40 Acres and a Mule: Ta-Nehisi Coates and Danny Glover join renewed debate over reparations

Steps away from the U.S. Capitol – a building built by slaves – the House Judiciary subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties is holding its first hearing in more than a decade on the hot-button topic of reparations for the descendants of Africans brought to America, enslaved and impacted by discriminatory policies including segregation.

The hearing, timed to coincide with "Juneteenth," a date when the last slaves in Texas learned they were free, brings to the forefront the centuries-old debate over what, if anything, is owed.

At the end of the Civil War formerly enslaved families were promised by Union leadership 40 acres and a mule -- an offer never fulfilled. Centuries later, the debate over reparations is playing out on the campaign trail as many 2020 presidential presidential candidates weigh in on the topic and lawmakers press the case with perennial legislative efforts.

The appearance actor Danny Glover and award-winning author Ta-Nehisi Coates, whose 2014 essay "The Case for Reparations" thrust the divisive topic onto the national stage, are expected to testify, lending celebrity status to an issue that has been wending through Congress for decades.

Glover grew emotional as he spoke about his family's history as sharecroppers and as the descendants of slaves and stressed that America needs to acknowledge the impact of slavery and discrimination.

I’m Asian. I view this slavery thing as cancer of this nation. The country was on wrong footing at the start. There is no such a thing as equality. Either govern or governed. Two mistakes by Americans: 1) dragged blacks into their living space for better cotton trade. 2) emancipation without solving this issue

There's no doubt that slavery is a cancer. But let's provide some context and therefore perspective.

America didn't invent slavery, and I'm out of patience with those who talk as though it did. America wasn't the cause of slavery, America turned out to be the cure.

The world was a bad, bad place. No one had rights to speak of. The closest would be the English, with the Magna Carta. Rights certainly did not exist in tribal Africa. So let's stop pretending America was the turd in the punch bowl, shall we?

The world as we know it today...with talk of such niceties as freedom of speech, property rights, etc, is largely a result of America. America is the locomotive of the world, in more ways than one.

So no, there will be no talk of collective guilt/Original Sin for America.

As for these twits...these race pimps and their hos...they got a great deal. Their ancestors got a raw deal...paid the price of coming to America, but got none of the benefit. Their descendants got quite the opposite, living in a sense of entitlement with no clue about the responsibilities on the flip side of the coin. They get to live and benefit from a First World country while providing little more than a Third World mentality.

Those who speak of how the world should be changed have no clue of how the current one works, or why it works. They are little more than vandals and mobsters and should be treated accordingly.

“I’ve seen anecdotes about black slave owners but never any hard numbers on how many owners and/or numbers of slaves. Perhaps CodeToad can enlighten us?”

Don’t play dumb. You know very well the MANY threads you have participated on involving slavery has posted the numbers.

This is why I don’t argue with bigots.

Code Toad: "I know the numbers, but anti-American bigots tend not to."

So why not post them, and your source?
I've seen posters before say some freed blacks owned slaves, but you are the first I've seen to claim the percent of black slave holders was higher than percent of white slaveholders.

So if you have those numbers and a source for them, why not just post them?

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