I found the speech made by the veterans asking forgiveness for the atrocities of the US military and government to the Lakota elders to be truly moving. It was important that they named their misdeeds. You cannot ask for forgiveness if you are too ashamed to speak of your ill deeds.

I didn’t want to step all over the post so I’m posting separately about how Black people are still waiting for their apology for the atrocity that was Slavery.

I’m tired of White people making their guilt more important than our feelings. I’m tired of being told that we should get over something that is still very clearly affecting us on a global level to this day. I’m tired of White political leaders insisting that we need to “move on” when we bring up the issue of reparations, when we know damn well that every White slave owner was financially compensated for the loss of their “property” when slavery was abolished. There are families whose fortunes were built on the backs of the free labor of Black people who have never given the descendants the of those people a single cent. Families who remain enormously wealthy to this day. And this also goes for countries whose entire economies were built on the free labor of enslaved people. Who still refuse to compensate their ancestors and continue to actively engage in policies that shatter their communities. When is someone going to tell us that they are sorry? For stealing us from our homes? For obliterating any knowledge we had of our people, language, religion, customs, culture and history? For raping our women? For enslaving us for generations? For destroying our families and communities? For creating a worldwide culture that continues to denigrate us?

When is a White person going to kneel before a Black elder and ask for forgiveness for all of those things?