Posted on 02/25/2021 4:02:03 AM PST by Kaslin
Last week, I testified before the House Committee on the Judiciary's Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties regarding H.R. 40: Examining the Path to Reparative Justice in America. In other words, reparations. This is the first part of the statement I submitted:
"Reparations is the extraction of money from people who were never slave owners to be given to people who were never slaves."
It is also interesting that we are having this hearing at a time when racism as a barrier to success has never been so insignificant. In 1991, Black Democrat and Harvard sociologist Orlando Patterson said: "The sociological truths are that America, while still flawed in its race relations and its stubborn refusal to institute a rational, universal welfare system, is now the least racist white-majority society in the world; has a better record of legal protection of minorities than any other society, white or Black; offers more opportunities to a greater number of Black persons than any other society, including all those of Africa."
In 1997, Time/CNN did a broad survey of Black and white teens. Asked whether racism is a major problem in America, both said yes. But, when Black teens were asked whether racism was a big problem, small problem or no problem in their own daily lives, 89% said small or no problem. In fact, nearly twice as many Black teens, compared to white teens, agreed that "failure to take advantage of available opportunities" was a bigger problem than racism.
During the 2008 race for the presidency, the major contenders were Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton; and Republicans Mitt Romney, a Mormon, and Sen. John McCain, who would have been 72 by the time he entered office, if elected. A 2007 Gallup poll found fewer Americans would refuse to vote for a Black person (5%); than would refuse to vote for a woman (11%); than would refuse to vote for a Mormon (24%); than would refuse to vote for someone who would be 72 upon entering office (42%).
In 2007, the year before he was elected president, Obama spoke at a Black church on the anniversary of Bloody Sunday. He said: "The previous generation, the Moses generation (the generation of Martin Luther King Jr.), pointed the way. They took us 90% of the way there, but we still got that 10% in order to cross over to the other side."
I thought that 10% remaining "to cross over to the other side" was a fair assessment. After all, a 2002 Fox News/Opinion Dynamics poll found that 8% of Americans believed that Elvis Presley was still alive -- or that at least there was "a chance." So, as to Obama's 10% remaining, I'm not sure how much more wiggle room we have left before running into the Elvis factor.
The reparations argument is based, in part, on the belief that but for slavery, America would not have become the prosperous nation it is today.
To the contrary, conservative scholar Michael Medved notes:
"It's not true that the U.S. became a wealthy nation through the abuse of slave labor: The most prosperous states in the country were those that first freed their slaves. ...
"At the time of the Constitution, Virginia constituted the most populous and wealthiest state in the Union, but by the time of the War Between the States the Old Dominion had fallen far behind a half-dozen northern states that had outlawed slavery two generations earlier."
About the difference in wealth between the North and the South, Frederick Douglass, after escaping from a plantation in Maryland to freedom in Massachusetts, wrote: "But the most astonishing as well as the most interesting thing to me was the condition of the colored people, a great many of whom, like myself, had escaped thither as a refuge from the hunters of men. I found many, who had not been seven years out of their chains, living in finer houses, and evidently enjoying more of the comforts of life, than the average of slaveholders in Maryland."
To be continued next week.
If you work the math you find that the Union Army lost an average of 77 men a day for four years straight and that is counting only combat deaths.
WE gave our reparations already as the 1892 declaration from the Grand Army of the Republic said when asked.
We’ve BEEN paying reparations for 60 years.....its called WELLFARE!!!
WELFARE
Should we therefore jail descendants of Criminals that never finished out their sentences?
Something to Ponder...🤔
“Reparations is the extraction of money from people who were never slave owners to be given to people who were never slaves.”
this is all that needs to be said! The rats are using this as another political strategy
They should have had Dr Thomas Sowell there to explain the current condition of the Negro writ large has more to do with the Great Society and Thug Culture than slavery.
I think it was Cal Thomas who said that the number of Negros brought to the US in the slave trade was approximately 675,000 (not 20 million that Jessie Jackson trumpeted).
When you put that figure, 675,000 up against approx. 660,000 men who died in the Civil War that brought them their freedom, then I would think that would be more than enough to “satisfy” them.
Let’s see . . .
* 70% of unwed babies;
* by far, the largest number of murdered babies in abortuaries;
* affirmative action; Gotta’ be embarrassing to those who would’ve gotten there on their own
* subprime loans to buy homes;
* billions in food stamps;
* disproportional amount of incarcerated N people compared to the rest of the American population
* extremely high neighborhood crime rates nationally;
* and we even gave them roads formerly named for war heroes to MLK named streets (here in Cleveland, Liberty Blvd. was renamed MLK Blvd), which, ironically, let the average traveler know what streets to not go down or get near,
* two Black History months (MLK shoved down our throats in January and “Black History” month in February), where they totally ignore the history of the Black slave traders way back then and even today;
* and 660,000 deaths in the Civil War to free the Ns
* and they still want reparations.
* Still waiting for a single “Thank You” America monument from American Negroes to go into Gettysburg.
My case against reparations: Rachel Dolezal.
Spot on!
It’s going to have to get real ugly to put a stop to this.
It’s going to have to get real ugly to put a stop to this.
I would say, that is the purpose of the reparation issue.
When would the issue be put to rest? If it is approved, Every black child born henceforth would have to be given a reparation check.
How do you separate blacks who were not descendants of slaves?
I don’t see how it can be done, realistically speaking.
But, that won’t stop our dysfunctional government from trying.
Another point, what about the native Americans? Uh oh! Will we have to give back all the land to them?
“ what about the native Americans?”
I heard a commenter say to forget about any reparations to former slaves until the Indians got theirs. After all, they were affronted first.
ECON 101 - Slavery depressed the value of Labor keeping free workers poor. Buildings were built by Slaves because they worked cheaper than free men.
Free workers had to work cheaper than slaves to get a job. That kept everyone but the big slaveowners poor.
The best stopper for reparations is the 14th Amendment — technically, it prohibits it.
Would Africans rather be in the US or Africa?
Close friend who is both black and conservative says he’s really grateful to God that his ancestors were brought here - though he’s sorry they suffered. He is prosperous and doing quite well - drives a nice Mercedes.
He goes to Africa to work with orphans there, knows the extreme poverty and problems in the black nations, and says, “If my ancestors had not been brought here, I’d be living there, would have grown up there, and would know nothing of the blessings of growing up in the USA.
His mother was, and still is, a true woman of God and all her 8 kids are doing well. Sadly, all are not conservatives.
Reparations was allowing them to stay - then spending countless dollars over the last half century providing everything for them.
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