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Do Black people owe White people reparations for slavery? When it comes to reparations, the argument goes both ways.
NOQ Report ^ | 03/30/2021 | Jim Stroud

Posted on 03/30/2021 9:34:44 AM PDT by SeekAndFind


Whites were slaves in North Africa before Blacks were slaves in America so, who owes whom reparations?

DISCLAIMER FOR THE EASILY TRIGGERED: Slavery is wrong. I make no apologies for it. None of the research presented herein is intended to lessen the injustice of African slavery in America or slavery in any incarnation. If you disagree with what I have researched and decide to call me a (insert your insult here) I will say now, that you’re rubber and I’m glue. What you say bounces off me and sticks to you. Such is my present-day retort and likely my future rebuttal, should I feel so inclined. If you’re still curious as to why I posted this disclaimer, read on.

So, today, someone shared with me this article from Fox News, “Evanston, Illinois first in US to pay reparations to Black residents” and here are some quotes from that article.

The City Council in Evanston, Ill., voted 8-1 late Monday to approve a plan to make reparations available to Black residents over past discrimination and the lingering effects of slavery.



The plan, which could be the first of its kind in the U.S., is to distribute $400,000 to eligible Black households. The Associated Press reported that qualifying households in the city of 73,000 would be eligible to receive $25,000 for home repairs or down payments on property.

Ald. Robin Rue Simmons, the lawmaker who proposed the initiative back in 2019, called the approval a first step but said more needs to be done.

“It is, alone, not enough,” she said, according to the Chicago Tribune. “We all know that the road to repair and justice in the Black community is going to be a generation of work. It’s going to be many programs and initiatives and more funding.”

Further down in the article it reads…

Qualifying residents must either have lived in or been a direct descendant of a Black person who lived in Evanston between 1919 to 1969 and who suffered discrimination in housing because of city ordinances, policies or practices.

The article reminded me of a conversation I had with a very dear friend of mine about race issues in America. (My friend happens to be white.) She asked me what percentage of black people would likely hold her personally responsible for slavery? I told her that I could not quantify a percentage but likely many African Americans would hold her personally responsible for the sins of her ancestors because of news reports like this.

Now, I’ve heard several arguments made for reparations on numerous occasions, but I tend to reject them. Why? For me, it always comes down to this – who should pay?

The topic of reparations for African Americans is a topic that has been discussed ad nauseum and typically for political advantage. Case in point, here’s a quote the Washington Times. The headline reads, “California moves to consider reparations for slavery.” The date of the article is August 29, 2020.

California lawmakers are setting up a task force to study and make recommendations for reparations to African Americans, particularly the descendants of slaves, as the nation struggles again with civil rights and unrest following the latest shooting of a Black man by police.

The state Senate supported creating the nine-member commission on a bipartisan 33-3 vote Saturday. The measure returns to the Assembly for a final vote before lawmakers adjourn for the year on Monday, though Assembly members overwhelmingly already approved an earlier version of the bill.



“Let’s be clear: Chattel slavery, both in California and across our nation, birthed a legacy of racial harm and inequity that continues to impact the conditions of Black life in California,” said Democratic Sen. Holly Mitchell of Los Angeles.

She cited disproportionate homelessness, unemployment, involvement in the criminal justice system, lower academic performance and higher health risks during the coronavirus pandemic.

Although California before the Civil War was officially a free state, Mitchell listed legal and judicial steps state officials took at the time to support slavery in Southern states while repressing Blacks.

The legislation would require the task force to conduct a detailed study of the impact of slavery in California and recommend to the Legislature by July 2023 the form of compensation that should be awarded, how it should be awarded, and who should be should be eligible for compensation.

The panel, which would start meeting no later than June 2021, could also recommend other forms of rehabilitation or redress.

A sober minded person might ask, what does slavery that happened centuries ago have to do with today’s homelessness, unemployment, health risks associated with the coronavirus and the other social issues mentioned in that quote? Outside of inciting the passions of would-be voters, what immediate benefit does it provide to the people of California?

When reparations are discussed it is typically proposed that the US government should be paying African Americans an undetermined amount of money for the suffering inflicted upon their ancestors by all the white people in America. If we look at this logically and without angry rhetoric, that argument doesn’t hold up to scrutiny. To illustrate that, let me share with you some inconvenient facts.

Inconvenient fact #1: Very few white people in America owned slaves.



Inconvenient fact #2: Native Americans owned and traded in slaves!

Inconvenient fact #3: African Americans owned slaves too

Should white people today be forced to pay reparations when only 1.6 percent of whites during the slavery era owned slaves? Should we demand payment from Native Americans and African Americans as well? Both groups owned African American slaves too. I could go on but, no, I’ll share a bit more.

Inconvenient fact #4: Whites Were Slaves in North Africa Before Blacks Were Slaves in America

I am quoting a 2004 article now from Ohio State News.”

A new study suggests that a million or more European Christians were enslaved by Muslims in North Africa between 1530 and 1780 – a far greater number than had ever been estimated before. In a new book, Robert Davis, professor of history at Ohio State University, developed a unique methodology to calculate the number of white Christians who were enslaved along Africa’s Barbary Coast, arriving at much higher slave population estimates than any previous studies had found.

Most other accounts of slavery along the Barbary coast didn’t try to estimate the number of slaves, or only looked at the number of slaves in particular cities, Davis said. Most previously estimated slave counts have thus tended to be in the thousands, or at most in the tens of thousands. Davis, by contrast, has calculated that between 1 million and 1.25 million European Christians were captured and forced to work in North Africa from the 16th to 18th centuries.

Davis’s new estimates appear in the book Christian Slaves, Muslim Masters: White Slavery in the Mediterranean, the Barbary Coast, and Italy, 1500-1800 (Palgrave Macmillan).



Now, should today’s white people demand reparations from today’s black people for the crime of enslaving their ancestors for two centuries? For some reason, lack of education mostly, so many people in America believe that America created the institution of slavery. I assure you America did not invent slavery. A cursory glance into a bible proves that. But, I digress, because I am veering off from something, I really want to say in 3 points.

No doubt, some of you reading this will have a problem with what I’ve shared. Perhaps, you are calling me names now. (No doubt. Its why I posted the disclaimer at the beginning.) If so, let me leave you with one final quote where a certain group is demanding social justice because of slavery. This quote is from BBC News.

The West is being asked to pay Africa $777 [trillion] within five years in reparation for enslaving Africans while colonising the continent. The African World Reparations and Repatriation Truth Commission, meeting in Accra for its first international conference, also called for all international debt owed by Africa to be “unconditionally cancelled”.

The Accra Declaration issued at the conference says that money will be demanded from ”all those nations of Western Europe and the Americas and institutions, who participated and benefited from the slave trade and colonialism”.



The conference, co-chaired by Dr Hamet Maulana and Mrs Debra Kofie, announced plans to set up an international team of lawyers from Africa and the diaspora to pursue all legal means to collect the money. The group will also be contacting the International Court of Justice, as well as the United Nations and the Organization of African Unity for assistance.

Mrs Kofie told the BBC the reparation figure was based on the number of human lives lost to Africa during the slave-trade, as well as an assessment of the worth of the gold, diamonds and other minerals taken from the continent during colonial rule.

She says Africa’s turn has come. “We are the only group that have not received reparations. The Jewish people have received reparations. The native Americans have received reparations. The Korean comfort women and so-on and so forth,” she said.

The declaration added that all those in the diaspora, who want to return and settle in Africa, should be allowed to do so and that those who enslaved and colonised Africa should provide seaworthy vessels and aircraft for such repatriation.

The date of that article from BBC News is August 20, 1999.

Thanks for reading this far. I know it was a rather long rant today. A shorter one tomorrow. (I think. It all depends on what I read.)

Jim Stroud

P.S. Did you know that reparations were actually paid to slaves after the Civil War? This was thanks to a measure initiated by Abraham Lincoln (R). However, after his assassination, his Vice President – Andrew Johnson (D) assumed power and reversed it. Click here to listen to my podcast where I discuss that bit of history. (Or, just listen to it below.)




TOPICS: History; Society
KEYWORDS: reparations; slavery
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To: Sapwolf

Thank you. Is that on a country by country basis or what?


21 posted on 03/30/2021 10:03:06 AM PDT by ConservativeDude
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To: SeekAndFind

It’s all nonsense.


22 posted on 03/30/2021 10:04:47 AM PDT by A Navy Vet (USA Birth Certificate - 1787. Death Certificate - 2021 under Biteme.)
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To: stars & stripes forever

[[“It is, alone, not enough,” she said, according to the Chicago Tribune. “We all know that the road to repair and justice in the Black community is going to be a generation of work. It’s going to be many programs and initiatives and more funding.”]]

It will never ever be enough. There is far too much power in calling whitey “white supremacists” “white privilege” “racists” for the left to ever come to a point where they say “OK, debt paid in full, let’s move on now”

White folks paid already in the form of 600,000 or so folks going to war to end slavery, through taxpayers paying for welfare, through taxpayers PA g ing for a huge amount of social programs.

Was any of that enough? Nope! It should have been. But as you can see from the mind set of the left in the quote above, it will never ever be enough.


23 posted on 03/30/2021 10:05:23 AM PDT by Bob434
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To: SeekAndFind

most, if not all, African slaves who were brought here were purchased from Arab slave traders, white people didn’t go into the jungle to catch slaves, Arabs and other Africans were the slave catchers. So if blacks want reparations, they should try to get them from the Arab world. The same goes for whites who were captured by North African pirates who were Arab or Berber Muslims.


24 posted on 03/30/2021 10:07:07 AM PDT by euram
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To: SeekAndFind

If they do pay out reparations it will never end , every newborn will expect their share


25 posted on 03/30/2021 10:07:12 AM PDT by butlerweave
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To: SeekAndFind

You’ll know how much of a slave you are in about two weeks. April 15th is just a friendly reminder of who your masters are.


26 posted on 03/30/2021 10:08:16 AM PDT by Organic Panic (Democrats. Memories as short as Joe Biden's eyes.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Transportation costs, up keep for food and shelter. Rescued from folks who would have eventually killed them.

Maps at:

https://slavevoyages.org/

Looks like the VP may need to pony up more than actual US folks. Especially since we know her family was in the slave trade business. Estimates are that only 5% of today’s population can be tied to the slaves brought here. Anyone? Bueller?


27 posted on 03/30/2021 10:08:27 AM PDT by rktman (Destroy America from within? Check! WTH? Enlisted USN 1967 to end up with this?)
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To: SeekAndFind

BM


28 posted on 03/30/2021 10:08:59 AM PDT by Slicksadick (We accept the love we think we deserve.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Another issue is the white Africans that migrated to the United States. Are they owed money too?


29 posted on 03/30/2021 10:09:22 AM PDT by Tai_Chung
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To: SeekAndFind

NO ONE is responsible for the actions of other people. Guilt is not passed through the genes. And guilt does not jump off one White onto another just because of the similar skin shade.

This proposal is made to look small and insignificant, but will soon expand to people who were never slaves, and it will become permanent. Oh, you thought reparations was going to be a ONE TIME thing! Oh, you would be wrong. It will be embedded into the law and will be implemented every year. If they can figure out a way to make ONLY Whiteys pay, they will.


30 posted on 03/30/2021 10:10:42 AM PDT by I want the USA back (The nation is in the grips of incurable hysterical insanity, as usual.)
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To: SeekAndFind

That’s OK, we’ll just take it from the blacks. Easy money.


31 posted on 03/30/2021 10:11:14 AM PDT by CodeToad (Arm Up! They Have!)
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To: SeekAndFind

I’ve posted the numbers here before, but basically, the legal system looks at reparations as an opportunity cost calculation. That is, what’s the value in the next-best alternative. Since most slaves came from Ghana, to calculate the reparation amount you have to compare what blacks in the US today would earn in Ghana today since we assume they would remain in their birth country.

Clearly, black have not thought this through as it turns out blacks need to pay non-blacks about $600b/yr for the past 154 years. When blacks have assembled the required amount, I’ll furnish an account where they can send my money.


32 posted on 03/30/2021 10:12:25 AM PDT by econjack
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To: SeekAndFind

I want reparations for the riots.


33 posted on 03/30/2021 10:13:06 AM PDT by READINABLUESTATE (CENSORSHIP = VIOLENCE)
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To: SeekAndFind

My white relatives helped to free slaves and fought in the Civil War.
They were affected negatively as a result.
I demand reparations to make up for this injustice .

Yes what I just wrote is foolish, true but foolish .
No more foolish than the reparations logic.


34 posted on 03/30/2021 10:14:19 AM PDT by HereInTheHeartland (Leave me alone, I have no incriminating evidence on the Clintons)
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To: SeekAndFind

How can anyone know for sure who were slaves and who arrived here as free men and women?
Also was every white person slave owners?
What about blacks that owned slaves?
Also Native Americans?
To be perfectly honest,
There isn’t a group of people that haven’t been slaves at some point in history.
We need to stop blaming someone else for the situation we are in.
Until evil is destroyed there will always be hate in this world.....


35 posted on 03/30/2021 10:18:56 AM PDT by Pez149 (Time to stop saying a theory is fact....)
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To: SeekAndFind

How about the Civil War deaths. How about the black slave owners of blacks?

This whole thing is terrible.


36 posted on 03/30/2021 10:27:41 AM PDT by nikos1121
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To: SeekAndFind

Reparations....... payment to those who did not suffer, for sins others did not commit.


37 posted on 03/30/2021 10:28:18 AM PDT by walkingdead (We are sacrificing American youth's future on the altar of our own fear. And it is a travesty.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Would reparations really shut BLM up? Or make any difference in the Democrat/media caused racial schism in America?


38 posted on 03/30/2021 10:29:03 AM PDT by Spok (All free men are equal only in their freedom; everything else is up to them.)
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To: SeekAndFind
"Ald. Robin Rue Simmons, the lawmaker who proposed the initiative back in 2019, called the approval a first step but said more needs to be done. “It is, alone, not enough,” she said, blah blah blah..
It's NEVER enough! The hustle never ends
39 posted on 03/30/2021 10:33:15 AM PDT by Impala64ssa (Virtue signalling is no virtue)
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To: SeekAndFind

Whites Were Slaves in North Africa Before Blacks Were Slaves in America.
Looks like the blacks want reparations they better check the own blood line of people who SOLD them first.
Game called due a tie.


40 posted on 03/30/2021 10:44:25 AM PDT by Vaduz (women and children to be impacIQ of chimpsted the most.)
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