John Conyers
Posted on 05/09/2006 10:02:08 PM PDT by peggybac
John Conyers: U.S. Owes Slavery Reparations
The left wing Democrat who will become chairman of the House Judiciary Committee if his party wins back Congress in November wants to hold full blown congressional hearings on whether the government should pay African Americans reparations for slavery.
Michigan Rep. John Conyers has attracted attention in recent months for his House resolution calling for an impeachment investigation against President Bush.
But another Conyers cause-celeb is reparations, which he's been advocating since 1989, when he first introduced legislation to establish what he calls, "The Commission to Study Reparations Proposals for African American Act." ( H.R. 40)
In a press release posted to his official congressional web site, Conyers explains how he intends to handle the hot-button issue.
"My bill does four things:
• It acknowledges the fundamental injustice and inhumanity of slavery.
• It establishes a commission to study slavery, its subsequent racial and economic discrimination against freed slaves.
• It studies the impact of those forces on today's living African Americans.
• The commission would then make recommendations to Congress on appropriate remedies to redress the harm inflicted on living African Americans."
Conyers says:
"I chose the number of the bill, 40, as a symbol of the forty acres and a mule that the United States initially promised freed slaves. This unfulfilled promise and the serious devastation that slavery had on African-American lives has never been officially recognized by the United States Government . . . " He goes on:
"Just as we've discussed the Holocaust, and Japanese interment camps, and to some extent the devastation that the colonists inflicted upon the Indians, we must talk about slavery and its continued effects."
Though Conyers reintroduces his reparations resolution every year, would-be House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has never indicated whether she'd back the controversial proposal.
where is the "Oh no , not this sh*t again " pic ?
One of my favorite authors, which book was that?
Four Trillion in welfare since LBJ and they just want more, more, more.
OK, so here's my plan for slavery reparations. Every Senator and congressman gives up 40% of their salary to cover whatever they decide is fair for reparations....AND they are not allowed to even consider raising their pay until AFTER those reparations are paid off. Deal?
Having traced my family tree back to the early 1800's I know that about a dozen family members died fighting for the North in the civil war. It seems to me that every black person in this country alive or dead owes my family a percentage of their gross yearly income for their freedom which was paid for with the blood of my ancestors. Freeing the blacks was not free or easy. Hundreds of thousands of Americans died so that slavery would end. My family never owned a slave but many of them died gaining their freedom. If this scam works for the blacks then it has to work for the families of the white folks who died to free them.
• It acknowledges the fundamental injustice and inhumanity of slavery. (Then Conyers should fight to send troops to Sudan, the only place on earth where slavery still exists. Black muslims are enslaving Black Christians).
• "It establishes a commission to study slavery, its subsequent racial and economic discrimination against freed slaves".
(Are there any freed slaves in America?)
• "It studies the impact of those forces on today's living African Americans."
(The "forces" of slavery were removed 143 years ago, that's six generations. Any impact of slavery still remaining on today's black American community is a chosen one. This situation makes me think of the brutal Russian pogroms against the Jews in the early 1900's, followed by the genocidal slaughter of the Jews by the Nazis a few years later. As soon as the Nazis were defeated the Jews picked themselves up and quickly returned to prosperity, inspite of the unprecedented brutality they had been subjected to, and inspite of the prejudice against them that still remained afterwards.
Every race and nationality has a story of brutality against them to tell; history is replete with man's brutality to man. The slavery issue in America was a short lived one in historical context. In any case, it is absolutely absurd, and totally divisive, that anybody would demand monetary 'reparations' more than six generations after the fact. I would say in fact, that the call for 'reparations' only serves to keep the sense of black persecution alive. This is just another liberal plan to keep America divided and weak).
• "The commission would then make recommendations to Congress on appropriate remedies to redress the harm inflicted on living African Americans."
(Sounds like Mr. Conyers has already made the 'study' and has arrived at a pre-determined conclusion. Also sounds like this bottom-dwelling, sleazeball politician is trying to buy Black votes with taxpayer dollars at the expense of a united America. His plan is to keep the blacks roiling in the slavery issue, keep them angry and resentful at whites. I'm beginning to loath all politicians, they're sleazier and more self-serving than tort lawyers.
The Chinese believe as a matter of practice and cultural lore that you can purge a people of its history in three generations. Of course, they go about it in a slightly different fashion than we would...
That should be a plank in the RATS 2006 platform. A sure winner.
Anyway they can get their reparations from the Illegals.
This Republican Administration thinks it's just fine for Americans pay reparations to illegal Mexicans who claim we stole their ancestral land. Since we are paying reparations to Mexicans in the form of welfare benefits, why do you think Republicans would be opposed to paying a lump sum to black Americans? I don't trust any politicians anymore, they're all self serving buffoons.
called 40 after the 40 acres and a mule promised...
Well if it is jackasses they want lets give each of them a congressman or senator or staff member of same.
Conyers/Keyes: the Reparations Party candidates, 2008
My own "people" were held as slaves at multiple times in history, by multiple conquerors -- I've never heard even one relative ever claim they should be paid "reparations"...
It my deeply held belief that any black who currently believes they are entitled to ANY reparation -- should be given a check and tossed out of the country...
. Semper Fi
Many African Americans believe that the ancient Egyptians were black. They had Hebrew slaves. Ok, that means my folks were slaves to their folks for over 400 years. Where's my end, given Conyers' "logic"?
That's not a prediction, it's a present day reality. We are paying reparations to illegal aliens, (mostly Mexicans) in the form of welfare benefits, because you see, we stole their ancestor's land and now they're dirt poor and we are responsible for their survival and prosperity. So we must give them jobs, pay for their education, their health benefits and their monthly welfare benefits.
And you know why? For the same reason LBJ explained the glories of The Great Society, "It'll keep them n---ers" votin' democrat for generations."
heck they already got all the cities
You've nailed it! We WILL have to pay reparations in this country. Not just for Blacks, but for Hispanics as well, for "stealing" the southwest from them, for deporting a million of them (illegals) back in the fifties in President Eisenhower's Operation Wetback, and so on. White politicians simply will not be able to withstand the demand for reparations coming from both groups. And since Whites are, for all practical purposes, forbidden from organizing on behalf of their own interests, even defensively, it's all over.
Reparations won't pass next year, but they'll pass sooner than anyone thinks. At some point, critical mass will be reached on this issue, which means all the relevant minority groups will be organized for reparations, the media will have set it up so that anyone opposed is smeared as a racist, and the usual party split will occur. That party split will be Democrats aggressively pushing reparations, and Republicans raising the white flag.
The 1964 Civil Rights Act was passed with assurances that it wouldn't lead to quotas or reverse discrimination against Whites. In no time it was being used for that purpose, with the Democrats' enthusiastic support and the GOP raising the white flag. The 1965 Immigration Bill was passed with assurances that it wouldn't flood America with racial or religious minorities who wouldn't assimilate. Today, both parties "celebrate diversity". The 1986 amnesty of illegal aliens was passed with an assurance that it would never be done again and the borders would be protected. Guess what?
So when people say reparations won't happen, or will only happen over their dead body, or whatever, they're whistling past a graveyard that was dug back in the 1960s. Those who want reparations will know when the time is right (i.e., when we've been browbeaten to the point we won't resist) and they'll issue their demand. It'll pass Congress in a landslide.
This post may be accused of being racist, but it isn't. It's just the truth.
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