated resentment) mentality among blacks and whites respectively which are not mentally or societally healthy. "