Local Americanists: Ashraf Rushdy, "The New Apologists for Slavery"

Ashraf Rushdy is Benjamin Waite Professor of the English Language, Professor of African American Studies, Chair of the African American Studies Program, and Director of the Center for African American American Studies at Wesleyan University.

The New Apologists for Slavery
Ashraf H. A. Rushdy

In “The New Apologists for Slavery,” I look at the meanings of the public apologies made for slavery by politicians, political bodies, and religious leaders and institutions. These public apologies for slavery – part of a larger historical moment of public apologies for a range of historical atrocities – emerged as a distinct practice towards the end of the twentieth century, and then developed into a full-blown discourse by the beginning of the twenty-first. In this paper, I discuss what these apologies mean from the point of view of those who extend them, what they reveal about the discourse of apology itself, and what is seemingly implied about the historical events for which they are offered.