Posted on 12/02/2002 7:33:21 PM PST by geedee
Open your hearts to us; we have wronged no one, we have corrupted no one, we have taken advantage of no one. — 2 Corinthians 7:2
Americans alive today had nothing to do with slavery, and neither did their parents or grandparents or, for most of us, any ancestor at all. Nevertheless, the drumroll of reparations demands has begun: “They owe us!” flashes one reparations website banner. “We cannot settle for some little jive token,” shouted Louis Farrakhan at a reparations rally in Washington, D.C. The expected payback ranges from tens of thousands to millions of dollars for each individual alive today.
One question hasn´t been asked: What would American taxpayers get in return for the oppressive taxes that would be imposed for years to pay reparations? Would we be freed, for example, from the costs of supporting blacks on welfare? Blacks make up 12% of the population but account for almost half of welfare recipients. If we pay reparations, will blacks now on welfare invest that money in education and businesses so they can become self sufficient?
Oh, can we deduct from reparations the trillions of taxpayer dollars we´ve spent over the last few decades for welfare, food stamps, Medicaid, and other social programs? The Heritage Foundation estimates that we taxpayers have spent at least $8.29 trillion since 1965 for our war on poverty. If we receive a credit for, say, half of that, it would amount to over $120,000 for every black alive today. Shouldn´t that take care of any reparations?
Dr. Walter Williams, a black Professor at George Mason University, summed up another problem: illegitimate births: “The black illegitimacy rate is close to 70 percent. Less than 40 percent of black children live in two-parent families.” Slavery and discrimination aren‘t the causes. “In the early 1900s, black illegitimacy was a tiny fraction of today's rate. Roughly 75 percent, and in New York City 85 percent, of black children lived in two-parent households. The fact of lower illegitimacy and more intact families, at a time when blacks were much closer to slavery and faced greater discrimination, suggests that today's unprecedented illegitimacy and weak family structure have nothing to do with discrimination and slavery. It's explained better by promiscuity and irresponsibility, and as such it's not a civil-rights problem.”
Will the black illegitimacy rate drop to that of whites? If so, American taxpayers would save a lot in welfare and other social service costs.
Can we also do away with affirmative action programs? After all, we would have supposedly paid for all the impact that slavery—which ended in the North in the late 18th century and in the South in the 19th century—has on blacks in the 21st century.
And can we finally get rid of Ebonics, the jive talk of black ghettos? Leftists call Ebonics a “West African dialect,” but linguists call it “African American Vernacular English, a dialect spoken by most residents of the inner cities.” In his article, “Black English May Create Yet Another Wall Around the Ghetto” in the San Diego Union-Tribune, Michael Fumento begins his article in Ebonics:
“If I be startin out a column like this, you be wondrin wus up. You be thinking I'm dissin you and go on to da sports page.” Joan Davis Rattary, Ph. D., president of the Institute for Independent Education, an alliance of 400 black schools, said, “I don't call it Ebonics; I call it incorrect English.” Will black leaders finally encourage their people to speak understandable English so they can have a better chance of achieving the American dream, with or without reparations?
And what about crime? Dr. Williams points out:
“FBI reports on arrest data show that blacks committed half of all homicides, nearly half of rapes, 59 percent of robberies and 38 percent of aggravated assaults.” After reparations, will the black crime rate drop to that of whites? Will large numbers of black criminals suddenly turn mellow? If so, honest citizens of all races would breathe a collective sigh of relief.
And can we finally allow blacks to think for themselves? Or will black leaders and white liberals continue to pressure them to toe the liberal/victim line? If so, reparations will have been wasted. In his book, The Ten Things You Can't Say in America, black radio host Larry Elder lists the hateful names black leaders call free-thinking blacks:
“Oreo … Uncle Tom … Judas Boy … Sugarcane Negro … Handkerchief head … Anti-black … Pro-white … Remus … Sambo … Clarence Thomas supporter … Coconut … Wannabe white.” Along that line, will black leaders finally teach black schoolchildren that those who excel and get good grades do so because they want to succeed and aren´t trying to “act white”?
Will black leaders and celebrities, such as Jesse Jackson and Harry Belafonte, stop “dissin” free-thinking successful black Americans as they have Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice, Clarence Thomas, and others? Those others include Drs. Thomas Sowell and Walter Williams, two distinguished black professors, who have criticized welfare. As Larry Elder wrote in Capitalism Magazine: “Former NAACP President Benjamin Hooks called people like Sowell and Williams ‘a new breed of Uncle Tom . . . some of the biggest liars the world ever saw.´” Larry comments: “Liars? For saying that the welfare state has done more to destabilize the black family than Jim Crow laws ever did?”
Will black leaders use reparations as a tool to lead their people out of poverty and victimhood, even though they could be out of a job? Of course, that won´t happen. If black leadership is as destructive as it has been in the past, whatever “jive token” made it down to the people would be squandered as quickly as lottery winnings, going for those things that would make reparations the most destructive and deadly force in black history. It sounds like a bad deal all around.
You'd get a nice kick in the butt from the DemonRats, and a hearty, "Thanks for giving us your votes and your money. Here's your generous $1 a head for being good little sheeple. Sorry, what did you think you'd get as the masses?"
Men imprisoned...tortured...dead by disease..suffered death..blindness..amputation..paralysis Coming home as invalids with no pensions...no medical care..unable to farm..to do the heavy labor required to take care of their wives..children...Their Familes...men who gave up their very lives and existance..
Men who were not able to support wives and children as the direct result of freeing black slaves..
Yet not one word of gratitude comes from the Black Community at large for the sacrifice made of these white farmers from the midwest ...
No instead..white middle class working class descendants are the chief foibles for these new black activists ....the ones they seem to hate the worst..
The whites they respond to are the liberal atheist elite..the commies..the homos...their kith and kin.. So where are the repartions for the descendants of these Cival War "victims" Veterans...eh?...forthcoming no doubt... I'd settle for a thank you for their sake...and the end of affirmative action...and some property tax relief for a start... I thank God for guys like Jesse Peterson and Ron Greer
I've thought from the first that we could place an amount in trust in a bank of the recipient's choosing, anywhere in Africa, with a one-way ticket to that country, in return for his signing a written pledge - complete with fingerprints and DNA data - that once he has voluntarily renounced his citizenship, neither he nor his descendants will ever again come to America.
If enough of them went for something like this, we could undo the true damage caused by slavery.
If you want on (or off) of my black conservative ping list, please let me know via FREEPmail. (And no, you don't have to be black to be on the list!)
Extra warning: this is a high-volume ping list.
Already been done. Anyone still here is so because their ancestors declined the offer, and further demands are baseless. (Or has the repairations group forgotten that crucial bit of American history?)
This while being only 12% of the total population!!!
So in other words about 1 in 10 people is black. This ONE person commits the same amount of crimes (about 50%) as the other 9 put together.
Simplistic? Yeah it is..and yeah I know, there are issues involved. Just ranting a bit.
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