In terms of the congressional resolutions, I like to emphasize that they both acknowledge the profound consequences of this history for many Americans today, and both resolutions commit (in different ways) to addressing that legacy. My hope is that by speaking up about that issue more loudly, people will be awakened from their quiet misconceptions about race in America.

I see your point, but you are in a sense making mine: That an apology will cause Americans (white, Asian, Latino, and perhaps a some black people) to think the matter of prejudice and racial inequality has been put to rest. If it has been put to rest, then there is no need to address present day inequalities of black and white school systems, prison sentencing, equatable pay, etc. And because the U.S. now has a black president, numerous elected black politicians, entertainers that “go beyond race” (whatever that is supposed to mean), many Americans, judging from the comments pages in stories about the New Haven firefighters, feel that black folk have arrived. Or to paraphrase words published just before post-reconstruction – black folk need to stop being babies and step up to the plate like other Americans.

I’m not saying Harkin thinks an apology makes everything hunky dory, and clearly his resolution was very carefully worded. But I’m concerned that our fellow Americans might take the resolution – insofar as they are even aware of it – as an occasion to: 1) Forget how intense and systematic barriers to black progress were until the mid-1960s, and 2) ignore the contemporary systemic barriers to black progress. I’m concerned that after skimming or hearing about the resolution, mainstream America will say “Well, if they just got off their duffs, they’d be ok,” which allows mainstream America to indulge in it’s subtler prejudices.

The Senate’s attempted apology also emphasizes that there is much work to be done. Unlike the days after Reconstruction, I don’t believe there’s any likelihood of backsliding into more significant discrimination. Instead, I think the real danger today is that an apology will cause people to wash their hands of racial prejudice and inequality, believing that the matter has been put to rest.