The following article originally appeared in The NorthStar Network.

White men in power rarely apologize for their indiscretions. In fact, in most situations, they manipulate instances in which most of us would feel shame and find ways to profit from their immoral behavior. Just look at the Watergate alumni. Richard Nixon, though resigning from the presidency in disgrace, went on to become a best-selling author and highly regarded in the field of foreign relations. G. Gordon Liddy, the underbelly of the Nixon scandal, found refuge as a radio talk show host and media personality.

There are other examples. Oliver North was the shadow behind the Iran-Contra scandal, betrayed the nation’s trust as a military officer, convicted of a felony and later cashed in as a conservative radio and television talk show host. Journalist Mike Barnicle was caught fabricating stories as a Boston Globe columnist and was promptly rewarded with a job on the MSNBC cable news channel and an offer from the Boston Herald. Bill Clinton engages in a sexual liaison with a young intern, is impeached admittedly for an indiscretion that doesn’t rise to the level the Constitutional standard of a high crime or misdemeanor, but shows little remorse en route to cashing-in with a multi-million dollar deal for his memoirs.

Even when apologies are offered they tend to be so trite that as soon as the words roll of the lips they evaporate into thin air. Such was the case with President Bush’s feeble apology for the abuse of Iraqi detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison. Not only was the president slow to show any remorse for the physical abuse and humiliation imposed by members of the U.S. military, when he finally did exhibit a feint degree of humanity it was in passing and communicated to King Abdullah of Jordan, not directly to the Iraqi people. Adding insult to injury, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, under whose watch this shameful episode has occurred, appears before members of Congress and offers a sorry apology on one hand and displays the utmost arrogance on the other.

What has become painfully aware to many in the Arab world is what Black Americans have known for some time: the United States has no standing to be the moral arbiter of the world. Our experience from slavery to Jim Crow to the emerging apartheid state has been of a nation predisposed to the use of violence to maintain white supremacy. It is naïve, at best, and ignorant, at worst, to believe that a nation that engaged in the genocide of American Indians and the dehumanization and enslavement of Africans, and subjugation of their ancestors, is capable of acting humanely toward people of color on another continent.

There is no getting around this point. What has transpired in Iraq is part and parcel of the American experience. It is the part of our nation’s history that is conveniently forgotten by this war’s apologists and the media. And it is our present reality. The disproportionate incarceration of African American and Latino men, many on minor drug offenses, and their conviction under sentencing guidelines that are patently racist and result in the warehousing of hundreds of thousands, provides the context for Abu Ghraib. As does the hundreds of incidents of police violence and killings of Blacks. Is there any real difference between the brutality exhibited by U.S. soldiers against Iraqi detainees and what local police departments habitually impose upon Blacks across the nation?

And speaking of apologies: When do we receive ours? Even a lame one at that. It is particularly offensive to hear government officials offer an apology, albeit late and insincere, to foreigners but trip on their tongues when the subject of the experience of Black African descendants is raised. And believe me, it’s not the apology I really care about. It’s the acknowledgment of the pain and suffering this nation caused my ancestors expressly to maintain white privilege, the economic benefits derived from Blacks’ free and exploited labor, and how that legacy transcends generations and continues to impede Blacks full and equal participation in American society.

What we see in Iraq is simply our own reflection.

Walter Fields is Publisher of The NorthStar Network.

May 13 2004
Issue 90

is published every Thursday.