Column: Case for reparations

The Daily Tarheel ^ | March 24, 2017 | Claude Wilson

[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.

[Verginius Rufus]

Slavery only matters if the slaveowners are white and the slaves are blacks of African descent. Any other arrangement and it doesn't matter.

I had relatives (white) who were kidnapped and sold into slavery by Turkish pirates (white). Where can I collect reparations on their behalf?

[fella]

You’ll have to ask the Farakhan followers about that.

[roadcat]

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.

Correct. Property taken from Japanese-Americans during WWII was confiscated and sold off by the Federal Reserve Board. These people lost practically everything they owned. Furthermore, when Japanese-Americans vacated property in San Francisco's Japantown, it was filled with black Americans brought in from southern states to man the local shipyards. Those blacks directly benefitted from the sorrow suffered by removal of Japanese-Americans. Half of Japantown in SF became a black ghetto known as the Fillmore District and the Western Addition. Japanese-Americans returning from camps after the war erected a shopping mall as a barrier between what remained of Japanese and the black ghetto. Why can't the blacks improve their lot without taking from others?

[DiogenesLamp]

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.

It was more than just tariff revenue, it was 75% of all European trade with the United States. 75% of the money earned by exports were produced by Southern products, and New York was cutting themselves into 40% of every dollar in sales. This map below illustrates how they had jiggered the money stream to come back through New York.

The Southern trade employed New England Shipping, Banking, Warehousing, and paid for a lot of material from Northern Manufacturers.

Not only would Southern Independence divert that money stream out of New York, the additional 40% in revenue gains would have funded Southern competition for existing Northern Industry. (The people who backed Lincoln owned that Northern Industry.)

No, there was far more at stake than merely tariff revenue. The cost to the North of allowing Southern independence was massively greater than 65 million per year in Tariffs. The South was a serious economic threat to the existing monied power structure in the North, and *THAT* is why they could never allow it to be independent of their control. *THAT* is why the first thing Lincoln did was to throw up an economic blockade.

[Bellflower]

It is interesting that I read a book about the early history of a little Norwegan town named Iola in Wisconsin. Many of the settlers at the time of the Civil War had just arrived from Norway and were just settled in when the war commenced. Most all of them sent their husbands and sons to fight, even though they were not in the least responsible for the issues around the war. They thought to fight for their new country the right thing to do.

When they sent their family to fight this war in their new land it was they that raised the funds for them to go, and for them to be maintained during the war. They hardly had a thing, but raised relatively huge amounts and sent it to their men on a regular basis.

Many lost what they had. They lost their husbands, sons and brothers, or they were brought back to them maimed. They lost their new farms because of they couldn't afford them. They lost them because the heavy, hard work of clearing land etc. was too much for the women left behind. They often were left were a large debt. It wasn't taxes that supported their brave fighting men, it was their families and towns. They gave so very much. Their progeny do not owe reparations. They are owed a heartfelt thank you to brave, sacrificing ancestors.

[Boomer]

Reparations were paid in blood on the battle fields of the first Civil War. If that wasn’t good enough then pack sand and leave my country because you don’t belong here.

I’m really tired of all this black victim crap. I’m starting to believe the biggest mistake this country ever made besides no picking its own cotton was not returning every freed slave at the time without option. Find a big empty place in Africa and ship them all there to start their own country or territory. It’s too bad we can’t go back in time to make that happen but it’s not altogether too late.

Ships are sailing that way every week I bet and we make make it happen more often if needed. Even charter some cruise ships to make it a nice trip for them who feel they are a victim. Maybe some black people simply can’t live with non black people. Does that make them racist or just wanting to be with their own kind? It’s above my pay grade to answer that.

[arthurus]

Negroes have been getting heavy reparations ever since LBJ’s W.o.P.

[luvbach1]

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...

That just about sums it up, eh? Could be there are other reasons?

[Terry L Smith]

Dear libstripper, re: "The reparations Westmoreland with the lives of 500,000 white people during the Civil War. Never in history have so many people of one race died to liberate those of another." <>

[libstripper]

“Westmoreland”—caused by hyper active Kindle auto spell; should have been “were paid.” Mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.

[kearnyirish2]

“Almost 250 years of slavery”

The US as a country had legalized slavery for less than 80 years; anything mentioning more is an outright lie pushing an agenda. Low information blacks throw around “400 years” as though the US is responsible for the actions of imperial Spain, England, and France.

We are nearing the point where we’ve outlawed slavery for almost twice as long as it was originally allowed in this country. Blacktivists have a lower image of themselves than the Klan ever portrayed them, and cling to events over 150 years ago to explain away their underperformance (or downright nonperformance).

[Svartalfiar]

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.

Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, funny enough, only 'freed' slaves in states that he had no control over. It did nothing in the slave states that stayed in the Union, where Lincoln actually had the legal authority to do so.

[Svartalfiar]

United States of America born 9/17/1789 Slavery Abolished 1861

United States of America born July 4, 1776.

Slavery abolished January December 6, 1865.

Actually, both of y'alls' dates are off. The US was first formed (born) on 01 MAR 1781, with the full ratification of the Articles of Confederation. The Constitution replaced that March 4th, 1789. July 4th merely marks the date that the delegates from the states formally signed the Declaration of Independence, creating 13 different states (countries). Our actual Independence Day is July 2nd, when they actually voted 12-0 (NY abstained) to be independent.

[DiogenesLamp]

Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, funny enough, only 'freed' slaves in states that he had no control over. It did nothing in the slave states that stayed in the Union, where Lincoln actually had the legal authority to do so.

Most people have no interest in understanding this. It doesn't fit the narrative they have been taught and wish to believe. Notice how many people I tried to correct, and how few of them bothered to acknowledge I had pointed out the error.

The war was over control of the Southern Economy, (at the time, hugely valuable) and nothing else.

[DiogenesLamp]

As I pointed out before, the US Supreme Court acknowledges US Citizenship as having began on July 4, 1776. Look up the case of “The Venus” or the case of “Sailor’s Snug Harbor”.

[The_Media_never_lie]

We have been paying reparations for at least 50 years.