WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S. Senate on Thursday passed a resolution apologizing to African-Americans for the wrongs of slavery.

The nonbinding resolution sponsored by Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, is similar to a House resolution adopted last year that acknowledged the wrongs of slavery but offered no reparations. The House will have to vote on the issue again because the composition of that chamber changed after last November's elections.

The resolution was approved on a voice vote.

Because it is nonbinding, it does not have to be forwarded to the president for his signature.

Several states have passed similar resolutions, but the House resolution was the first time a branch of the federal government did so.

Harkin's resolution "acknowledges the fundamental injustice, cruelty, brutality and inhumanity of slavery, and Jim Crow laws," and "apologizes to African-Americans on behalf of the people of the United States for the wrongs committed against them and their ancestors who suffered under slavery and Jim Crow laws."

Jim Crow laws were state and local laws enacted mostly in U.S. Southern and border states between the 1870s and 1965 that denied African-Americans the right to vote and other civil liberties, as well as legally segregated them from whites.

Some members of the African-American community have called on lawmakers to give cash payments or other financial benefits to descendants of slaves as compensation for the suffering caused by slavery.

I was wondering if this would ever come about. And now I find myself wondering if this is going to bring closure and a bit more peace among races in America. I don't expect an amazing transformation throughout the country because of this, but I do wonder how the African-American community will respond to this.


Also, did we ever apologize to the Native Americans for what we did? o.o; I honestly don't remember.

I kind of find it interesting how, when the talk of reparations comes up, it seems no one ever realizes that the original slaves were captured in Africa by enemy tribes and sold to the highest bidder to finance their wars. In effect, they were sold into slavery by their own people. But then that might actually silence the greedy.

Speaking of which, why should the government pay anything to people who have never once experienced slavery? Looks more like they're seeking a handout and trying the guilt card on people who had no hand in the whole matter. Why should the descendants pay for the mistakes of their ancestors?

Yeah, if people didn't have their neighbors in their face telling them they were a lower form of person (if even that kind) then I don't think people would bring up reparations and all that.

I don't think apologies do anything. Money, verbal, it doesn't change problems today. If someone is still taking slavery personally, and no one has ever say condoned or suggested that something like that should still be continued to them, then that person is just looking to get something out of their ancestors suffering. I think we're too far to empathize with slavery, but we can still sympathize. I've watched plenty black people make a joke out of slavery.

Now when people talk about slavery like it was nothing, an oops at best, I get upset. But if I get some money over it it's not going to change those views, and in fact people who push for money as a way to clean the slate only make themselves look like scum and promote the poor ideas of their race.

Those that think it only takes a verbal "sorry" to please people are honestly too ignorant to see that there's serious issues in our society. No matter all the history that proves we're all people with different features like different hair color, there are some that have refused to accept that. It's like a disease when nothing proves your point and you continue to believe it.

I just try to be myself, and I just feel sorry for the ignorant or those that think they're being funny. I've gotten lots of people telling me I'm not black enough, or complimenting me in strange ways to suggest that to be black is something horrible and ignorant and it's surprising that even someone with some black history can hold themselves well. Now I like to consider everything I am in my identity, but that really pisses me off that if I speak well then I'm not an acceptable black person. That's from all racial groups, more often black people themselves.

I'm half irish.

My ancestors were slaves too.

I honestly don't give a flying monkey's worth if someone's sorry for that or not.

I won't ask for money for it because I'm not greedy, I won't ask for sympathy for it because I personally have never suffered for it. I lament that my ancestors were treated in that way, but I know that the people who I see every day have done nothing to promote or protect the slavery of Irish people, nor have they ever actually thought of owning an Irish slave.

Maybe I'm just a little colder than most, but I still have to work for anything I want just like everyone else and I expect neither sympathy nor special treatmen for the way someone else's ancestors treated mine.

If you offered me money to try and quell my emotions or something I'd probably see you as a patronising git more than a well-meaning apologist.

Accusations of racism: BEGIN!

It's all well and good to apologize, recognize what was done was wrong. But when talk of reparations come up... You're making people pay money who have/had nothing to do with slavery, to people who have/had nothing to do with slavery. It's simply ridiculous.
And if you're going to do that, why not pay reparations to every other minority that's been oppressed. Pay the native americans. Pay the irish, pay the Japanese americans. Logically and fiscally, it makes no sense.

I don't really believe a society in the future can really say sorry or should say sorry. It's not the same people for one, but that's not the issue I have with it. A lot of bad things have happened in history, and while there have been singular persons that have indeed contributed to particular events, everyone else just went along with it. However, we know that all those people didn't do it because they had some master plan in mind to undermine a certain group of people, but they did it because the environment they were in was conductive to that kind of sheepish behavior. In many cases, economics has often played the most important role in shaping worldly events. If you were to say sorry on behalf of millions of people, it would actually mean that you were apologizing for being human. That's silly.

If a different group of people is put into the same environment, you can expect them to do the exact same thing. Europe didn't develop their technology (starting in the 1600s) so much quicker than every other group of people because they were smarter or because there were a lot of people who had a master plan. No, it only happened because of the particular environment that they were in (read Guns, Germs, and Steel). Nazi Germany didn't gain so many supporters in Germany just because everyone was inherently racist. No, people there were in a miserable economic state, and Hitler's party brought hope to them. Slavery didn't happen because Europeans were just more racist than everyone else. No, it provided cheap labor that allowed them to excel economically.

The only people that can say sorry are those singular individual peoples (or groups) that directly contributed to events. For anyone else to say sorry, it is entirely meaningless. And if you're expecting a society to say sorry to you, then you're a sad greedy individual looking for some false sense of comfort.

(Though there could be particular problematic issues with some cultures, a mere "sorry" won't fix it.)

Blatantly idiotic. The most reparations will ever do is to create deeper rifts between the races. Though I wouldn't doubt the possibilty of something like that happening in the US where people sue for anything.

Also, such a decree is purely useless in accomplishing anything practical. The racist jokes will continue, whether the government has apologized on their behalf or not.

This leads to another dilemma. In the frenzy to be politically correct, minorities have much more leeway concerning racial slurs than the majority (hence, the "race card"). Race differences will only continue as we keep that mentality.

That's politics for you.

I'm not against reparations to be honest,but it should have been given to the generation that lived through slavery. However many others have received some form of reparations so I don't see what the resistance is about really. The Germans paid reparation to the Jewish for what they did. We gave Japanese Americans something for being put in interment camps and we have give American Indians some for of compensation. Heck we give millions of aid to other nation like Palestine when they get blown apart by Israel for shooting rockets,but can't give any of our own people any money.

I don't see the point; yes, they are apologizing, but honestly these people themselves didn't go through it, and it's their ancestors who deserve 'reparations'. If they are apologizing to the African-Americans, they should have simultaneously released apologies to every other ethnic, religious, orientational, etc. group that was scorned upon, massacred, forced into slavery, etc.

I just don't think a simple apology makes up for what people went through, and I don't think that their descendents should take advantage of their past to get money.