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The Case for Reparations
The Atlantic ^ | May 21, 2014 | Ta-Nehisi Coates

Posted on 05/22/2014 6:39:45 AM PDT by Second Amendment First

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To: TruthShallSetYouFree

I am demanding reparations money from the following: 1) whoever traces their lines to the Huns, who destroyed cities and villages, costing many their homes and lives; 2) descendants of the Vikings, who raided northern England; 3) the King of Spain, who sent his Armada that my ancestors had to fight when they could have been making money fishin’; and, 4) the descendants of American slaves freed by my gg-grandfathers, who fought in the Union Army for four years to achieve this task when they could have been supporting their families farming and operating shops.


21 posted on 05/22/2014 7:00:55 AM PDT by laconic
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To: cripplecreek

The government still owes my g.g.g.g.grandfather’s ancestors for the 100 acres- given to him by George III and taken by New York for the St. Lawrence Seaway. I figure it’s worth a couple of million dollars. I want reparations. ;-)

Oh the other side, they imprisoned my g.g.g.g.g.grandfather and took his farm for being on the wrong side of the Loyalist v. Revolutionary struggle. He got the farm back though when all of the neighbors refused to bid on his land. The family suffered while he was in prison in NY.

Blacks have convinced themselves that they, and they alone, suffered injustice while all whites prospered without a struggle. They ignore the role their fellow blacks played in enslaving their brothers. They ignore the fact that thousands of blacks were slave owners.


22 posted on 05/22/2014 7:03:34 AM PDT by ladyjane
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To: Second Amendment First

Since reparations for slavery have gone nowhere, Ta-Nehisi here is arguing that reparations should now be handed out for segregation and mortgage red-lining.


23 posted on 05/22/2014 7:04:34 AM PDT by Timber Rattler (Just say NO! to RINOS and the GOP-E)
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To: Iron Munro

I’d be all for a “big check” to any that can prove “slave ancestors”

IFFFFFFFFF

all welfare - ceases
all affirmative action - ceases
all minority set asides - cease
all using race as a lever - ceases
all accusations of racism - dismissed

Won’t. Ever. Happen.


24 posted on 05/22/2014 7:04:51 AM PDT by MrB (The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter admits whom he's working for)
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To: Second Amendment First
they use 1882 as a start date because, prior to that, more whites than blacks were lynched.
from 1882-1960 whites were over 27% of the lynchings.
25 posted on 05/22/2014 7:05:03 AM PDT by stylin19a (Obama ----> Fredo smart)
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Comment #26 Removed by Moderator

To: MrB

Let me add -

all double standards for behavior - cease


27 posted on 05/22/2014 7:07:01 AM PDT by MrB (The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter admits whom he's working for)
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To: Second Amendment First
Yep, those Democrats would murder, lynch, rape, and bomb blacks in Mississippi for over a century...until blacks became a reliable Democrat vote.
28 posted on 05/22/2014 7:09:19 AM PDT by MuttTheHoople (Ob)
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To: Second Amendment First

$25,000,000,000,000 of wealth redistribution over the last 40+ years is more than enough “restitution”.


29 posted on 05/22/2014 7:11:13 AM PDT by Gay State Conservative (Rat Party Policy:Lie,Deny,Refuse To Comply)
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To: Second Amendment First

Cry me a river Ta-Nehisi! (Your name sounds like an exotic Thai Jock-Itch cream for 80 year old saggers)

We’re done hearing your excuses for the repetitive failure of your community. The responsibility rests on you alone.

I’m sick of hearing your stupid grievances!!!!!! Nobody owes you squat!


30 posted on 05/22/2014 7:12:05 AM PDT by Roman_War_Criminal (Bible Summary in a few verses: John 14:6, John 6:29, Romans 10:9-10)
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To: Second Amendment First
The only way reparations can be justified is if they are payed to the people who were wronged, and payed by the people who wronged them. So, anyone who was held as a slave should be compensated by the person who owned them. Anything else is just an excuse to punish one person and reward another on the basis of their skin color.
31 posted on 05/22/2014 7:12:25 AM PDT by The_Victor (If all I want is a warm feeling, I should just wet my pants.)
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To: TruthShallSetYouFree

If you’re a “cracker”...you owe! Facts never mattered to these people!


32 posted on 05/22/2014 7:13:39 AM PDT by Roman_War_Criminal (Bible Summary in a few verses: John 14:6, John 6:29, Romans 10:9-10)
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To: Second Amendment First

Same answer as during the Battle of the Bulge:

NUTZ


33 posted on 05/22/2014 7:17:34 AM PDT by exit82 ("The Taliban is on the inside of the building" E. Nordstrom 10-10-12)
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To: Farmer Dean

My ancestors fought on both sides. So I figure I have a zero balance owing.

Actually, one of my ancestors fought on both sides all by himself. Surrendered at Vicksburg, then joined the Union Army to get out of the prison camp and was sent out west to fight the Indians.


34 posted on 05/22/2014 7:21:08 AM PDT by Sherman Logan
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To: Second Amendment First
I guess this crap is never gonna stop. Here we go again!

Reparations for slavery?

When a black woman is one of the richest people in America?

When a black man was Secretary of State??

When a black woman was Secretary of State?

When black men have sat -- and do sit -- on the Supreme Court??

When a black would-be despot sits in the White House?????

When countless black men have risen to the top of the ranks of the richest in professional sports and show business?? Men like Hank Aaron. Men like Bill Cosby who... (Never mind. As we all know, because he speaks out against the cultural rot and violence among his black brethren, Bill's either an Uncle Tom or Oreo Cookie, depending on which black race pimp you listen to.)

And, how about Liberation Theology?

Liberation from WHAT? The chance to achieve and succeed??

Give me a break!!

Let me make it clear right up front: I am NOT a racist. I supported Herman Cain in his run for the Senate and supported him in his run for the WH. And if Allen West or Dr. Carson go for it, they, too, have my support.

I also consider Thomas Sowell and Walter Williams two of the finest economists and minds extant today. In case you don’t know them, both are black.

Sowell, Williams and Cain – among others -- have spoken out against those fellow blacks who castigate and vilify America for a slavery now long in our past. And ALL thinking men and women oppose the periodic calls for reparations. (When he ran, I supported Alan Keyes. I even spoke in his stead on the RTKABA at a Capitol rally and was asked to fill in for him on his radio show at the time. Sadly, while I still consider Alan a good man, I have had to rethink my support since he came out FOR reparations.)

The fact is that the modern descendants of slaves brought here in chains in admittedly miserable, soul-gutting conditions now calling for reparations need to remember something:

They should not only be glad to be in America, they should be glad to be ANYWHERE!

Had their ancestors NOT been brought OUT of Africa – many by MUSLIM slave raiders --the blood of those ancestors would have run into the earth over there several centuries ago, victims of the OTHER black tribes that captured them in one of the interminable tribal conflicts STILL ravaging that sad continent and these modern day would-be "plaintiffs" would not even exist.

And I would remind you that slavery is STILL practiced in parts of Africa (mainly by – American BLACK MUSLIMS LISTEN UP!! -- MUSLIMS), the Middle East and Asia today. How ironic that disgruntled American blacks are embracing a system that participated mightily in their initial bondage – and would, if Islam takes root here, probably put any who cling to their Christianity back INTO BONDAGE – or to the sword. In fact, as the majority of muslims consider black folks as “sub-human”, many of you black muzzies will get the axe.

95% of the African slaves who were transported across the Atlantic went to South and Central America, mainly to Portuguese, Spanish and French possessions, and that less than 5% of the slaves who crossed the Atlantic went to the United States, it was remarkable that the vast majority of academic research, films, books and articles concerning the slave trade concentrated only on the American involvement, as though slavery was a uniquely American aberration.

And should the great-great-great grandchildren of SLAVE OWNING BLACKS also be subject to PAYING these reparations? If so, how do we find THEM?

And I have traced MY family back to the SLAVS. Although the term looks to be related to “slave,” depending on your source, it either means “glory” or “worshipper.” But my family research indicates that many of my ancestors LIVED lives of virtual or real slavery to some despot or other. Do I qualify for reparations? From whom?? And it begs a question: Are most of us now living here headed into a modern form of that servitude? But that’s a topic for another discussion.

The official US Census of 1830 lists 3,775 free blacks who owned 12,740 black slaves. Furthermore, the story outlines the history of slavery here, and the first slave owner, the Father of American slavery, was Mr Anthony Johnson, of Northampton, Virginia. His slave was John Casor, the first slave for life. Both were black Africans. The story is very readable, and outlines cases of free black women owning their husbands, free black parents selling their children into slavery to white owners, and absentee free black slave owners, who leased their slaves to plantation owners. -"Selling Poor Steven", American Heritage Magazine, Feb/Mar 1993 (Vol. 441) p 90

Of course, a full telling of Black History would not be complete without a recitation of the origin of slavery in the Virginia colony: Virginia, Guide to The Old Dominion, WPA Writers' Program, Oxford University Press, NY, 1940, p. 378

A few more salient points on the subject:

Until the US declared independence, the Colonies were REQUIRED by the King of England to embrace slavery.

The Northwest Ordinance (1789) prohibited slavery in federal territories.

A law prohibiting the importation of slaves into the US became effective in 1808.

Beginning in 1820, the Democratic Congress started passing laws allowing and encouraging slavery.

It was only after the Republican Party (many of whom were southern Blacks) was formed some 40 years later that the anti-slavery movement was able to move forward.

And the holier-than-thou Northern liberals are strangely silent on recent archeological evidence from NEW YORK CITY clearly tracing the financing of the slave trade to NORTHERN BUSINESSMEN!!

At the height of his remarkable boxing career, Muhammad Ali (born Cassius Clay), once declared, “I’m glad my great-grandpa got on that boat.”

And speaking of ancestors, my paternal grandmother’s daddy, William Henry Robinson, joined with the 80th Ohio Volunteer Infantry early in the War Between the States (re-upped twice) and fought on the Union side at Vicksburg, Jackson and elsewhere in the deep South then joined up with Sherman for that infamous march to the sea through Georgia. My wife’s great-great grandpappy ALSO fought for the Union. While I revere the memory of my ancestors, inasmuch as that conflict was less about slavery than it was the economic exploitation and abuse of the South by the North, I fear they MAY have been on the wrong side.

Author Robert Hitt Neill tells of attending a Tennessee Mountain Writer’s Conference years ago with several other authors. Among them was Alex Hailey, celebrated author of “Roots.” Watching a TV news show, a group of them watched a demonstration in a Southern state against the “Rebel” flag incorporated into that state’s flag. The very next report covered a famine in Africa. Graphic images showed dead bodies, starving children with distended tummies and runny noses and dying people covered with flies, too weak to brush them away.

Mr. Hailey intoned in a low, serious voice, “Every time an American black sees a story like that, they should find a Confederate flag and kiss it.” He then pointed to the TV screen and continued, “Because these would be me and my descendants, except for American slavery. I thank God that my family and I are here instead of there.”

Next problem!

Dick Bachert

AFTERWORD:

A brief review of the FACTS on the subject:

Until the US declared independence, we were required by the King of England to embrace slavery.

The Northwest Ordinance (1789) prohibited slavery in federal territories.

A law prohibiting the importation of slaves into the US became effective in 1808.

Beginning in 1820, the Democratic Congress started passing laws allowing and encouraging slavery.

It was only after the Republican Party (many of whom were southern Blacks) was formed some 40 years later that the anti-slavery movement was able to move forward.

35 posted on 05/22/2014 7:22:07 AM PDT by Dick Bachert (Ignorance is NOT BLISS. It is the ROAD TO SERFDOM! We're on a ROAD TRIP!!)
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To: Second Amendment First
"Comments for this thread are now closed," and all the comments have been deleted.

I wonder what happened?

36 posted on 05/22/2014 7:23:09 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum ("The more numerous the laws, the more corrupt the government." --Tacitus)
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To: Second Amendment First

BTW, the economic conditions of most Mississippi white at the time were remarkably similar to that of most blacks.

There were a great many white sharecroppers, as well as black sharecroppers. Their economic, as opposed to social, condition was essentially identical.

Poor white sharecropper were also often effectively disenfranchised by the poll tax system.


37 posted on 05/22/2014 7:23:53 AM PDT by Sherman Logan
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To: E. Pluribus Unum
I wonder what happened?

With the protection of anonymity, the "honest conversation about race" they claim to want developed. So of course it had to be deleted.

I suspect many of the comments presented the other side of the case. So we now have Ta-Nehisi's side still up, but the other side deleted.

A classic example of what liberals consider an honest and open conversation.

I talk, you listen and agree. If you dare to disagree, I'll ruin your life, if I can find out who your are. If I can't, I'll just shut you up.

38 posted on 05/22/2014 7:29:57 AM PDT by Sherman Logan
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To: Second Amendment First

Reparations were paid in the form of a half a million lives and untold shattered arms and legs on a thousand battlefields from 1861 to 1865.


39 posted on 05/22/2014 7:32:27 AM PDT by Ruy Dias de Bivar
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To: Second Amendment First

White victims of reverse discrimination should get reparations from the rich white liberals.


40 posted on 05/22/2014 7:33:15 AM PDT by Socon-Econ
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