Now this is the type of stuff we need more of. White folks, on your knees!

About a week ago, the man kneeling in the photo, Andrew Hawkins — “a descendant of Sir John Hawkins, an Elizabethan sea captain who began centuries of British involvement in the slave trade” — left England with a group of White folks and went to The Gambia in West Africa to apologize for slavery in front of the country’s vice-pres, Isatou Njie Saidy, and 25,000 Africans.

The group Mr. Hawkins is down with is called the Lifeline Expedition, a group ”aimed at achieving reconciliation between Europeans and Africans”. Here’s another of their projects, Yokes & Chains, which is basically their program of doing public marches while shackled together to bring attention to the cause of reconciliation.

This is touching. I think it would have been better if they had not been told the date of their departure, snatched unexpectedly in the midst of their daily routines, then made to strip naked and lie in each others’ shit, piss and vomit for several months. That would have added that special touch of magic. Oh well, can’t have it all!

I applaud Mr. Hawkins’ and his comrades’ actions, but let’s not let the racial reconciliation fun end there! Some of that money you guys made from using, selling, killing-at-will, degrading, talking to like a dog, experimenting on, raping, making work for free from sun-up to sun-fuckin-down, dehumanizing and mentally controlling (even today!) us would be nice too.

Thanx BlackHacker and Professor Kim!

del.icio.us: slavery, reconciliation, race, andrew hawkins, john hawkins, lifeline expedition, reparations