When Vice President JD Vance stood on the stage at a recent Turning Point USA even, he claimed white Americans no longer “have to apologize for being white anymore.” While the crowd filled with MAGA conservatives — most of whom are white — cheered Vance’s remarks, it begs the question: When did white Americans ever have to apologize for their race?
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In truth, America has a long, documented history of ignoring its racist past in order to not offend white people. But Black folks know the very painful truth. From violence against Black soldiers during World War II to the COINTELPRO program in the 1970s, here are just a few of the many times white America demonized Black people and never apologized for it.
False Obama Birtherism Claims
When former President Barack Obama announced his bid for presidency in 2007, he was met with a flood of racist and completely bigoted responses from white Americans who couldn’t fathom a Black U.S. president, BBC reported. Cue the birtherism movement…
An entire campaign to discredit Obama’s citizenship was ran, and arguably it was successfully. Even in 2025 — nearly 10 years since Obama left office — he’s still be subjected to the nasty conspiracy that he is not American and allegedly had deep ties to terrorist organization…. none of which are true for the record. What’s interesting is the former president never got a formal apology from any of the folks who championed the conspiracy, including from President Donald Trump, who is still targeting the Obama family today.
Murder of Trayvon Martin
In 2012, 17-year-old Trayvon Martin was gunned down with a pack of skittles and an Arizona tea can in his hands. The shooter, George Zimmerman, is a white Hispanic man who was acquitted of Martin’s killing under Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law. Following the tragedy, Zimmerman did not shy away from public backlash. He also never apologized for taking the teenager’s life. In fact, Zimmerman made a profit after selling the Kel-Tec PF-9 pistol he used to kill Martin for $250,000.
Kyle Rittenhouse
Kyle Rittenhouse became a household name after he was charged with the murder of Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber during a Black Lives Matter protest in 2020, we previously reported. Rittenhouse, who was only 17 years old at the time, was acquitted of all charges. He launched a GoFundMe which expectedly brought a lot of backlash. Still, the company came to his defense saying “Once charges for a violent crime were brought against Kyle Rittenhouse in 2020, GoFundMe removed fundraisers that were started for the defendant’s legal defense.” But now that he’s been acquitted, his GoFundMe page can stay.
Rittenhouse has also been welcomed with open arms by white advocates of the Second Amendment. He recently announced his return to social media explaining that he’s even gotten married.
Hollywood Actors in Blackface
Before Blackface became wildly inappropriate and condemned, white actors used the racist practice to advance their own careers. Folks like Joan Crawford, Al Jolson and Doris Day became Hollywood icons through their consistent portrayal of Black women and men. The once-popular practice featured white actors portraying Black people using the most horrendous stereotypes like bright red, overdrawn lips, very dark skin and even strange, wildly offensive accents and mannerisms.
America’s ‘Apology’ for Slavery
Of course, it took until Obama came to the White House for Congress to actually acknowledge the dark past of chattel slavery. In 2009, Congress passed resolutions apologizing for slavery and subsequent segregation. But while these symbolic resolutions finally addressed the elephant in the room, they did very little to provide the descendants of slaves with any compensation or assistance for the generations-long damage slavery had.
In many cases, the descendants of slave owners continue to parade their ancestors with pride, even though they’ve been connected to such horrific acts against Black people in this country.
Abandoning Reconstruction
And speaking of slavery… The end of the U.S. Civil War ushered in a new– short-lived– era in the country. Reconstruction promised a real change in America, with Black political leadership, Black agency and the promise of future Black wealth.
These dreams were crushed and hardly ever acknowledged again when Southern white Americans pushed for a new code of law which reversed the progress. The creation of Jim Crow laws and the Klu Klux Klan completely derailed Black American progress, and no one has apologized for the decades of terror and tragedy that the Black community endured because of Reconstruction’s end.
Legacy Admissions at Ivy League Institutions
It’s no secret that Ivy League institutions — the oldest universities in the country — were originally built with white Americans in mind. So once slavery ended and Black people were now free to seek their our education, these great institutions had a problem. How could they possibly let Jewish and Black people integrate with their white student body? The answer was simple: they couldn’t.
Instead, Ivy League institutions became serious about their legacy admissions, which heavily favor children of Ivy League alumni. Yes, many white legacies still get rejected, but the advantage is undeniable. In response, Affirmative Action and other civil rights policies were put in place to help even out the unbalanced scale between white, well off students and the “other.” Affirmative Action was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2023.
Haitians ‘Eating the Cats, Dogs’ Conspiracy
During the height of the 2024 presidential campaign season, then-candidate Trump and running mate Vance upset many Black people after repeating the debunked claim that Haitian immigrations in Springfield, Ohio were eating the pets of residents, NPR reported. Trump even repeated the claim on live television during a debate with VP Harris. He nor Vance have apologized for spreading the offensive rumor.
The Jan. 6 Capitol Riot
In response to Trump losing the 2020 election to former President Joe Biden, thousands of MAGA supporters flooded the U.S. Capitol — under Trump’s advisement — to stop the certifying the electoral votes. These rioters broke into the Capitol, forced lawmakers to hide for their safety and even attacked Capitol officers. Over 1,500 people were arrested and charges with crimes connected to the television revolt… but then Trump was elected in 2024.
On day one of his second term, the president signed an executive order pardoning, commuting the prison sentences and vowing to dismiss the cases of all people charged with crimes connected to the infamous insurrection, according to the White House.
Trump in Office…Twice
Trump’s first presidential campaign successfully ran on the promise to “Make America Great Again.” Former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi cleverly dubbed the MAGA motto as “Make America White Again,” which is a sentiment shared among Trump critics. The 47th president was able to win two presidential terms on the promise to protect white America and bring the country back to a time before the alleged “woke agenda,” DEI and immigration confusion.
COINTELPRO
According to the U.S. government, COINTELPRO — the Counter Intelligence Program — was the FBI’s response to alleged terroristic threats and politically motivated insurrections threatening the safety of all Americans. The FBI promised to go after the Klu Klux Klan and other dangerous groups, but instead, the government seemed to fixate on the Black Panther Party, and the affects were deadly.
During the ’60s and ’70s, COINTELPRO surveilled Black Panther leaders like Fred Hampton and Mark Clark and assassinated them. Their families were never compensated or given formal apologies.
Crack Cocaine Funneled Into Black Communities
Do we need to say more?
The crack epidemic of the 1980s destroyed Black communities in droves, but it wasn’t until decades later that the truth about who exactly supplied the drugs to the Black community was exposed. Agencies like the CIA were not directly responsible for the influx of drugs into the Black community… but they surely did facilitate it, NPR reported.
The CIA enabled drug trafficking by Nicaraguan Contras, which in turned fueled cocaine coming into the streets of America. Local drug dealers soon discovered how to turn pure cocaine into crack– a cheap, smokable alternative to the drug– which disproportionately impacted Black neighborhoods. Of course, no one could’ve known that these drug issues would lead to mass incarceration and the war on drugs.
Double V Campaign
When the U.S. went into the Second World War, Black folks were still subjected to Jim Crow at home. Still, many Black men decided to serve their country by joining the military and going overseas, according to the New Orleans WWII Museum. When they returned, however, they weren’t treated with the same respect that white veterans were treated with. In fact, there are countless stories of Black soldiers being killed, beaten and tortured just for wearing their uniform in public, the Zin Education Project found. Their families were never compensated.
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