The case for reparations: Fixing the damage done by oppression is everyone’s responsibility

TC Daily Planet ^ | 5-8-08 | Ralph Remington

[redstateconfidential]

Mr Remongton
I will buy you a Ticket to such wonderful ancestral homelands :
Angola, enjoy the dirt floor.
South Africa basking is post apartheid chaos.
Somalia,care for some Khat?
Uganda, nuff said.
Zimbabwe another glorious post colonial nation.
Nigeria, you move your money scam there.
Zaire, ouch, watch out for those machetes!
Kenya, look out her comes Obama Hussein ‘s cousin!

[Eurale]

Get your reparations from the good people at the NEA!

[SJackson]

3. What about the thousands of black slave owners? Will their decendants have to pay reparations too?

No

To anticipate your next questions

4. Will people like me whose ancestors lived in the non-slave territories, but wore blue anyway, have to pay reparations

Yes

And

5-Will blacks who have no connections to slavery receive reparations

Yes, if whites with no connections to slavery have to pay, it's only fair they're paid.

The divisiveness of this topic is breathtaking. And repackaging it as educational assistance, or economic assistance to the poor as Obama will won't overcome that.

[MrB]

And one thing we’ve learned from Rev Wright -

it will never be enough. Never.

[MrB]

The U.S. taxpayer has forked over in excess of $5 trillion dollars in the "war on poverty".

I've read that it is FORTY trillion.

[MrB]

I’m to the point of saying

let ‘em riot.

If they burn their own neighborhoods, so be it.
If they come into mine, I’m armed.

[Eurale]

I agree with you, MrB.

[sauropod]

However, Senator Obama and everyone else must make sure that we don’t lose our collective progressive soul and democratic ideals in our search for bipartisanship.

I see. It's only Republicans and Conservatives that are supposed to be "bipartisan," eh, Mr. Remington?

Once we can rearticulate the reasons why our liberal society was created, we can start to move this country forward from its enforced regression induced by the Reagan administration. At that point, we can and should speak powerfully to the implementation of an Equal Rights Amendment for women as well as full marital and partner benefits for same sex couples.

Our society was created in pursuit of liberty, to wit: "life, liberty, and the pursuit of property [original language]". We did NOT create a "liberal society."

Read some history Mr. Remington. Read the Constitution. Several times. Take a couple of economics classes.

Learn what the original vision of the Founders was and why the country is in such trouble now.

Because of people that hold the same beliefs you do. 'Pod.

[AuntB]

“1) What about the 600,000 white lives between 1861-1865, “

Good point. And the ones that didn’t die fighting for the Union came back to their towns and home destroyed and spent the next 100 years having to live in poverty competing with the cheap, newly freed, black labor that they sacrificed to free.

My own grandmother, a Cherokee was orphaned and became a slave long after the civil war. She got nothing because whe wasn’t “indian enough”. Do I get reparations?
The slaves of the Southern Cherokee were given land allotments on Indian lands after the civil war, just like the Indians were.
Just one of the things you don’t hear about.

Reparations? Pfft! Freedom in America is reward enough.

[reagan_fanatic]

There definitely is a rationale for payment

No, there ISN'T!!

Not once in my entire life have I ever owned a slave, known anyone who has ever owned a slave, condoned slavery or engaged in any activity abusive to black Americans. I do not owe you any money. I do not owe you anything. I am NOT responsible for what people long dead before I was even born did. The fact that I am white has no bearing in the matter. I did not choose this color anymore than you chose yours.

This reparations madness must STOP. People need to quit dwelling on the past while looking for novel ways to get rich and concentrate on the here and now instead.

Enough is enough.

[wbill]

Barack Obama has got it right when he asserts that there are no red states and blue states. There is the United States of America. In the same way, there isn’t a North Minneapolis or a South Minneapolis. There is the City of Minneapolis.

Good. Good. We all need to get along. These Republicans, they're really OK. No, Really! We just need to find the middle ground that we all share and things will be hunky-dory.

However, ....Oh, how did I know THIS was coming?

...Senator Obama and everyone else must make sure that we don’t lose our collective progressive soul and democratic ideals in our search for bipartisanship. ...So actually, never mind on the whole "Let's get along" thing.

Great article. Defines the Democrat mindset perfectly.

[Pravious]

“1) What about the 600,000 white lives between 1861-1865, and what about the $7 trillion dollars paid out since 1965? Do they count?”

Good thought. I want reparations for all the whites who died fighting for the North in the Civil War.

[Eva]

First of all, I don’t believe the story. The only woman who could have told the story was “confined to a mental institution”. Lot’s of families have suffered through fires, and whether or not the woman was raped, has little to do with the color of her skin. White women get raped too. That being as it is, this man is whining about conditions that allegedly happened well before his time and should have had no affect on his life, whatsoever.

I feel no responsibility to this man, none at all.

I had one ancestor who died of malaria that he contracted in the Civil war, fighting to end slavery and keep the union together, and another who survived Andersonville and then was denied a pension because they couldn’t find the records of his enlistment, even though the government had photographed him as a record of the condition of the survivors. Do you see me crying for reparations?

[Califreak]

>White Americans have to acknowledge their culpability and oftentimes downright ignorance of the systemic causes of racism and oppression.<

I have no culpability! He’s just stating “It’s all whitey’s fault!” in a different manner!

If whites are caught contemplating the possibility of “their own culpability” some people will see it as a sign of weakness not the supposed awareness he’s trying to achieve and exploit the newly aware to the fullest!

[chesley]

Shouldn’t there have been a “mega” barf alert there?

My keyboard is a MESS!!

[Califreak]

The “back to Africa” mindset is sheer insanity.

Africa is nothing but a hellhole and always has been, IMHO.

[AnotherUnixGeek]

As exhaustive and sometimes dangerous as it may be, we have to continue to educate White America. We must find receptive, progressive White ears who can then teach other White people. White Americans have to acknowledge their culpability and oftentimes downright ignorance of the systemic causes of racism and oppression.

As an American who is neither white nor black, I don't understand what Mr. Remington is talking about. What systematic causes of racism and oppression still exist in today's America? I've run into some bigoted individuals of various skin colors, but I've yet to run into any systematic racism or oppression during the course of my life.

It doesn't really sound like Mr. Remington has either. He cites the rape of his grandmother by a white doctor, but this was a crime committed by an individual, not systematic racism. Further, it didn't happen to Mr. Remington. We don't inherit the misfortunes of our ancestors any more than we inherit their accomplishments, nor are we entitled to play the victim and claim recompense for the awful things that happen to other people, relatives or not.

[calcowgirl]

The Democratic Party and progressives everywhere must grow strong sharp teeth and a sturdy backbone to regain the moral authority that we lost after FDR’s New Deal and LBJ’s Great Society. Once we can rearticulate the reasons why our liberal society was created, we can start to move this country forward from its enforced regression induced by the Reagan administration.

Liberals are clueless.

[AnotherUnixGeek]

Africa is nothing but a hellhole and always has been, IMHO.

With decent government, the nations of sub-Saharan Africa could be a huge success story. Enormous natural resources, lots of arable land, young demographic - unfortunately much of Africa today seems to be led by people primarily interested in pillaging their nations.

[mikey_hates_everything]

So if the doctor was black, no problem.