I'm not so certain about this apology thing. What does it actually mean for a "state" to apologize? The state isn't a living creature. It has no ability to feel sorry for something. All it means is that a majority of state congressmen voted for the state to apologize, instead of apologizing themselves.

Furthermore, what is the meaning of this apology? People who never owned slaves nor supported slavery are voting to apologize to people who have never been slaves. Is this really meaningful? Will anyone be better off? If anything, I think that this will simply encourage people to keep thinking in terms of race.

So why vote for this apology? I think it's a game of politics: politicians will use this to show how great they are and how much they deserved to be reelected.

Or maybe there are some good effects of this apology, which I have overlooked? What do you guys think?