Book Calls on U.S. Congress to Act On Its 2008 and 2009 Apologies to African Americans by Addressing Links Between Present-Day Racial Conflict and Centuries of American Racism
ATLANTA, Dec. 5, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- In Imani Michelle Scott's recently released book, Crimes Against Humanity in the Land of the Free: Can a Truth and Reconciliation Process Heal Racial Conflict in America?, a collection of North American scholar-activists propose the implementation of a U.S.-based, government-sanctioned Truth, Reconciliation, and Peace Process (TRPP) to deal once and for all with centuries of American racism.
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This "all hands on deck" approach to confronting and ending American racism advises that many lessons can be learned from a national investment in the types of programmatic measures employed by international truth and reconciliation processes. Ironically, the impetus for such processes begins with what the U.S. Congress did in 2008 and 2009: issued governmental apologies for crimes against humanity.
In 2008 and 2009, the U.S. Congress issued HR 194 and SR 26. Both Resolutions formally apologize to African Americans "on behalf of the people of the United States, for the wrongs committed against them and their ancestors..." and acknowledge that "African-Americans continue to suffer from the consequences of slavery and Jim Crow laws..." In fact, HR 194 pledges a "commitment to rectify the lingering consequences of the misdeeds committed against African Americans under slavery and Jim Crow and to stop the occurrences of human rights violations in the future."
According to Scott, human rights violations against African Americans continue to occur in the U.S. She observed, "The lingering consequences of centuries of oppression and racism are especially apparent today in the recurrent killings of unarmed blacks by white police officers and the historical failure of America's justice system to hold offenders accountable."
Suggesting that the consequences of centuries of human rights violations are also manifested through transgenerated transmissions of trauma and violence, and perpetual structural and institutional inequalities, Scott noted it ironic that the U.S. has mandated truth-seeking, truth-telling and reconciliation measures in other nations where atrocities are presumed to have occurred but has not done so within its own borders.
Scott, who holds a doctorate in Conflict Analysis and Resolution, expressed pointed concern that contemporary incidents of black-white violence re-traumatize Americans and reflect deep-seated core issues of black-white fear, anger, and hatred.
Scott adds: "What we have today is a U.S. Congress that admitted to this nation's most treacherous, prolonged and deadly series of crimes against humanity and the present-day consequences of those crimes. Without acting to confront America's racism by investing in truth-telling, peace-building and healing initiatives to account for admitted atrocities, the aftereffects of those atrocities will continually haunt this nation."
Crimes against Humanity in the Land of the Free:
Can a Truth and Reconciliation Process heal Racial Conflict in America?
ISBN 978-1-4408-3043-3 – Hard copy
ISBN 978-1-4408-3044-0 – eBook
Publisher: Praeger/ABC-CLIO
Author/Editor: Imani Michelle Scott
www.crimesagainsthumanitybook.com
Available on Amazon
Contact: Imani Michelle Scott, PhD
Email
(404) 241-1408
www.crimesagainsthumanitybook.com
http://youtu.be/GU5G5s49Avo
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SOURCE Imani Scott
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