Reparations --on trial briefly

Washington Times ^ | 1/31/04 | Clarence Page

[kattracks]

At last the highly charged issue of reparations for the descendants of slaves has had its day in court

[chainsaw]

I'm all for reparations. However I want a refund on my share of welfare, food stamps, and general assistance payments deducted from the reparation payments first.

[Caipirabob]

Me too. I want my reparations! What about the crucifying of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ? That outta be worth a Lexus, right?

Give me a shovel and let me at them dead Romans...

[CIBGUY]

The best thing that ever happened to the contemporary Negro was slavery. The descendants of slaves here in America were the beneficiaries of their ancestor's suffering, for without slavery in all probability these complainers would be living in their native environment in Africa, experiencing corrupt governments, famine, disease, tribal warfare, with no government funded programs like welfare, Medicaid, etc. They'd be dying like flies from AIDS, bare footed, illiterate, and with no hope for the future....Had there been no slavery people like MLK, Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson etc. would probably be trying to scrounge up enough grain out of the dirt to make their meal of the day.

[joebuck]

Reperations were paid in full on Cemetary Ridge, July 3, 1863.

[Savage Beast]

Dispite the Civil Rights Revolution and the giant strides Americans have made in the right direction during the past few decades, sadly, it is true, racial discrimination persists in American society, and this makes things very difficult for Americans of black African descent.

However the Civil Rights Revolution succeeded for one reason and only one reason: It came spontaneously from Black America.

When White America realized that the Revolution was a spontaneous, grass-roots movement, coming from the heart of Black America, it capitulated--because White America knew that it could not be stopped.

The South capitulated literally over night. The South resisted the Revolution at first, because Southerners believed that it was yet another attempt, by Northerners, to impose upon the South what they would not accept in the North. When Southerners realized that the Revolution was coming from the heart of Black America, and not from the North, they knew that the Revolution could not be stopped, capitulated to the Revolution, and began adjusting to the new reality.

Non-African Americans can best help by expunging the vestiges of racism from their own hearts and insisting that they be expunged from the rest of America--and the world--as well.

However, the solution to the problems of Black America must come from Black America itself.

America's race problems have been horrible and formidable. America's founding fathers, whatever their flaws and faults, set a high standard for those who would follow--including us, today--and Americans have struggled to live up to it.

However, the spectre of racism in other lands threatens to dwarf American racism.

Americans have lead the way and set the standard, but they have not solved the problem of racism in the world by any means.

The clash of Western and Islamic civilizations has shaken the world.

The clash of Oriental racism--Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Indochinese--with the rest of humanity has not even begun to shake the world! Brace yourselves! It is coming.

[cyborg]

No lawyer deserves anything.

[cyborg]

Not everyone lives like that in Africa. It wasn't the best thing to ever happen to black people either. That would be like saying the holocaust was the best thing that happened to Jews.

[RipSawyer]

"That would be like saying the holocaust was the best thing that happened to Jews."

Not quite, the writer is saying that CONTEMPORARY blacks are benefitting from the suffering of their ancestors, a fact quite readily admitted by many black leaders. It would be hard for me to see how Jews are benefitting today from the suffering inflicted by the Holocaust.

[cyborg]

I have a difference of opinion. No one should be happy about slavery,as much as any other tragedy. Either way, reparations won't solve anything.

[BobS]

I'm your average white guy. I work with and live around all sorts of different people. Surely racism still exists in places. With me, I know exactly what neighborhoods to avoid for personal safety. And so does everyone else. That's why we live around here.

There is government-instituted racism. All those "Great Society" programs from the LBJ era only created ghettos of underachievers spanning decades. And the democrats nursed them for all they're worth. That's sad. Very sad waste of people. And bad economically too.

I don't see any Oriental racism on the rise. It's a different culture. They strive for personal excellence first before everything else.

[Savage Beast]

Oriental racism doesn't have to rise. It's already there. So is racism in other parts of the world. As the world grows smaller, it will become more apparent. A few years ago, most Americans were saying, "I don't see Islam on the rise. Its a different culture." The phrases "militant Islam", "Islamists", "Muslim extremists", "fanatical Islamists", and "Islamic terrorists" hadn't been coined yet.

I don't mean to disparage the Chinese, the Japanese, the Koreans, the Indochinese, or anyone else. After all, I have readily admitted that American racism exists. I am merely making an observation--and a prediction.

[RipSawyer]

To say that blacks of today are benefitting because of the suffering of their ancesters under slavery is not in any way to say that anyone should be happy about slavery. I can tell you that I have benefitted because of the inheritance I received when my parents died but that does not mean that I am glad they are dead. People quite often waste energy arguing against something that was not actually said or meant. I work with several people who are "yellow dog" Democrats and if I tell them that G. W. Bush will be reelected they invariably ask "why would you want him reelected"? It is impossible to explain to them that I have not actually said that I WANT him reelected (even though I do) I have actually only told them what I am convinced will happen regardless of what I or they want. Am I making myself clear or just confusing the issue?

[cyborg]

Okay thanks for clearing that up... I think! LOL

[Verginius Rufus]

Slavery was terrible, but no one alive today was a slave in the United States. It's true that black Americans (except for a small proportion of the total who are recent immigrants, or descended from post-1865 immigrants) are descended from people who were slaves in the U.S.--but it's also true that they would not exist if their ancestors had not been enslaved.

Each person is the product of a particular combination of ancestors--only full siblings have exactly the same combination. If you could go back and remove one remote ancestor from a person's family tree, even someone from whom the present-day person inherited no DNA, then the present-day person would never have been born. American slaves' ancestors lived in many places in Africa and the slaveowners deliberately mixed people up so that their slaves would not have a common language or identity. The slaves born in America, even those entirely of African ancestry, would have never been born if their ancestors had continued to enjoy freedom in their native villages or cities in Africa.

Reparations would be rewarding people for existing.

[RipSawyer]

"If you could go back and remove one remote ancestor from a person's family tree, even someone from whom the present-day person inherited no DNA, then the present-day person would never have been born"

Maybe I am having one of my "Densa days", but I find this a little confusing. How can I have an ancestor from whom I inherited no DNA? I obviously don't know a lot about DNA!

[Verginius Rufus]

Since each generation back you have twice as many ancestors, it doesn't take too long to have thousands--12 generations back you have 4096 ancestors. 12 generations back from now would mean the 17th century for a lot of people nowadays (maybe the 18th century if there were short generations involved). 15 generations back, another century, and you have over 32 thousand ancestors. You can't have inherited genetic material from all of them--people have only 46 chromosomes.

[DMZFrank]

On 23 Feb, 2004, Federal District Court judge Charles R. Norgle dismissed "without predjudice" a lawsuit bought by descendants of slaves seeking reparations from corporations they say profited from slavery. The legal implications of this lawsuit have been argued at length in many venues. As a result, I have been led to some personal ruminations on this issue.

I have always been mystified by racial grievance mongers who pontificate on the glorious Nirvana that their lives would be had they only been left in Mother Africa, notwithstanding the general quality of life there. Since most American blacks have some measure of Caucasian genealogical ancestry, and since slavery was the transmission belt that enabled the mixing of their black and white ancestor's gene pools,(whether by rape,semi voluntary or voluntary associations) than what they are really saying is that they and their decendents would rather not exist.

I acknowledge the kidnapping and suffering of my African ancestors, and the resultant decades of slavery, oppresion, and discrimination that amounted to a monstrous crime for them. But the result was me and my family living in a nation that provides the most liberty and opportunity for any African descended people on earth. I am profoundly grateful to be here. I welcome the opportunity for any clarifcation of the historical record, and should that clarification reveal more evidence of the often bestial nature of the American institution of slavery, than we should unflinchingly face and acknowledge it. The historical record should be properly contextualized, and honestly examined without any attempt to inflate the crime beyond the actual truth of the injustice. The endless racial navel gazing, racial identity posturing, and puffed up grievance mongering should be rejected for the PC irrelevance that it is.

Sometimes it seems as though the race industry merchants and class action lawyers would divide us into warring ethnic enclaves with mortar pits in the streets sniping at each other ala the Balkans, all of them seeking racial spoils with government help. This is nothing more than a cultural Marxist wealth redistribution scheme.