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.
Bogus reasoning and bogus calculations.
Liabilities under common law are not passed from generation to generation. Only those who were actually slaves are able to collect and then only from those who actually were their slave owners.
I am sick of living amongst a lawless, unthinking population.
It’s the “Get My Free Shit” bill.
Ridiculous. More verbal tripe from left wing PC contaminated idiots.
A long bloody civil war and decades of preferential treatment and affirmative action have more than provided reparations.
Always and forever wanting something free and given to them....
Strange that their art never depicted them as black.
This is incorrect. Hundreds of thousands of people fought and died to end the Independence of Southern states. The Union was planning to keep slavery during the first two years of the war, so they don't get to claim they were fighting to end it.
There were five Union slave states during the war.
20 Shot, 4 Die in Easter Weekend Shootings in Philadelphia...
There’s reparations for you....
Reparations were paid with the blood of hundreds of thousands of Americans in the Civil War.
Debt paid.
Dave Chappelle nailed what would happen if there ever were Reparations......
http://www.ebaumsworld.com/videos/dave-chappell-reparations/810529/
Liabilities under common law are not passed from generation to generation. Only those who were actually slaves are able to collect and then only from those who actually were their slave owners.
Even that is bogus reasoning and bogus calculation. As slavery was legal up until the 13th amendment, there was no legal liability accrued by slave owners for which they could be held responsible.
Raid the Democrat piggy bank, that’s who kept you enslaved; then too there’s always England. And since we’re all mostly immigrants ourselves, not our problem.
Give everyone that claims eligibility for reparations 500k as they step on the one way boat to Africa on a black star liner. It would be much cheaper than paying continuous reparations ad infinitum.
Almost 250 years of slavery????
United States of America born 9/17/1789
Slavery Abolished 1861
looks like 72 years to me, maybe this clown should put the PIPE DOWN!!
Certainly not proven, nor actually very likely.
I worked on the Daily Tarheel in the mid 70s when they had at least a pretense of journalistic competence.
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“The best solution to this problem might be the creation of a series of programs designed to bolster the black American community.”
Nothing like a ‘slush fund’ for the likes of the BLM activists.
Amazing how it always comes to magic money... Everything will be just fine if you just hand out money...
The compensation for interment camp survivors was for property lost while they were locked up in Owens Valley. The compensation from Germany was for property lost when Jews had to flee with just what they could carry. To compare either of these payouts to a practice outlawed 150 years ago is ludicrous.
But of course, that doesn’t matter, magic money will arrive and every person who identifies as being black in the last ten years who can claim a slave ancestor (with what documents, I have to wonder, since so much was lost during the civil war and other wars, natural causes and insurrections) will finally get the justice that their ancestors deserved..? Or more accurately, what will happen is that a few hundred ethnic studies doctorates who can’t get a job other than at Starbucks will finally have a cushy government position while they ‘study and investigate’ the issue for half a century.
There is no case for reparations Not now and not later. That issue was decided over 200 years ago. Get over it and lead a normal and decent life.
“So,Claude,go........yourself!”
Do you like music? You might like to examine the works of Fucik...
Just a thought.
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