Posted on 05/11/2016 7:41:45 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
For the past fifteen or so years, there has been a movement among some liberals to require that the descendents of former slaves be paid for the suffering of their ancestors. Conservatives have railed against this transfer of wealth, saying (rightly, one should add) that a person or entity cannot be held responsible for the actions of another person who has been dead for over 150 years. Lloyd’s of London was sued in 2004 by a group of descendents of African slaves, and the British court system ruled against their claim. There have been other claims made by the descendents of African slaves – all of these have been laughed out of court.
Conservatives also claim (again, correctly) that offering reparations helps to keep poorer African Americans in a perpetual state of victimhood. But conservatives should not only welcome the concept of a reparations trial, we should also be championing it. And in doing so, we would be providing what Barack Obama would call a “teachable moment” about the real history of slavery in not only the Western World, but also in the history of all mankind.
One should note that the Jesse Jacksons of the world have only been trying to get reparations against White European nations. But for this to work as a really teachable moment, it would have to be tried in a multinational court and consider the global scope of slavery. And “progressives” do not want this for the following reasons:
Liberals of all stripes have been trying to rewrite world history of many countries. Our liberal friends have tried to change the Holy Bible to say the descendents of Joseph were not slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt but were actually paid laborers.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
If you want to sue anyone, sue our first parents, and their ancestors, for having bought into Satan's lie.
It is the height of absurdity to keep looking in the rear-view mirror, particularly over things that happened years ago. Stop the yammering about "reparations".
People, by nature, are evil and they are slaves to Satan. It is only by becoming a bond-slave to Christ they truly become free ('His yoke is easy, and His burden is light').
I would consider this idea if it would mean an absolute end to all race based preferences in all facets of society. For example, No more asking for race on applications etc. Make that illegal.
What makes you think the Africans would want them?
All of the folks who moved here from Africa can’t stand American blacks.
Anthony Johnson's life story reads like he was the first true Forrest Gump. Most significant aspects of his life touch on major historical and social trends of the day.
1600 born in Angola
Taken as a slave by an enemy tribe
Sold as a slave to Arab traders
Sold as an indentured servent to a merchant representing the Virginia Company, one of the first companies in history to offer public stock.
1621, arrives in Virginia, sold to a white tobacco farmer as an indentured servant (periodic, not permanent, servitude).
1622, the tobacco plantation is attacked by the Powhatan Indians, and in the massacre, they leave only 5 of 57 men alive. Anthony was one of them.
1623, slave Mary arrives on the same plantation, they marry, and they do not part for over 40 years.
1635, he buys his freedom for himself and Mary, acquiring a large plot of land in doing so.
1651, he acquires 250 acres of farmland by taking the contracts of five indentured servants... one of whom is his son, and the other four are WHITE men! LOL
1652, an "unfortunate fire" causes great losses for the family farm. He applies for tax relief. Shockingly, he not only gets all the tax relief requested, but Mary and their daughter are both given tax-exempt status for life, granting them the same social standing as white women.
Years before, he acquired among his servants was a black man named Casor. Casor supposedly complains to a white neighbor that he earned his freedom years ago and was being kept illegally. The neighbor convinces Johnson to release Casor for free... and yet Casor suddenly winds up being indentured to that same neighbor!! Feeling scammed, Johnson sues... and wins... and this was the first instance of a judicial determination in the Thirteen Colonies holding that a person who had committed no crime could be held in servitude for life.Historic! (Note: It didn't start slavery, nor was it the first time anyone was indentured for life... it was simply the first time a civil court in the Colonies sanctioned the notion.
1657, another neighbor supposedly forges a letter that admits a debt to him from Johnson. The court upheld the letter, despite Johnson's inability to read and write, and granted the neighbor 100 acres of Johnson's land. Johnson later moves to Maryland and acquires 300 acre tobacco farm there, named Torie Vineyards.
Pretty cool life story.
African war lords used to slaughter the vanquished by the thousands.
Then, Europeans came along and said “Hey - dont kill them. We will buy them and send them to America where they can live.”
Hmm...ancient Egyptians were a lot of things, but black wasn’t among them. They held blacks (Nubians) in contempt as fit only to be slaves. Egyptians are depicted in their art as golden brown (with Egyptian women a much lighter hue), but Nubians are shown as coal black.
The `black Egyptian’ is a Farrakhan creation, just like his notion that the Greeks learned from the (black) Egyptians, not vice versa.
But the ancient Hebrews were slaves, were liberated by the hand of God, and if anything the modern state of Egypt owes their descendants, instead. If the current definition of `reparations’ is applied, that is.
“... number of African Americans who not only owned but also traded slaves”
Pretty sure those were Negro slave owners, as the modern, divisive, PC label “African Americans” hadn’t been conjured up yet.
They can’t deny Farrakhan’s words (it wouldn’t be down with the struggle)so let’s use them as a counter.
I just smile and say that my family already paid, literally, an arm and a leg: one great-great grandfather lost an arm in the 4h Pennsylvania, and another lost from the knee down in the 11th Pennsylvania. . .
This topic is TOXIC. It should NEVER even be discussed. The idea is CRAZY on its face, but it is the easiest way, and almost assuredly so, to start a race war.
Don’t ever give anyone the idea that reparations is a serious idea. Riots will occur everywhere, Cities will BURN.
If people think that they can diffuse the situation by agreeing to reparations at the start, they’re WRONG. Then begins the discussions of “how much?” and how much is enough? Who gets what? Who will pay? and on and on until the riots start.
You want to cause a seismic fracture between the races, start talking seriously about reparations, that’ll do it.
Reparations calculation.
1. Average annual income of west Africans who did not have an ancestor brought to the US as a slave.
2. Income of individual slave descendant in the USA filing for reparations.
If #1 is greater than #2, subtract #2 from #1 to determine annual reparations amount.
If #2 is greater than #1, subtract #1 from #2 to determine annual payment to US Treasury due from slave descendants in the US.
I’m all for Reparations. Just have anyone who was a Slave prior to 1865 show up and I’ll write them a Check.
In many cases, the ancestors of present citizens were never part of the United States when slavery was legal, so their descendants would be punished for "sins" their forefathers could never have committed.
Furthermore, the beneficiaries of this extortion cannot demonstrate the they are legitimate heirs to the legacy of slavery, that their status in society is directly linked to their distant ancestors' status as slaves. Sure, they'll try; to the Left, that assumption is axiomatic. But a court of law requires more than just the statement that something is true. It requires PROOF.
This claptrap is a non-starter.
Few blacks have any loyalty to America. So, offer them welfare only if they are in Africa and they would go there.
This is not only absurd, but offensive.
To think that I would actually pay money for a plane or boat ticket to send Af-Am folks back to their ancestral homeland - it is a nonstarter, and will simply never happen.
I will, however, start a fund for swim trunks....
I’d say if anyone does take it seriously, despite the absurdity of suing families of people who have almost all been dead for over a hundred years, that it has been paid in Full via Welfare, Food Stamps, Free housing, etc.
Paid in Full circa 1983 if you count monetary losses incurred by white people at the hands of the black community via theft, hospital bills resulting from violent crime, falling property values, etc.
If you include pain and suffering via having to feel guilty of racism even though you are not, I’d say the black community owes white people.
Perhaps they could pay $10,000 to a fund every time they
falsely accuse a white person of being racist. $25,000 every time they use the words “white privilege”.
Not to mention their fellow black people in Africa that sold them to the white Europeans to begin with...
The Dahomey (now Benin) nation rulers profited off the slave trade. In the 1840s, King Gezo said he would “do anything the British would want apart from giving up the slave trade.” We haven’t even touched on the number of African-Americans who not only owned but also traded slaves. One of the more famous of the black plantation owners was Nicolas Metoyer, who along with his family owned over 200 slaves.
And how about the African-Americans who owned white slaves? Think this didn’t occur? In the late 1600s through early 1700s, black males were buying indentured servants (usually white) for their farms.
Consider the following happens every day in the black community:
19 year old gang member Donte impregnates 13 year old Latisha who is one of 8 children of 28 year old Chanita. Latisha decides to have the baby. Donte, who wants no responsibility for the child takes a hike but tells his buddies about Latisha. Over the next 10 years she has 4 more babies by 4 different men. She drops out of high school. At age 23 she is a single mother with 5 children and totally dependent on welfare programs. She has no job skills, rudimentary at best writing and math skills, speaks in urban dialect, has no self discipline, and lives her life for immediate gratification. She is unable to impart life skills or values to her children. Absent intervention from the outside, her children will follow the path she, her mother, and grandmother followed.
Donte and Latisha made poor choices as did Latisha and the four other men she copulated with. However those were their choices not the choices of others. Are the consequences harsh - yes. Is it “fair” Latisha wasn’t born into a middle class household where her parents taught her to value hard work, delayed gratification, moral values and a respect for education? It my not be “fair” but it is reality. It also wasn’t fair an African chief sold Latisha’s long dead ancestor to a Dutch slave ship sailing along the African cost in the 1600’s or 1700’s.
Reparations will not address the issue of a culture failing to encourage people to elevate themselves (skills and education), develop self reliance, accept accountability, and adopt morals and values.
Elevating inner city poor blacks, trapped in the cycle of teen pregnancies, absent fathers, and a self destructive absence of morality will require decades of community leadership, a new approach to education (fundamental language and math skills, technical skills, morals/values), and peer pressure from within the community holding its members to a higher standard. Unfortunately the self appointed leaders of the black community continue to preach victimhood instead of self reliance in the face of adversity. Until the people of the community take responsibility for supporting, nurturing, and raising children to higher standards there will be no progress.
There is no justification for confiscating property from one racial group to atone for sins committed by ancestors dead for over 100 years. Punishing the innocent to reward those who were not harmed by slavery serves no useful purpose. It will however create even more racial animosity than exists today.
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