Posted on 04/17/2017 1:40:05 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Almost 250 years of slavery, 100 years of legal segregation and discrimination and over 50 years of redlining and other forms of institutional racism beyond that. All of these factors have led to the disproportionate poverty found in black communities in the United States, and all of them are cause for the need for reparations.
This idea is not without precedent: in 1952, Israel and West Germany signed an agreement that West Germany would pay reparations to Jewish people from Germany in the aftermath of the Holocaust. Reparations are not unheard of even within the context of the United States. The Civil Liberties Act of 1988 compensated all survivors of the Japanese-American internment camps with $20,000 each. But despite over 400 years of oppression, the black community in the United States has never received reparations for the damages done to them. Given the existing precedents, it is not unreasonable for reparations to be demanded.
So, who would receive these reparations? Well, William Darity, a public policy professor at Duke University, and Dania Francis, an economics professor at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, proposed two requirements for eligibility: “First, an individual would have to provide reasonable documentation that they had at least one ancestor who was enslaved in the United States, and, second, an individual would have to demonstrate that at least ten years before the onset of the reparations program, they self-identified as black, African American, colored or Negro on a legal document.” This is only one of many possibilities.
How much is owed in reparations? Well, if we take into consideration all slave labor from the late 1700s to 1865, the black American community would be owed $6.4 trillion in 2015 dollars. That calculation is courtesy of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., by the way, who advocated for reparations for slavery in his 1963 book, “Why We Can’t Wait.” These calculations do not take into account other forms of legal oppression since that time.
It must be admitted that this is most certainly a hefty sum, and certainly one which the United States government could not pay off all at once. An immediate lump-sum payment to each individual is probably not the ideal form of compensation in this case. So, how would reparations be implemented then? The best solution to this problem might be the creation of a series of programs designed to bolster the black American community. These could include a fund to provide scholarships to prospective black college students, low-interest loans for black-owned businesses and a small universal pension for black Americans, all of which would be put in place for several decades.
Needless to say, reparations aren’t going to happen soon. Every two years since 1989, Representative John Conyers has introduced House Resolution 40, which only would create a commission to investigate how, potentially, some form of remedy for the damages caused by slavery might be implemented. Every time it has been introduced, the bill has stalled. Congress remains so firmly opposed to reparations that it refuses to even investigate the possibility of reparations.
These reparations would go a long way to improving conditions for the black American community — but even then, it’s not a cure-all. Alleviating the economic effects of centuries of oppression does not prevent future economic oppression, nor does it do anything to alleviate other forms of systemic prejudice and discrimination. Just as important as material solutions to the effects of racism is sustained work in advancing anti-racist education and activism. It is imperative that people recognize and work to dismantle and destroy systems of oppression in this country and worldwide.
Thanks for reading.
I think that reparations are in order.
I as a Swede, Norwegian, Finn, Irishman and Frenchman did not get my cut of the sale of the slave from the tribesman in Africa. Those descendants of the slaver in Africa owe me big time!
Sure... As long as we deduct the costs of “The Great Society”
Various Supreme Court decisions I have read place US citizenship as having began July 4, 1776. Even if you ignore that, we had a national charter in the Articles of Confederation March 1, 1781.
“Redlining” is back in the news again? How nice.
Take a perfectly reasonable business practice (not lending to people who cannot pay it back) and give it an evil sounding name like ‘redlining’
Just like putting limited resources to good use NOT chasing ridiculous possible suspects - call it ‘profiling’ and you got something you can rail against.
Or taking something bad and giving it a good name - and just like that ILLEGAL alien becomes ‘undocumented immigrant’. OR socialism become ‘progress’.
And we let the libtards get away with it (perverting the use of language) over and over and over.
Just like we let them drive the daily news stories. Who cares what CNNBCBSPBSMSNBC covers as ‘news’ every day- why do people on our side even talk to them?
The war was not fought over ending slavery but was fought because the North did not want to let the South decide it’s own destiny. Tariff income on most of the imported goods used by the South was a huge money maker for the North and the North didn’t want to give it up. The issue of slavery being allowed in new territories was used to politically weaken the South to the point of being dictated to by the North. The South had had enough and wanted to determine their own destiny. The North FORCED their will upon the South, then used “slavery” as an excuse for the deaths of over half a million young men. This was not a noble effort.
After defeating George Foreman for the heavyweight title in Zaire, Muhammad Ali returned to the United States where he was asked by a reporter, “Champ, what did you think of Africa?” Ali replied, “Thank God my granddaddy got on that boat.”
The entire Democrat Party has spent trillions keeping Black Americans in poverty and unemployed so they can justify reparations. The money should come from anyone who or has ever been a registered Democrat.
“Reparations: A one-way ticket to Liberia. Coach.”
On United Airlines
The world owes White Europeans/Americans, Jews and Asians TRILLIONS for the world of wealth, health and prosperity they have created. Those 4 groups are responsible for 95% of all historical advances. And that may be a modest appraisal.
Considering the Trillions $$$ paid by hard working Americans fighting the “WAR ON POVERTY” and how a damn good portion of it goes to Blacks, I’d say we’re more than well covered with “reparations”.
At some point blacks are going to have to own up to their reflections in the mirror.
No.
“Well, if we take into consideration all slave labor from the late 1700s to 1865, the black American community would be owed $6.4 trillion in 2015 dollars.”
Its doubtful that the labor of every black person born since the beginning of time is worth 6.4 trillion dollars.
Blacks get around $700 more per person in benefits than they pay in taxes. Plus they make 3% more per year of education than average due to affirmative action. They are already getting reparations.
It is chiefly in the United States that those who can’t, haven’t, and aren’t likely to, constantly attack those who can and have. Note that while they rail and fume and grouse, they depend utterly on a world created by the people about whom they rail and grouse.
You hear from your professors that white people were guilty of colonization, slavery, and oppression. This is true. What your professors will not point out is that such behavior was, and is, universal. Human beings are a sorry species, given to murder, torture, genocide, thievery, looting, conquest, and slavery. This has been, and is, true of Africans, American Indians, Latin Americans, Muslims, Christians, Jews, Hindus, Japanese, Chinese, and Europeans.
Look around you. Can you find anything with a moving part that was not invented by whites? Anything electronic? Cars, telephones, computers, aircraft, antibiotics, on and on–all sprang from the minds of white people. You are not supposed to say such things, and could be run out of a university for it–but ask yourself, if you have the courage: Is it true? Do not think that because things are commonplace or easy to use that they are not products of fields of extraordinary difficulty.
I’ll give them their reparations under these conditions.
1) you must renounce your citizenship and surrender your passport
2) you must leave the USA immediately to any country that would have you.
3) you will never be allowed to re-enter the USA for any reason
4) you will receive your payment after you have become a naturalized citizen of your chose homeland.
“Reparations: A one-way ticket to Liberia. Coach.”
I once calculated that at only 1% interest compounded annually, every Jewish person on the planet would be entitled to something like 15 million dollars. That was a few years ago, so now that amount will be at least half a million dollars higher.
No Black person alive today has every been a slave in USA.
Very few black people alive today were denied their civil rights.
The majority of black people alive today have squandered their rights; wasted their opportunities.
My people emigrated to this Nation in the last 1800s, well after the civil war and the abolition of slavery. We had no part of it. Neither had we any part of the denial of rights to black citizens.
NOBODY is going to make me a slave for a crime I did not commit. I will die (and kill) first.
Just a general question — Where on earth is the liberty, standard of living and prospects better for melanin-enhanced people (in the aggregate) than the USA?
The treaty named the 13 states one by one. The Brits had their doubts whether the country would remain united.
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