House apologizes for slavery

A recent Washington Post article describes the House's recent decision to apologize for the U.S. government's involvement in slavery.

The House yesterday apologized to black Americans, more than 140 years after slavery was abolished, for the "fundamental injustice, cruelty, brutality and inhumanity of slavery and Jim Crow" segregation.

Question: why is this controversial?

SA #3: Conjure Woman reading questions

1. List the material benefits that Julius accrues by the end of The Conjure Woman.

2. Based on your understanding of the text, define or write in standard English the following words:

goophered (e.g. p. 35 )
bimeby (e.g. p. 47)
juneseyin’ (e.g. p. 58 )
patteroles (e.g. p. 64)

3. In “The Conjurer’s Revenge,” Julius says,

I doan lak ter dribe a mule. I’s alluz afeared I mought be imposin’ on some human creetur; eve’y time I cuts a mule wid a hick’ry, ‘pears ter me mos’ lackly I’s cuttin’ some er my own relations, er somebody e’se w’at can’t he’p deyse’ves. (71)

a. What is the reason Julius gives for this feeling in his story?

b. Give another example from the novel of a person undergoing injury as a result of being mistaken for something other than a person.

c. In your opinion, is conjure represented as a source of misfortune in the novel?