Apologies to the Future


Mari Soberal, York University

This paper presentation will analyze the power of apology for past injustices and injustices done to future ancestors yet to come. In the past decade, there has been a significant focus on what constitutes forgiveness, especially from public figures and government structures. With the constant eye of media coverage and social media for accountability, there are no shortage of public figures offering carefully manicured statements of apology. While there is no issue with apology and accountability, if anything, we should become more comfortable with accountability, we have also run into other problems. The first being that these apologies have become so commonplace, that we have become completely desensitized to them. We have also run into the problem of what constitutes a proper apology, who decides what is a proper apology, and the issue of disingenuous apologies. At present in the United States and Canada, we are beginning the process of politicians apologizing for their complicity in colonial violence; because of this, the power of apology is brought to the forefront. This paper utilizes thematic content analysis of Avery Gordon’s Ghostly Matters and Stefan Skrimshire’s Confessing Anthropocene, we can see that we are being held accountable by the ghosts and judgment of the future humans. This analysis will focus on understanding the complicated political landscape of apologizing to the past and the future of colonial violence.

This paper will be presented at the following session: