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

North Jersey Newspapers ^ | 11.13.05 | MIGUEL PEREZ

[PLMerite]

My position on reparations is, that since one of the Wrongs done to African-Americans was removing them from Africa, anyone who takes reparations should renounce their American Citizenship and leave.

Otherwise it's just another Jacksonian Shakedown.

[HitmanLV]

I said in an earlier post that any calculation of damages has to factor in benefits received to be fair.

Many blacks paid taxes that was at least part of that $40 billion. So yes, factor some of that into the benefits derived, I suppose.

[nopardons]

This is just sick!

[Sterm26]

These reparationbs advocates always proclaim that the USA was built "on the blood, sweat, and tears" of the slaves. Besides toiling on on the farms, what did the slaves build that wasn't built by the later wave of immigrants?

[TAdams8591]

We've had African American reparations in effect for many years under the guise of WELFARE and AFFIRMATIVE ACTION.

[308MBR]

The longer I study this issue and the more I hear from proponents of slavery reparations while reviewing the deteriorating conditions in Africa, the more I believe that proper reparations to a descendent of slaves would be a first class air ticket back to the dark continent.

My more recent ancestors spent their lives working in a hole in the side of a mountain digging coal, paid with company script only redeemable at the company store. Kept perpetually in debt, they couldn't quit. If that isn't slavery, what is? You don't hear me banging on the doors of the Carnegie Foundation with a guilt trip.

Get over it. Take some responsibility for yourself.

I just wish things like Calculus could be drilled into people as easily as an unearned sense of "entitlement".

[DakotaRed]

How do they determine who is entitled to reparations? Not every Black person in America is a descendant of a slave and what about the Black Slave owners from back then?

It is a ruse to say they merely bought their relatives thee get them free. One prominent Black woman of the time, Mistress L. Horry and Justus Angel each owned 84 slave apeice in 1830. A Black widow C. Richards and her son P.C. Richards owned 152 slaves in 1960.

http://americancivilwar.com/authors/black_slaveowners.htm

You also have General Robert E. Lee writing to his wife in 1856, calling slavery, "a moral and political evil."

Add to this desendants of slaves that were fathered by White slave owners who are considered Whites today.

Now ask, how do they determine who is entitled to reparations? Who would pay those reparations? If they be paid, shouldn't it be from those who captured the Africans and sold them into slavery? That would be mostly other Africans who did that.

Slavery is indeed a dark spot on our history, one that was brought from Europe, it did not originate here. Still, there are no former slaves alive today and it would be an impossible task to try to determine which Blacks and Whites are really descendants of slaves and pay them for something they never went through.

Is this a can of worms they really wish to open?

[Lancer_N3502A]

How bout 1 TRILLION in welfare a decade for the last 45 years. 4.5 TRILLION wasted dollars. That's about all the reparations your gonnna get.

[goldstategop]

Not with MY money. There's no moral wrong to be righted. Neither I nor my ancestors owned black people as slaves in America. A racial shakedown is what it is. Reparations over my dead body.

(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie.Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")

[Psycho_Bunny]

Calling slavery "a moral wrong that must be righted ... to cleanse the soul of America," a group of North Jersey residents set out Saturday to look for ways to make reparations to African-Americans

Apparently, it's not a "moral wrong" to steal money.

[goldstategop]

The United States Government is responsible for slavery, how exactly? Didn't it wage a bloody Civil War to free the slaves? Wasn't that and the suffering of those who fought to make all men free reparations enough? Its a point that seems to be lost on the race hustlers.

(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie.Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")

[Poodlebrain]

"They don't know it, but these 'streets paved in gold' they came here to find could more aptly be called 'streets bathed in the blood, sweat and tears of enslaved Africans."

This is simply incorrect. The image of the United States as the land of opportunity did not come about until after the Civil War. The infrastructure that attracted mass immigration came about with the industrial revolution that occurred after the Civil War. That infrastructure was not built with slave labor. The infrastructure that was built with slave labor was the agrarian system of the southern states that was destroyed by the Civil War.

[Clemenza]

WTF is up with the term "Caucasian?" Why can't we use just plain old "white."

[Triggerhippie]

The message needs to be loud and clear and contain the information below:

Your reparations have been waiting for you in the "old country" since the Monroe administration...

The Embassy of Liberia in Washington D.C.

5201 16th. Street, NW Washington DC, 20011

Tel: (202) 723-0437 Fax: (202) 723-0436

Good riddance, victims.

[kublia khan]

That would have to be subtracted from the overall amount. But if what the Black leadership contends is true (and I believe that it is, statistics seem to bear it out) their per capita income and thus taxes would be well below the national average on the whole and thus may not affect the total as much as one might think.

[Bob J]

"Don't plan on reparations proponents excecizing any judgement. This isn't about right and wrong. This is about blame and victimhood."

No, it's about the money.

[Bob J]

"This has nothing to do with slavery. This is about dividing and weakening America in order to advance socialistic world government."

No, it's about the money.

[oldenuff2no]

This is a first class racial shakedown that would lead to a race war. I'll be damed if my tax dollars go to anyone just because their skin is a certain color.
My family fought and died on the side of the north. Several of my ancestors died in battle in the effort to free the slaves. I think each and every decedent of the slaves that were freed owe me and my family a portion of their income forever!!!!!! Without my ancestors giving their lives to set your forefathers free you would never have been paid a single dime, not ever!!!!! Now I want my part of that, and I want it now!!!!! These people think that everyone in this world except for them was borne with a silver spoon in their mouth, that everything in life has been given to them, and that they never had to work for anything. If somebody hasn't already told you then I will. This attitude is a bunch of BS!!!!! Get a job and raise you own children. Make sure your kids finish high school, go to college and this cycle of poverty will be broken in one generation. That's what the rest of us do when we want to get ahead in life. Thanks to the race pimps like Jesse Jackson the race card has been worn out. It no longer plays as an automatic trump card in the game of life, in fact it no longer plays at all.

[willyd]

I think it is funny that a program to end racism would start with the assumption that all white people are the same because of their skin color alone and therefore equally responsible.

[rogue yam]

No, it's about the money.

I do not think that this statement plausibly explains the motivations of the members of the mentioned group, CURE. After all, they do not stand to receive any money.