Ogletree to deliver reparations lecture

NY Law Journal ^ | 3/28/02 | New York Law Journal

[Behind Liberal Lines]

Professor Charles J. Ogletree Jr. of Harvard Law School will deliver a lecture in Albany on whether the United States government should formally apologize and pay reparations for supporting slavery. Professor Ogletree, a champion of the reparations movement, will speak April 17 at 7 p.m. at Albany Law School. For more information, contact the school at (518) 472-5859.

[AppyPappy]

Didn't you hear Rev Fountneroy on Alan Keyes last night? You form a commission to study it. They go on talk shows to talk about it. That's all you do. Then some corporations pay Jesse Jackson to go away.

[AppyPappy]

That's absurd. I'm the first in my family to graduate college. Are we due some money? How much?

How are you going to figure out how much some guy will get because his GGGrandfather was a slave? Will you deduct the cost of housing and food consumed by the slave(which was provided by the master)?

[Hotspur]

Their wealth would have passed by law to their descendents upon their death.

It's no wonder you've spewed such nonsense on this matter given your inability to grasp this fundamental fact.

[AppyPappy]

How will you get it to them when they are dead?

[billbears]

White people who are wealthier than they would have been had they not stolen the labor of black people.

LOL!! What about the black people that 'stole' the labor of their brethren? Should we have to pay the black slaveowner's descendants as well even though they owned other blacks as slaves?

[HockeyPop]

NOT A DIME!

[AppyPappy]

Their wealth would have passed by law to their descendents upon their death.

And just how do you calculate wealth that might have been passed down through multiple generations? What was the minimum wage in 1840? Face it. This is stupid. I may as well sue for the possible earnings of my GGGrandfather who was killed by the US Government at Appomatox.

[blackdog]

But guess what happens when the 50 years are up? Do you really think they will ever allow themselves to be taxed at such a confiscatory rate? The idea is merely the camel's nose of change. We crackers have not had the cajones to fix the system that enslaves all of us, why not let the black community effect needed change under the cover of liberal ideology?

[lawdude]

he can kiss my a**

If this flies, I predict there will be a mass retaliation against blacks. (and I don't mean name calling)

[untenured]

White people who are wealthier than they would have been had they not stolen the labor of black people.

No they are not. Slavery was a restraint on voluntary exchange, and thus the entire community that participated in it was on balance poorer. This is economics that is as elementary as it gets.

Black people who are poorer than they would have been had they not had their labor stolen by white people.

Also false, but for a different reason, as I suspect we shall soon see.

Black people who are less educated than they would be had their path to education not been stolen from them by their self-styled "masters."

Ditto.

These are all blatantly obvious, and I'm almost embarrassed to have to recite them, but I guess we're dealing with a bit of an obstinate crowd.

There is nothing so deceptive as an obvious fact.

What is the evidence not that blacks are in a particular position, but that they are in it because of slavery?

As confident as you seem to be, you must have the evidence memorized by now. I eagerly await it.

Question: Do you think the rough measure of justice (i.e., the size of reparations) ought to be the difference between what is (i.e., blacks' current situation in the U.S., with all of its "lingering effects") and what would have been if not for the original crime?

Return of the stolen wages, plus interest, would cover the vast majority of what's due.

I didn't ask you for the size of the just compensation. I asked whether you assented to the moral principle underlying the claim that there ought to be any compensation. Are reparations just because they give American blacks what was taken from them?

[dead]

Of course. But silly liberal Hotspur envisions some uplifting transfer of wealth from the guilty to the victimized.

So typical of the trivial, condescending, patronizing vision of the heavy-hearted, guilt-ridden, white liberal, seeking to atone for his father's wealth. Let's pick up our acoustic guitars and sing "If I Had a Hammer" to salve his emotional wounds.

People like Ogletree, West, and Jackson feed off their clueless emotional naiveté.

Meanwhile real solutions, like school choice and lower taxes are demonized because of their inability to fatten the bank accounts of the race hustlers.

[Benrand]

Yes, the South THRIVED because of slave labor, docnha know...

[Dick Bachert]

ROFLMAO!! Good one, Dead!

Now, on a more serious note (which WILL be a struggle after the stringless marionette line).

I consider Alan Keyes, Thomas Sowell and Walter Williams possessed of three of the finest minds extant today. In case you don’t know them, all are black.

But I believe Keyes, Sowell and Williams would oppose calls for reparations.

The modern descendants of slaves brought here in chains in admittedly miserable, soul-gutting conditions who are now calling for reparations need to remember a few things:

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

Had that NOT happened, the blood of their ancestors would have run into the earth over there several centuries ago and these modern day would-be "plaintiffs" would not even exist.

And should the great-great-great grandchildren of the approximately 3,000 SLAVE OWNING BLACK plantation owners in this country also be subject to PAYING these reparations?

If so, how do we find THEM?

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.”

And how about the WHITES and ASIANS who have slavery in their backgrounds?

Next problem!

[Behind Liberal Lines]

There has always been two pretty basic concepts in American jurisprudence: "the statute of limitations" and "laches."

Both deal with the concept of not allowing lawsuits based on ancient claims. Essentially, these doctrines recognize, among other things, the difficulty in assessing claims beyond a certain age accurately, and the injustice of requiring descendents to pay for the alleged wrongdoing of an ancestor.

Lately, however, between reparations and "Indian Land Claims," these longstanding concepts are being trashed with increasing frequency, in the names of political correctness and feel good politics.

Pretty soon, the only people against whom these laws will apply will be middle aged white business men.

Whatever happened to equal protection under the law?

[Hotspur]

And just how do you calculate wealth that might have been passed down through multiple generations? What was the minimum wage in 1840?

You figure out the prevailing market wage at the time, you use a 40-hour work week, and you pay interest on the money.

You pay the descendents of slaves what they're owed first; you put the monies due slaves whose lines have ended into some sort of fund and apply it to something related to the idea that it's restitution for a national crime.

It's actually not difficult at all--high school level math and finance, so I'm surprised that a college man like yourself can't understand it.

[doug from upland]

good comments

[Benrand]

It's interesting that they are suing an INSURANCE company like Aetna.

DO these simpletons know what insurance does? DO they know that it adds value? If I insure something, I'll make sure I won't have to pay increased premiums in the future because I will take better care of that thing. If anything, insurance SAVED LIVES AND MADE LIVES BETTER!

[dead]

It's actually not difficult at all--high school level math and finance, so I'm surprised that a college man like yourself can't understand it.

How do you explain your inability to answer any of my questions in Post #16?

Or are you not a “details man”?

[Dick Bachert]

Bull squeeze.

Those reparations WERE paid - in BLOOD -- in a several year long "unpleasantness" called the War Between the States!

See Post 33.

[kcvl]

October 11th, 2001. His remarks are entitled "Reflections on the UN World Conference Against Racism". Professor Ogletree discussed his views of the controversial conference, including its successes and failures. Specifically, he addressed some of the major conflicts, including the efforts to equate Zionism with racism, the reparations movement, and the U.S. media's inadequate coverage of such issues as the plight of the Dalits, modern day slavery in parts of Africa and Asia, and the debates about HIV/Aids and environmental racism