The U.S. has yet to make good on its promise of reparations to black Americans

The Baltimore Sun ^ | Professors Karsonya Wise Whitehead and Conra Gist

[2ndDivisionVet]

Conversations about reparations are not about money but about people and about the way that people are seen and valued in our society. These are difficult conversations, and we have found that what is most challenging about the idea of reparations today is the notion that America still owes a debt to black people..

We have spent the past eight months wrestling with the question about whether reparations — as Ta-Nehisi Coates so eloquently argued — could ameliorate inequality for black people in America. We believe that the answer to this question is connected to how well one can understand the structures, practices and norms that created the intentional and unintentional persistent pattern of inequality.

Because racism was institutionalized in the fabric of American society, it must be fought on multiple fronts — education, housing, employment, health, the criminal system and the criminalization of the black male body — and at various levels through community organizing, legislation, political representation, resource allocation and judicial advocacy. Reparations granted at the individual level would have little to no impact on the removal of institutional and structural barriers to make our society more just and free for black people. Reparations also cannot mandate changes in the norms of society that privilege certain groups in professional and recreational communities, or enforce a change in the biases and prejudicial views of others. They also cannot erase the double consciousness many black people juggle in a society that has yet to realize the provision of equal access to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" for all....

[b4its2late]

An article written by people who don’t live in reality.

[GreenHornet]

Reparations have already been paid. They’ve been paid in the form of Affirmative Action. They’ve been paid in the form of minority scholarships. They’ve been paid in the form of government contract set-asides to black owned businesses. They’ve been paid in the form of corporate grants to black colleges and organizations like the Urban League. Reparations have been paid, and paid many times over.

[CheneyClone]

War on poverty? War on drugs? Great Society? Food stamps? EBT Cards? WIC & CSFP? SNAP? EITC? TANF? LIHEAP? HUD Section 8?

[TwelveOfTwenty]

The Democrats can pay the reparations, since they are the party of slavery, Jim Crow, etc. They can also pay Republicans reparations for the attacks against those who fought against all of this.

[Jabba the Nutt]

The promise of reparations was to slaves, not Black Americans. So, will any and all slaves step forward, I think we can find funds in the White House budget to pay you off.

[Celtic Conservative]

First they have to pay back the costs of the civil war, adjusted for inflation plus interest. It should be close to the amount that would’ve been paid out for reparations. We’ll just call it even.

CC

[maddog55]

According to Paul Ryan, the US has spent $15 trillion on the war on poverty.

We gave em Detroit and we know how that turned out.

Hell of a rate of return on investments I’d say.

[Paladin2]

Taker voter slave quarters.

[anton]

A free plane ride to Zimbabwe for every ancestor.

[kenmcg]

Reparations????? What a bunch of bull spit!! We’ve been doling out reparations for close to 150 years. Many, not all, have been collecting welfare, food stamps, section 8 housing, free education, while living tax free. The state pays reparations by housing black thugs, who refuse to conform to society, in prison. Time for this group (reparationists) to start holding their own and to quit looking for a free ride.

[BCW]

i always wondered that....it’s like paid enslavement...or containment...I would wonder as a kid why anyone would chose to live in those places...now, I understand...

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

I disagree and look forward to the definitive END of reparations, on Friday, January 20th, 2017.

After that date, “those who work not shall not eat.”

[Pietro]

Anytime someone says "this isn't about the money"

It's about the money.

[Beagle8U]

What would it cost to bleach them all white like Michael Jackson did?

I’d think if we set it up on an industrial scale like sheep-dip tanks it would be pretty cheap, shoot, we could even toss in the Mexicans for good measure.

Then they would all be white and have nothing to bitch about. The NAACP would be reduced to collecting funds to double dip their offspring, or some such nonsense.

[Pietro]

I am all for repatriation

I love that. I hear the Ivory Coast is lovely this time of year.

[ABN 505]

give em 40 mules and an acre, that should keep them busy.

[bert]

many of them received genes..... what more do they want

[abclily]

Exactly! A one-way ticket to any country of the whiner’s choice. Is there a fund for this already?

[onedoug]

It doesn’t matter what your politics were or are. Black reparations came in the form of 360,000 union dead. If they can’t, or won’t accept that, then screw them forever.

[tanknetter]

What promised reparations?

My share has been paid.

In full.

And in blood.

I have relatives (including Abolitionists) who were spread out in various Pennsylvania regiments, some of whom were with Strong Vincent on Little Round Top.