Racial Reconciliation or Retreat? How Legislative Resolutions Apologizing for Slavery Promulgate White Supremacy

UNPRECEDENTED legislative resolutions apologize for the perpetuation of slavery and call for racial healing and reconciliation. Although the text of each resolution varies, they all fail to provide any form of concrete remedial measures. Building upon work in political science, legal scholarship, and critical race theory, this article provides an interest-convergence analysis (Bell 1980) of the US House, Senate and seven state legislative resolutions apologizing for slavery and Jim Crow. It argues that although these apologies appear to promote racial healing and reconciliation they actually promulgate white supremacy: by covertly thwarting reparations claims or other racial justice efforts for black Americans they perpetuate a system of white political dominance while providing the illusion of substantive racial reconciliation and progress.