Trying to fix 'a moral wrong' (through reparations)

North Jersey Newspapers ^ | 11.13.05 | MIGUEL PEREZ

[HitmanLV]

Part of the argument is that even if your ancestors didn't own slaves, you benefited from the cultural structure that slavery and institutionalized bigotry created. That you or your ancestors didn't want the benefit is immaterial. Whites derived a benefit at the expense of blacks, so in the interest of equity it should be addressed.

I think the best argument against slave reparations is that any accounting of damage suffered in calculating economic harm suffered by blacks must necessarily be offset by any benefits derived by blacks.

That is, but for slavery many blacks in the USA would have been born in Africa and living there now. Compare things like standard of living, standards in health and healthcare, life expectancy, income, disposable income, etc between what benefit they enjoy in the USA vs what benefit they would enjoy if they were born and raised in Africa.

By that standard, I think a case could be made that when all the damage suffered is compared against all the benefits (relative to a lifelong existence in Africa) derived, black people may very well owe the USA money.

A calculation that only calculates damage without offsetting it by benefits is fundamentally unfair.

[Travis McGee]

"Reparations is not about money being taken out of every white person's personal bank account and handed over to blacks, as the spreaders of misinformation can make it seem," Lamb said. "Individuals do not pay reparations. Reparations are what a government pays a people it has wronged ... with tax dollars."

I'm amazed she has the brain power to remember to breathe.

[Rastus]

Want to save these people some time and money? Give them this link:

http://www.radical-conservative.org/certificate.html

[roylene]

Reparations - semperations.
Pay only if some one can prove they were harmed by slavery and only paid by those who benefited and only after the seven trillion dollars already paid to equalize the situation is subtracted.

[Nipplemancer]

when i read this item in the record this morning i nearly spit up my coffee when the dumbass said it's not coming out of your own bank account but from tax dollars.
My contention is this, my family on both my mother's and father's side, only came to this country during the mid-20th century. They didn't own black slaves in either country of origin (ireland & germany) so why the hell should I have to pay reparations through my tax dollars???

[nicmarlo]

A calculation that only calculates damage without offsetting it by benefits is fundamentally unfair.

All things being equal, of course. I agree with your post.

[TAdams8591]

"They noted that African-Americans who seek reparations have many good ideas, including funding for education, job training, housing, small businesses, and child and mental health care - to bring blacks up to par with white Americans"

The above has been going on for more than thirty years and is nothing new.

There have been lasting negative effects and complications from slavery, but being the ancestor of a slave is not the same as being one yourself.

Neither myself or anyone in my family, had anything to do with slavery, so I harbor NO guilt over it and am sick and tired of people attempting to make me feel guilty about it. Furthermore, I deeply resent the constant effort among Liberals lecturing to us about slavery and it's damaging effects, as if we never thought of it ourselves, don't understand it and lack compassion about it.

Thanks to the Good Catholic Sisters who taught us and the wonderful people who raised us, we are well acquainted with the evil history of slavery and discrimination against Black Americans and find it abhorrent. Thus, regarding this issue we don't need it rubbed and hammered into our already sensitive consciences.

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

The prop plane I was on, in the early seventies, had to land at Monrovia, Liberia for repairs.
As we had no visas, we were stuck in the airport.
I was talking to an old man, who told me his ancestors were among the group that returned to Africa. He said it was the worst mistake they ever made.

[nicmarlo]

That's great; and so is Ken Hamblin.

[DuncanWaring]

They can start by collecting reparations from whoever sold them into slavery back in Africa two ... three ... four hundred years ago. Whether it's the tribe in the next jungle over or Arab Muslims.

[TAdams8591]

"My contention is this, my family on both my mother's and father's side, only came to this country during the mid-20th century. They didn't own black slaves in either country of origin (ireland & germany) so why the hell should I have to pay reparations through my tax dollars???"

And to people who were never themselves, slaves.

[HitmanLV]

Yep.

[HitmanLV]

Yep.

[Mind-numbed Robot]

I have a better idea and one that is much more equitable. The blacks should repay the slave owners for the loss of their property through illegal government action. The North should also pay the South to rebuild their cities and farms which were destroyed in the war. If we can rebuild Europe, Japan, and Iraq, surely we can rebuild the South.

[Mount Athos]

It would make sense for Taxpayers to offer to pay for a one way ticket to Liberia (Africa) for these shakedown artists.

[nicmarlo]

The Price in Blood!
Casualties in the Civil War

At least 618,000 Americans died in the Civil War, and some experts say the toll reached 700,000. The number that is most often quoted is 620,000. At any rate, these casualties exceed the nation's loss in all its other wars, from the Revolution through Vietnam.

The Union armies had from 2,500,000 to 2,750,000 men.
Their losses, by the best estimates:

Battle deaths: 110,070
Disease, etc.: 250,152
Total 360,222

* * *

The leading authority on casualties of the war, Thomas L. Livermore, admitting the handicap of poor records in some cases, studied 48 of the war's battles and concluded:

Of every 1,000 Federals in battle, 112 were wounded.
Of every 1,000 Confederates, 150 were hit.
Mortality was greater among Confederate wounded, because of inferior medical service.

[nicmarlo]

They wouldn't be happy with that, either.

[kublia khan]

The war on poverty (great society) has spent more than 40 Billion since it's inception. Blacks have received a disproportionate amount of these funds on a per capita basis. Can we consider that to be a part of a total reparations package??

[Petronski]

No one in my family owned slaves. But I should pay money potentially to some people whose family were never enslaved?



Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight.

[Petronski]

Nevermind for a moment that I never owned slaves and no one who receives this money has ever been enslaved.