[Inspired by two
recent events about which I wrote on Monday, a series on the complex question
of whether and how America should apologize for historic wrongs. Leading up to
a special weekend post where I’ll share some broader thoughts and for which I’m
not at all sorry to ask for your contributions as well!]
On what it means
to apologize for something we don’t remember, and how one might affect the
other.
In June 2012,
the House of
Representatives passed a formal resolution apologizing for the 1882 Chinese
Exclusion Act and the many equally discriminatory, subsequent laws and policies
that extended and deepened the exclusion era’s realities and effects on the
Chinese American community. One of my favorite journalists and writers, James
Fallows, blogged at his Atlantic site
about the apology and how it was being perceived
from a Chinese perspective (a particular expertise of Fallows’) here; in
this follow
up post I was fortunate enough to have an email of mine to Fallows quoted
as part of the conversation abuot the Exclusion Act. Although (like the last
couple apologies about which I’ve written this week) the House resolution did
not include any reparations or other such actionable items, it was nonetheless
a significant moment in both American political history and for our
relationship with this fellow global superpower. And yet, as Fallows notes in
the first post, the resolution received no coverage in any of the leading
American newspapers.
Fallows
attributes that absence to the fact that the House passes a lot of resoutions,
and most of them go unnoticed or unremarked upon. That’s true enough, but it’s
also true—or at least I would argue it is, and did so in the entire
premise of my third book—that we don’t collectively remember the Chinese
Exclusion Act much at all, and it’s pretty hard to think or care about a
Congressional apology for something that’s not on our collective radar to begin
with. Fallows notes how different things are in China, where he argues memories
of the Exclusion Act run far deeper; but in my series of book talks for that
Chinese Exclusion Act project, I had the chance to talk with both communities of
Chinese Americans (such as at the Chinatown
branch of the San Francisco Public Library) and Chinese nationals (a group
of graduate students at UMass Lowell who had recently arrived from China), and
found that even among those groups there was not a widespread base of knowledge
about the Exclusion Act and its contexts. At best, memories of this crucial law
and all the histories to which it connects are painfully partial and
simplified, and it’s fair to wonder whether an apology for such histories has
any valence at all (outside of what it might mean, practically speaking, for
our current relationship with China).
Yet at the same
time, why not? I spent a whole
weekly series focusing on bad memories, dark histories that it’s painful
and difficult to remember, and thinking about various ways we might better so
and models for those possibilities. And there’s certainly no reason why formal,
official apologies for those histories couldn’t become (provided, yes, that
they received some media coverage and conversation) one successful method for
spreading and amplifying those collective memories. Indeed, however much pride
I might take in my book on the Exclusion Act, even in my most optimistic takes
on its potential reach and resonance it would pale in comparison to the kinds
of coverage that can accompany government actions and debates in our news cycle
age. Such coverage would only be a first step towards more full and nuanced
collective conversations and memories, of course—and that’s where public
scholarly voices would become important contributors—but it could certainly
provide a significant starting point. So even though we’re four years (almost
to the day) from that June 2012 Congressional resolution, I say we stir up some
debate, and see if we can’t jump start some collective conversation about this
American apology. You in?
Last
ApologyStudying tomorrow,
Ben
PS. What do you
think? Responses to this topic and/or broader thoughts on American apologies
for the weekend post are very welcome!
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