Muhammad Ali: “Thank God my Granddaddy got on that boat.”
Muhammad Ali: “Thank God my Granddaddy got on that boat.”
Wise man. Ali understands:
1) No present day descendant of slaves in the United States would be alive today if his African ancestors had not crossed the ocean to become enslaved. The specific combinations of DNA from numerous black and white ancestors over multiple generations would not have occurred.
2) Despite all of the cries about white privilege and racism in America today, almost every black African child born today in Africa has fewer opportunities and will live a lower standard of living that almost every black American. The fact virtually no African Americans emigrate to Africa is evidence. If life was better, we would see more moving. No one is preventing them from leaving.
3) Blacks who immigrate to the US from Africa and Caribbean nations enjoy greater economic prosperity than average African Americans even though many do not have the language skills or cultural knowledge, much less networks of family and friends, needed for success.
4) As others have pointed out, reparations were paid in blood and trillions of welfare spending and income transfers over decades.