Slavery is the most appalling aspect of American history and should be condemned for its violations of individual rights. Yet collective apologies, instead of promoting harmony, will undoubtedly have a negative effect on race relations. To understand why this is so, one has to know what basic ideas lead to such proposals. The underlying principle of the proposal is racial collectivism. This is the belief than you or I can be held responsible for the actions of people we have nothing in common with save skin colour.
Racial collectivism is in essence a racist idea.
Blame can only be attributed to individuals, as only individuals can think, value, and act. By claiming that blame can be justly attributed solely on the basis of skin colour implies that this is a factor determining the content of a person s character. Only by accepting racial collectivism and thus racism can one require that a person apologise for injustices committed before he was born by people entirely strange to him. The apology required is therefore not one from whites of today to blacks of today, but rather one from the people demanding such an apology, including President Clinton, to the people they implicitly accuse of crimes and injustices they did not commit. As with many other problems the underlying cause of racism is collectivism.