Del. Hargrove discovers another use for his whacking stick
Slavery apology measure ignites legislative debate
On the topic of an apology for slavery Delegate Frank Hargrove said: “Are we going to force the Jews to apologize for killing Christ?…I personally think that our black citizens should get over it,”
Regardless of how you happen to feel about the issues of governmental bodies issuing blanket apologies for past reprehensible behavior, you’ve got to be offended by Delegate Frank Hargrove, a Republican in the Virginia House of Delegates. Virginia was built on the backs of slaves- literally- and there are those in the state who honestly feel that it would be an appropriate step for Virginia to apologize for it’s heritage of slavery. Hargrove is not one of those wooly-headed Libruls burdened by a sense of collective historical guilt. In fact, one might wonder if Hargrove doesn’t in fact feel that slavery was simply the natural order of things.
I’m not going to get into whether or not Virginia needs to issue an apology to anyone for anything. My dog in this fight is with Frank Hargrove, whose cluelessness and insensitivity is certainly not going to make resolving this issue any easier.
Hargrove may not agree with the idea of an official apology, but would it be too much to ask for him to recognize that there are people THAT HE REPRESENTS for whom this is an important and significant issue?
Some delegates believe an apology is unnecessary and a sign of too much political correctness.
“The present commonwealth has nothing to do with slavery,” said Del. Frank D. Hargrove, R-Glen Allen, whose ancestors were French Huguenots who came to America in search of religious freedom.
No, but Virginia is where it is today largely because of slaves. It’s history and heritage were created in large part by those whose forced labors built Virginia’s economy and social structure into what it is at this point in history.
How far do these calls for apologies go, wondered Hargrove, a member of the House Rules Committee that could take up McEachin’s resolution as early as Wednesday.
“Are we going to force the Jews to apologize for killing Christ?” Hargrove wondered. “Nobody living today had anything to do with it. It would be far more appropriate in my view to apologize to the Upper Mattaponi and the Pamunkey” Indians for the loss of their lands in eastern Virginia, he said….
“I personally think that our black citizens should get over it,” Hargrove said of slavery, which existed in Virginia from 1619 until the Civil War. “By golly, we’re living in 2007.”
While there may be a grain of truth in Hargrove’s words, a little sensitivity and compassion would go a long way. “Get over it” merely demonstrates how little you know of or care about the sensitivities of those for whom this is a serious issue.
“Nobody can justify slavery today, but it’s counterproductive to dwell on that,” Hargrove said. “Political correctness has kind of gotten us into this area.”
Any pollster would learn that “you couldn’t find a tenth of 1 percent [of Virginians] who said slavery is a good institution,” said Hargrove, who has represented Hanover County in the House of Delegates since 1982.
Just a hunch, but I’d be willing to hazard a guess that Hanover County is majority White. Virginia is never going to be able to move past the issue of slavery until Whites and African-Americans can sit down and speak to each other in the same language. African-Americans need to stop living in the past and Whites need to understand and accept that slavery is still an issue almost 150 years after the Emancipation Proclamation. DUMB@$$E$ like Frank Hargrove are certainly not going to make the process of reconciliation any easier.
People like Frank Hargrove are why exactly NOTHING will change when it comes to race relations in Virginia and the rest of this country. Congratulations, Del. Hargrove…you’re a DUMB@$$!
