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Why Reparations Talk Is Harmful
National Review ^ | September 20, 2019 | Mona Charen

Posted on 09/20/2019 5:55:19 AM PDT by karpov

Three Democratic candidates for president — Julián Castro, Cory Booker, and Marianne Williamson — have declared support for the idea of slavery reparations. A number of others have said they’d vote for a bill sponsored by Representative Sheila Jackson-Lee (D., Texas) to create a “commission to study and develop reparation proposals for African Americans.” Still other candidates have been vague (Kamala Harris, Bernie Sanders, Beto O’Rourke), while Elizabeth Warren has called for a “national, full-blown conversation about reparations in this country.” Oh, a conversation.

A Washington Post piece examining the tensions between black Americans on the question offers a glimpse of why this idea is terrible. It’s a profile of William A. “Sandy” Darity, a professor of economics at Duke, and leader of the “Planning Committee for Reparations,” a group of academics who are attempting to create a program to implement reparations. They envision a plan that would offer cash payments to all African Americans who can 1) prove that they are descended from someone enslaved in the United States and 2) have identified as black in public documents for at least ten years.

This, as you can imagine, has engendered some raised eyebrows. “It’s extremely difficult to separate classes of black people,” objects Nkechi Taifa, a D.C. “activist” (per the Post) who supports the idea of reparations for all black people. “The idea that unless you can actually trace your family directly to a slave that you haven’t been subject to the legacy of slavery is a bunch of hogwash.”

There it is, the ticking time bomb of intra-group resentment that reparations talk ignites. About 10 percent of black Americans today are foreign-born. The number of blacks who are children and grandchildren of immigrants from Africa and the Caribbean is even larger

(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...


TOPICS: Editorial
KEYWORDS: monacharen; reparations
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Kidnapping and enslaving people is evil. But the people so victimized are long gone. The descendants of slaves are actually lucky to be living in America rather than Africa.
1 posted on 09/20/2019 5:55:19 AM PDT by karpov
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To: karpov

The talk is harmful because they can’t clearly identify the “class action” participants?

No, the talk is harmful because it reinforces the idea that blacks are perpetual children who could never survive without handouts. Whites and Indians were worked to death in the Caribbean before blacks; show me the money (/s)


2 posted on 09/20/2019 5:57:40 AM PDT by kearnyirish2 (Affirmative action is economic warfare against white males (and therefore white families).)
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To: karpov

“ a conversation.” During which white people will be told to shut up!


3 posted on 09/20/2019 5:58:07 AM PDT by wastoute (Government cannot redistribute wealth. Government can only redistribute poverty.)
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To: karpov

Reparations promotes victimhood and diminishes self responsibility.


4 posted on 09/20/2019 5:58:49 AM PDT by tired&retired (Blessings)
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To: tired&retired

Self responsibility promotes self empowerment and leads to happiness.


5 posted on 09/20/2019 5:59:41 AM PDT by tired&retired (Blessings)
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To: karpov
a glimpse of why this idea is terrible.

Redistributionism + guaranteed income + reparations + budget deficits + confiscatory taxation + government borrowing + creation of money out of thin air/inflation + excessive government spending/consumption expenditure = capital decumulation = economic decline & decay = mass poverty

6 posted on 09/20/2019 6:04:42 AM PDT by mjp ((pro-{God, reality, reason, egoism, individualism, natural rights, limited government, capitalism}))
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To: karpov
The race of professional victims looking for another way to shakedown the taxpayer; Obama made the template with the Pigford Settlement.
7 posted on 09/20/2019 6:07:19 AM PDT by vetvetdoug
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To: karpov
Warren is hoping that, if reparations are paid to blacks, then the payments will also be extended to American Indians.

If all black Americans are eligible, then Obama would qualify for a payment...or any illegal alien of African descent who snuck across the border last year.

A lot of white people have ancestors who endured working conditions as bad as those suffered by slaves. In theory they could have left that job for another but in practice that might not have been a realistic option. Some whites were brought to the colonies against their will after being caught in a petty crime (see Daniel Defoe's Moll Flanders)--their options were to be transported as labor several years as an indentured servant or be hanged in London. Who knows how many millions of white Americans may have someone like that in their family tree.

8 posted on 09/20/2019 6:08:42 AM PDT by Verginius Rufus
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To: wastoute

When will blacks start paying for their emancipation?


9 posted on 09/20/2019 6:11:54 AM PDT by abclily
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To: wastoute

When will blacks start paying for their emancipation?


10 posted on 09/20/2019 6:12:23 AM PDT by abclily
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To: karpov

The African slaves were captured and sold by AFRICAN muslim tribes that didn’t allow Europeans to have a part.

You want reparations? Go back to Africa and take it up with those tribes who are still there, who celebrate their part in the slave trade and many of whom still trade in slaves.

If any American entity would be responsible for reparations it would be the Democrat party, party of slavery.


11 posted on 09/20/2019 6:15:57 AM PDT by RJS1950 (The democrats are the "enemies foreign and domestic" cited in the federal oath)
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To: karpov

Yes, because racistly attacking the whole America to be taxed for slave reparations is so beneficial, instead of putting the finger on the criminal racist culprit, the Democrat party ideology....


12 posted on 09/20/2019 6:16:00 AM PDT by JudgemAll (Democrats Fed. job-security in hatse:hypocrites must be gay like us or be tested/crucified)
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To: karpov

Blacks did it to themselves as much as any white person did it.


13 posted on 09/20/2019 6:21:33 AM PDT by CodeToad ( Hating on Trump is hating on me and Americans!)
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To: karpov
I'm sick of black people doing 'white face' AND doing white hair...

Even on MSNBC many black women lighten their skin and wear wigs that imitate 'white people's hair'. Talk about appropriation - they've made an industry out of it.

It's triggering to us to see black people appropriating our hair... our face... and our mannerisms. Where's the outrage?

What's the matter with the black community? There's even cosmetic sections at Walmart and Walgreens etc for 'lighten your skin' cosmetics - sitting beside 'straighten your hair' lotions... Does Walmart have a section of cosmetics on how to 'do' blackface? Black people's hair? NO. And there should NOT be a store section on how to imitate a 'white look'...

Let's deal with this before we even start to talk about reparations - for people who were NEVER slaves... one outrage at a time.

14 posted on 09/20/2019 6:22:19 AM PDT by GOPJ ( Daniel Okrent HELP - lowlife editors at the New York Times need YOU... they've lost their way.)
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To: RJS1950

Don’t forget that only 5% of enslaved blacks from Africa came to the US colonies. The rest went to the Caribbean and central and South America.

Also, 24% of free blacks held slaves but only 1.5% of whites did. Seems blacks didn’t mind enslaving blacks.


15 posted on 09/20/2019 6:23:10 AM PDT by CodeToad ( Hating on Trump is hating on me and Americans!)
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To: karpov

I’m not responsible for things done by other people. Guilt does not pass through the genes, in spite of the ridiculous doctrine of “original sin,” and guilt does not affect people simply because they have a skin shade like that of most of slaveholders.


16 posted on 09/20/2019 6:24:53 AM PDT by I want the USA back (The further a society drifts from the truth, the more it will hate those who speak it. Orwell.)
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To: CodeToad
Seems blacks didn’t mind enslaving blacks.

Heck the whole slave trade point of origin was all about blacks selling blacks.

17 posted on 09/20/2019 6:25:19 AM PDT by ClearCase_guy (If White Privilege is real, why did Elizabeth Warren lie about being an Indian?)
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To: abclily

Exactly. If the slaves had not been brought over here over 200 years ago, the blacks in this country wouldn’t even be alive now or they would be chucking spears at wild animals in Africa for food and living in mud huts with no electricity.


18 posted on 09/20/2019 6:29:55 AM PDT by Old Yeller (Auto-correct has become my worst enema.)
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To: karpov

Unfortunately, as horrible an idea as reparations is, I think it will eventually happen. Maybe not in my lifetime, but I’d be surprised if it doesn’t happen by 2050. Like a whack-a-mole the idea keeps popping up and more & more liberals are for it. As much as I hate to admit it, the liberals keep getting their way. And the countries changing demographics don’t bode well for the status quo.

What for the reparations will take is still TBD. But it will probably be some kind of payment. Basically, getting paid for being Black. Likewise other groups like American Indians, Latinos, etc. will demand their own for supposed racial crimes.

By 2100, you’ll have everyone being paid a stipend, except a shrinking number of White people. However, by that time, it will all be the equivalent of Monopoly money anyway.


19 posted on 09/20/2019 6:30:17 AM PDT by rbg81 (Truth is stranger than fiction)
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To: kearnyirish2; wastoute; tired&retired; mjp; vetvetdoug; Verginius Rufus; abclily; RJS1950; x; ...
I'm sick of black people doing 'white face' AND doing "white people's hair"...

Even on MSNBC black women lighten their skin and wear wigs that imitate 'white people's hair'. Talk about appropriation - they've made an art form out of it.

It's triggering. Triggering to us to see black people appropriating our hair... our face... and our mannerisms. Where's the outrage?

What's the matter with the black community? There's even cosmetic sections at Walmart and Walgreens etc for 'lighten your skin' cosmetics - sitting beside 'straighten your hair' lotions... Does Walmart have a section of cosmetics on how to 'do' blackface? Black people's hair? NO. And there should NOT be a store section on how to imitate a 'white look'...

Let's deal with this before we even start to talk about reparations - for people who were NEVER slaves... one outrage at a time please.

20 posted on 09/20/2019 6:31:20 AM PDT by GOPJ ( Daniel Okrent HELP - lowlife editors at the New York Times need YOU... they've lost their way.)
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