It was a bit of a tease for me to hear that the Congressional Black Caucus-obsessed House Democrat, Rep. Stephen Cohen, is presently sponsoring a bill that demands a legislative apology for the American Enslavement of Africans. With 120 other Senators co-sponsoring the bill, Cohen must be feeling real good about himself right about now. He's probably somewhere right now, snarling "bet they'll feel me now," to the CBC, which has repeatedly and vehemently denied his many requests to join the all-black caucus. With his pledge to be the "first white member" of the CBC, it's no surprise that Steve Cohen would go this far to seek the impossible, or at least, get back at the CBC. While I have no microscope or fancy equipment to decode the innermost thoughts of the Tennessean Democrat, I am however compelled to believe that - taking his history into account - this is just another politically-motivated shot at passing a motion that is visibly improbable; sort of the attempts to halt funding for the Iraq War -- with the belief that it might redound ultimately in a troop withdrawal, and hence, put an end to the illegal war.
Stephen Cohen is a one-term U.S. House of Representatives member, with a 24-year record as a Tennessee State Senator. In 1996, after a failed attempt at the 1996 congressional seat for Tennessee's 9th precinct, Cohen - who lives in a predominantly black neighborhood, and was then running against an African-American, Harold Ford Jr. - was quoted as saying; "It is impossible for a person who is not African American to get a large vote in the African American community ... against a substantial candidate… The fact is, I am white, and it doesn't seem to matter what you do." It is also Rep. Cohen, who earlier this year, upon the success of Barack Obama in the Iowa Caucus, remarked that, "Obama is showing us that Americans have gotten beyond race." To take Cohen by his word, we would have to exclude the gruesome events which have come to the surface in just the last week alone. We would have to discard the tragedy of Luis Ramirez, a twenty-five-year-old Mexican immigrant, who was beaten to death last week by a group of white teenagers in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania. News Reports described the horrific incident, stating how Ramirez was "walking home last Saturday night when six white high school students brutally beat him while yelling racial slurs." We would also have to neglect the incident involving Baron "Scooter" Pikes -- a young black 21 year-old from the city of Winnfield, Louisiana, who was tasered 9 times in the span of 14 minutes, by a white male police officer who - as reported by Howard Witt of the Chicago Tribune - is "ranked as the department's most aggressive Taser user."
In 2007, Rep. Stephen Cohen made several inexplicable attempts at joining the Congressional Black Caucus. His philosophy was wrapped around the idea of better serving his predominantly Black district. He felt that his track record of aiding and abetting issues of pertinent-concern to Black people should suffice as an exception to the rule, therefore overwrite his whiteness, and perhaps pressure the CBC to instate him. Unfortunately none of his antics would persuade the CBC members; for them, seeking the interest of Black people, in a majority Black constituency, is optimum, not optional. Much to his dismay, Cohen in a self-absorbed fashion later suggested that the CBC was in a covert war against his campaign, saying, “I think they're real happy I'm not going to join... It's their caucus and they do things their way. You don't force your way in. You need to be invited." Coming from a guy who now wishes to pass a symbolic but insubstantial legislation of relative concern to Black folks, some things seem out of kilter.
The Res. 194 proposition is premised on the "Apologizing for the enslavement and racial segregation of African-Americans." Senator Cohen believes that the apology would further "reconciliation, justice, and harmony for all of its citizens." While this might be widely applauded as a noble act, more investigation must be conducted to ensure that this bill is not structured on the foundation of political expediency.
On March 3, 2008, Black America Web published a story entitled "Is America’s First Black President Going to Be the One Making the Nation’s Apology for Slavery?" The columnist, Deborah Mathis, was poignant in highlighting the peculiarity and significance of the timing of a related resolution, saying, "sending a black man to the Oval Office, may as well clean up as many social messes as possible, I suppose the thinking goes. But ordinarily, politicians are more calculating than that. They seldom do something simply because it’s the right thing to do. There’s got to be more to it than that." She also pointed out, how in 1997, when a similar proposal was made by then-Rep. Tony Hall, a contradictory response was generated; "There was such vehement opposition to then-Rep. Tony Hall’s apology proposal that it seemed the country, far from remorseful, was practically proud of the heinous old institution... The big fear then was that an apology, which comes with at least an implicit admission of wrong doing, would have opened the door to demands for reparations -- something akin to a giant class action lawsuit encompassing 35 million Americans or more." She expressed some skepticism in the timing of the proposal, with the possibility of a Black president looming larger than ever. Such paranoia is justified, with the history of civil-right laws and legislation, coupled with a blatant lack of enforcement on the part of the legislative, judicial and executive body.
All in all, as stated earlier, I am unable to decipher the intent behind this proposition, and I would hope that sincerity of heart is the birthplace of the resolution, but in the words of Dave Chappelle, "What is a black man without his paranoia?"
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