In a rather strange and somewhat bizarre story out of Maryland, an Anne Arundel executive decided to formally announce some plans considering slavery and making things right. With the state of the country being a trainwreck right now, racism has ramped up regarding immigration, deportation, ICE, and our President, who is somehow confused about the Super Bowl performer and where he is from. He even invoked the fact that his ancestors owned slaves, and how that makes him feel.
In a post shared to the Maryland Reddit page by user legislative_stooge, in a story initially reported by the Baltimore Banner, a term-limited Democrat named Steuart Pittman, out of Anne Arundel County, spoke at Annapolis and had some questionable things to say about his past, apologizing for slavery, and talking about his family’s history with owning slaves. Here is some of what he said.
I understand that there is no way to undo the past. I have this in my history, and I have strong feelings about it, and I might as well take the risk of talking about it. I felt like it was important to make a big deal of it because I see the impact of it, that it actually does bring people together, and address wounds that sometimes we know haven’t healed yet.
A spokesperson for Anne Arundel, Renesha Alphonso, claimed she is unaware of any other Maryland county issuing a formal apology for slavery before.
Here is what Redditors had to say about the positive, albeit bizarre sense of timing and ownership about such a sensitive issue.
“It’s as if I heard all of Glen Burnie suddenly cry out in terror…”
“I unfortunately have a conservative family and live in Glen Burnie; they are pissed.”
“Nice. We tried to bypass truth and reconciliation after the Civil War and that led to white supremacist terrorism and ultimately to our current crisis of ethnofacism.”
“Then give reparations to black people and give back the land to native americans and go back to europe. Otherwise youre not sorry, you reap and enjoy the benefits of slavery and the american land.”
The thread is chock full of racists who are seemingly angry about his statement, while others are mocking him over it or claiming it’s merely performative. At least he is facing it head-on, instead of acting as if it never happened in our history.
