Should we apologise for slavery?

Yes that's a very emotional picture and yes I feel guilty, but it's irrelevant to the dicussion.

I dont think we should - it wasn't the modern day us who decided to use slaves, so we had no say in the matter.

We're talking about whether today's society should apologise for nineteenth century slavery, not today's

In fact, even if we were talking about todays, I still don't think apologising is helpful. Not like saying sorry is going to fix anything is it? It would be rather demeaning to act as if apologising was some significant action that they should appreciate.

NB

It's worth pointing out that when people say modern day Britons should apologise, they mean modern day white people.

Really?

individuals shouldnt

nations should.......

That's a pretty big assumption, which frankly, isn't true.

Nations are a grouping of collective individuals.

Thank you for that lesson
yes but no one should be forced to take individual responsiblity im saying that leaders of involved nations should apologize on behalf of a countries past actions.

The leader is the elected representative of the people. He would be apologising on behalf of all the collective individuals of the nation - thus going back to the original issue.

You probably remember when Ken Livingstone tearfully made an apology:



And other groups and individuals have also apologised or called for Britain to apologise. Such as the man who shouted at the Queen and Tony Blair and the Lifeline Expedition group who travelled to Africa in chains and 'so sorry' t-shirts...





But do you think, generally, present-day Britons should apologise for slavery?

Surely, an apology won't replace aid money but symbols are hugely important. Regarding Germany: what about the Warschauer Kniefall? Brandt was in no way involved in Nazi crimes or otherwise forced but still chose to kneel down. It didn't bring any Jew back to life but it showed his attitude towards the Nazis and their crimes and contributed to the rapprochement to eastern Europe.
Imo Germany does cope much better with its history than Britain does.