Keyes won't back down on reparations

Chicago Sun-Times ^ | 8/19/04 | SCOTT FORNEK

[kattracks]

His voice rising to a yell, Republican U.S. Senate nominee Alan Keyes told a bipartisan civic group Wednesday he "will not budge" from his belief that descendants of slaves should be exempted from income taxes to help heal the wounds of past discrimination and segregation.

The former presidential candidate disdainfully brushed aside questions over whether his suggestion should apply to rich African Americans such as Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan or Oprah Winfrey.

"Do you know how many Oprah Winfreys there might have been running around in the 1930s or in the 1920s or in the 19-teens that got nowhere because the doors were shut in their face?" Keyes thundered. "If you think that because I wear a conservative label, I have forgotten that history and am not mindful of that injustice -- then I will tell you now that you are wrong."

Keyes delivered his blistering defense at a luncheon of the City Club of Chicago, scolding fellow conservatives who challenged his proposal and evoking the struggle of his African-American parents, saying they had talent and "hearts and spirit and strength and faith."

"Why didn't they get to a point where they could stand on this platform?" Keyes aked.

Vying against Democrat Barack Obama, Keyes drew heat from conservatives earlier this week when he proposed exempting descendants of slaves from income taxes for a generation or two, a view he insists "involves a traditionally Republican, conservative and market-oriented approach."

On Wednesday, Keyes ridiculed the fuss over his position, saying it is simply a tax break, something "Republicans and my conservative brethren" don't object to when applied to a "wealthy corporation."

Conservative activist Jack Roeser met with Keyes for what Roeser called "a long argument and an intense one" over the issue before the speech. A Barrington businessman, Roeser said he still is not sold on Keyes' reparations proposal, but still plans to support him anyway. "I will tell my friends that this is a good man, and we should support him."

[Non-Sequitur]

Thats the point, this could eventually end income tax's.

Don't you think that ending everybody's income tax is an easier sell than ending income tax only for a select group of people? In payment for something that happened 140 years ago? And not to them?

[Ron in Acreage]

Sounds good. As long as the rest of us are exempt as well. He should say whatever is required to get a decent share of the black vote. The democrats promise all kinds of crap to the blacks every election. It's about time we do the same. Remember, it's the thought that counts. Not the actual results. Democrats never keep any of their promises to blacks, but they keep getting their vote. Two can play that game. We just need to "out-promise" them.

[ItsTheMediaStupid]

Indentured servants and some share cropping certainly did exist before the Cival War, even more people who should get reperations. However it didn't end after the Civil War, instead it got much, much worse. The term redneck refers to the Irish and Scots Irish, who worked the feld all day and the back of their necks were always sunburn't. The end of slavery propted many plantation owners to employ hundreds of share croppers to replace slaves, and the practice was made worse by requiring that they buy all products from the landowner, and borrow all from him that they cannot pay. Shortly after signing the contract the landowner raised his prices to insure that the sharecropper would never be out of debt. Thus it became legalized slavery.

[Toskrin]

Keyes is smart enough to know that this proposal would never fly. It is designed to be a stick in the sides of both Republicans and Democrats, and to draw attention to a candidate who is very underfunded.

The Democrat objection to his plan is that most slave desendants are lower middle class and pay little taxes. This clashes directly with their argument that the wealthy don't pay enough and the little man pays too much.

I don't like this plan much, but Keyes is right on about his analysis of how blacks got to where they were it society today. It starts with slavery, then severe poverty after the Civil War, then racism and segregation, and now incentivizing poverty. But there's clearly a direct connection between today's black economic condition and slavery. Blacks would do just fine if whites would stop trying either to suppress them or "fix" them.

[Aquinasfan]

Anyone in Illinois know if Obama is getting any headlines? Sounds like it's Keyes coverage 24/7.

[harrycarey]

The odd thing is, most blacks don't pay federal income tax because they are in the lower half where very little federal income tax is paid by anyone. In fact many people get money back as a result of the earned income tax credit. The big winners would be athletes and rap stars, who would save millions.

You are right.

Which means that the "reparations" would be in the form of a "refundable" tax credit, meaning that even those who do not pay income tax can get their "refund."

[Luis Gonzalez]

Vermont never allowed slavery as a State of the Union...what about them?

[harrycarey]

To think that I almost voted for him in the presidential primaries last time

And to think that I was excited about his Senate run and eagerly supported him on this forum.

[Kleon]

The odd thing is, most blacks don't pay federal income tax because they are in the lower half where very little federal income tax is paid by anyone. In fact many people get money back as a result of the earned income tax credit. The big winners would be athletes and rap stars, who would save millions.

I've heard this repeated on every Keyes reparations thread, and it's simply not true. If you look at the actual data on zero-tax filing, you'll see that most African-Americans do, in fact, pay income taxes. Also, many of them don't recieve the Earned Income Credit, because the cost of having someone prepare the files is often too high.

The racial or ethnic composition of the 44 million zero-tax filers will roughly mirror the demographics of American tax filers as a whole. For example, white Americans are 83 percent of total taxpayers; the percentage of zero-tax filers who are white is 79 percent. African-Americans are roughly 13 percent of total taxpayers and 17 percent of zero-tax filers.

http://www.taxfoundation.org/ff/zerotaxfilers.html

[sheltonmac]

I agree. To stop income tax's for a few, is a precurssor to stopping them for all. When people see how much monitary power it gives blacks, they will want the same.

So, by your argument, our current practice of exempting poor people from the income tax has been a precursor to ending the income tax for all of us. Maybe we need to give it another several generations before it starts to work.

What's being suggested here is an example of what liberals would call a "targeted" tax cut.

[keats5]

I'm just curious. Is there any group of people in the world whose ancestors have not been enslaved at some point in history?

I thought it was routine in the ancient world for invaders to kill or enslave their conquests.

[7.62 x 51mm]

He didn't have much of a chance anyway; now he's cut his own throat. He's toast.

[ItsTheMediaStupid]

What's being suggested here is an example of what liberals would call a "targeted" tax cut.

Yes, but if you include American Indians with slave ancestors, whites with black slave ancestors, decendents of indentured servants, and decendants of share croppers. Well that is a very very large target!

[ItsTheMediaStupid]

Hey! My ancestors were Roman slaves! I qualify for the 0% TAX!

[L98Fiero]

Yep, my family is Scott-Irish and you almost described our family history to a tee. By the 1890's we were able to get into logging in southern Alabama and eventually creep into Southern Mississippi. We were, I guess, some of the original "rednecks".

I still wouldn't be comfortable taking reparations for what my family had to endure. Nobody alive today had anything to do with that.

[no more apples]

I think you're right. And I think the idea of reparations paid to people generations removed from the injury is rediculous. Unless you can prove the specific injury is still actually harming a generation down the line (ie: someone is still enslaved or being specifically treated as a slave), reparations are rediculous. You get what you get in this life and it's up to you to change things if you want a better life. (I didn't choose to be born to middle class parents. What I really wanted was parents who were rich doctors.)

[no more apples]

They had bigger taxes than anyone else - you should pay more! ;-D

[ItsTheMediaStupid]

I still wouldn't be comfortable taking reparations for what my family had to endure. Nobody alive today had anything to do with that.

I have been playing Devils advocate on this issue. My point is that you can find a reason for reperation's for almost every American in this country, therefore we should abolish the Income Tax.

[Always Right]

I've heard this repeated on every Keyes reparations thread, and it's simply not true. If you look at the actual data on zero-tax filing, you'll see that most African-Americans do, in fact, pay income taxes. Also, many of them don't recieve the Earned Income Credit, because the cost of having someone prepare the files is often too high.

The EIC is really not that difficult to get and is well over $1000 for most. The average tax paid by the bottom 50% amounts to less than 4% of their income. Besides looking at zero-tax filers ignores the many people who simple do not file. I don't think I ever filed for taxes when I was working summer jobs in school, but I would have gotten all the taxes I paid back if I did. Even your stats show there is a major discrpency between blacks and whites. Making up 13% of total filers and 17% of zero-tax filers, means they are overrepresented by about 30%.