Wachovia acknowledges slave-owning past
"The mega-bank [Wachovia] is looking at its past and neither minimizing [n]or denying it profited from slavery," writes Trish. "Wachovia, whether it set out to or not, is following the Truth and Reconciliation process pioneered by Archbishop Desmond Tutu in South Africa. After apartheid, whites feared blacks would rise up and kill them all in revenge... and Tutu won a Nobel prize as a result...Wachovia seems to get it: 'We know that we cannot change the past, and we can’t make up for the wrongs of slavery...But we can learn from our past, and begin a stronger dialogue about slavery and the experience of African-Americans in our country…' Too often in this country, we deal with slavery by saying, 'Oh that was a long time ago, and I didn’t personally own slaves.'" (Pensito Review)
