Posted on 05/24/2014 3:18:43 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
Everyone who was involved in institutional slavery in the United States is long dead.
(I have just lightly discounted the moral and political case for reparations.)
Ta -Nehisi,they have the cutest names.
“Let’s throw Scrabble tiles in the air to pick the baby’s name!”
And no where is there a mention of those immigrants who came to this country as indentured servants having to work off the cost of their passage as veritable slaves. I find both sides lacking
I had an ancestor who was held as a slave by the natives in the early 1600s.
And I join you in lightly discounting any moral or political case for reparations. In fact, I go beyond discounting and proceed directly to accounting funds expended since 1965 in efforts to conduct a “war on poverty” as applied to any possible debt that may have ever existed by those already deceased, both white and black. When that accounting is complete, I believe the American taxpayer is due a refund for the lack of results. All those funds did was prove what was said two millennia ago: “You shall always have the poor with you.”
Good point. Or at least, we could stop spending money in the same counterproductive way.
’ the median net worth for a black woman in her prime earning years is about $5.’
Does this five buck figure make any sense to anyone? I agree with most of the article, especially the part about blacks miring themselves among folks with no drive or desire to succeed in basic education or in building a financial future. I call it ghetto think, it occurs in poor white areas also, I grew up in such an area and heard the talk of being held down by the powers that be and there was no point in trying you were beat from the start. I and my family never believed it as did similar families that made success in life their goal. We were and are successful in one way or another. It has to start in the family, it only takes one mother or father to break the cycle. I am an ignorant hillbilly and even I figured this out. Blacks, with a few shining exceptions, among them Carson, West, Rice, and others seldom see this. I do not think it is racism just a bad attitude and piss poor choices. One other thing, it is very easy to surround yourself with other deadbeats and moan about how unfair life is while waiting on the government handout, it is harder to pick yourself up and be somebody. The blacks owe the Feds a strong kick in the butt but it will never happen.
I have no information to discount K.D. Williamson's information. This $5 (average) would be what someone has after subtracting debt from assets. By mentally "calculating" the other statistics - size of college loans, their investment resistance and being viewed as high risk loans and vulnerable to scams - in the piece, this is not outside the realm of reality.
Your points are well taken. And cultural differences (much due to associations - staying on the liberal plantation would be one way to say it) are pointed out by Williamson as having great import in a group's success in acquiring wealth, mobility and generational movement up the socioeconomic ladder.
Agree! Half my family came from Ireland. I think we all know how the Irish were treated when they came here: "Irish need not apply!"
The other half of my family came from Austria before WW1. Austrian's were known as smart, good hard industrious workers and had opportunity after opportunity.
My wife's family came here after WW2. First they escaped Germany as male family members were conscripted into the Hitler military, then escaped Hitler again as he invaded Hungary. Eventually they made it here, brought over by a "sponsor" who paid their way. Wife's family spent almost 5 years picking cotton as truly indentured servants in the south to pay that money back. They were lucky: the farmer who brought them over saw how hard working they were and after their debt was paid gave them a hand up (a car, extra money, and contacts in Western NY where wife's family eventually settled and started their own business.)
Difference between my wife's family and mine when hers came over was that they were considered wealthy in Germany before WW2 and lost everything they had. (No, her family is not Jewish. They were simply one of many German families that had wealth and tried standing up to Hitler.) When they came here, they had the same entrepreneurial spirit that made them wealthy in Germany, then Hungary that made them successful -- despite the anti-German feelings in this country after WW2.
Blacks aren't the only ones who had it rough when they first came here. Yes, they started out in Slavery -- the difference is they've had opportunities in the greatest economy and economic growth engine on the planet over the last 200+ years. They've not take advantage of those opportunities to lift themselves out of poverty. They demand a hand-out and reject a hand-up. That mentality will continue to get them nowhere in this country. Nor should it.
Almost all can be translated from Ubangi and mean “Affican Prince” or Affican Princess”.
My Celtic ancestors were enslaved by the Romans, who murdered my queen Boadicea. I still grieve for her. I want reparations from the d@mned Italians, with interest.
I think Asians would probably dispute this article, because when most first came to America, they were as poor as one could be in America and they faced discrimination that was as serious as blacks. By this measure, they should have incomes that are approximately the same as blacks instead of the highest, on average, incomes in America.
Yes, the truth that people don’t want to recognize is that not all cultures are even remotely equivalent in objective value as is easily measurable by objective results.
Black culture, as practiced by so many people of that race, is a disaster. It does not encourage the values which contribute to success. However in our nonsensical multicultural world, it is celebrated as equal in value to other cultures which as a contrast actually produce results (like Asian immigrant culture for a shining example).
WTF, no one is owed anything in this country.
The author touches on your point (I moved it up to the top as an excerpt to be sure it wasn’t lost due to the length of the article).
That’s one thing we really won’t have to worry about. I’d bet even at least 70% of democrats will say something like, “I didn’t have anything to do with slavery and can’t afford to pay anything to anyone to make up for it.” End of discussion.
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