why is reparation for blacks so distasteful to some whites?

Answer 1

Because I never hurt any black person. I have had black friends, black bosses, black customers, associates, and everything short of having a black girlfriend. It's been nearly 150 years since we did away with slavery in this country. Just because something was once legal doesn't make their way down descendants worthy of getting money from me just because of the color of my skin. White people were abused too. What about this: many, MANY more whites than blacks died in the Civil War, proportionately. Since some of the Northern whites died in the cause of freeing the blacks, why don't the blacks have to pay reparations to their families? I definitely believe in helping the unfortunate, but through CHARITY, not through government programs. There simply isn't enough money to go around, as it is. We're WAY over budget, and contrary to popular belief, that money isn't nonexistent. It's money we've borrowed directly from other countries, and from the World Bank. And what happens if we can't pay? The same thing that happens if you take out a mortgage on your home, and fail to make your monthly payments: China, Russia, Mexico, and others divide up the USA. Would THIS be good for blacks? No! In addition, many of those whose tax-dollars are now being used for reparations did not even have slave-owning ancestors. In my case, most of my ancestors came over after the Civil War. That hardly seems fair, to me.

Answer 2

Two reasons: One, they don't feel responsible for paying for someone else's sins. Two, They may be as bigoted as the original bigots who took advantage of people. That answers the narrow question of "distasteful," but I oppose reparations for a different reason. (Perhaps you will include me in the "distateful" group when hearing it, but I hope not.)

1. Reparations is about trying to "fix" the past. The past cannot be fixed. Mercy is better than justice.
2. In all probability, the people wanting reparations are not the ones who were wronged. The people who were screwed, and the people who screwed them, are long dead. There is no way to reconcile this divide. Those who claim victim status because of something that happened to somebody else are making a false claim. It is akin to the King saying he is King because his father was King. It is a perpetuation of the problem of bigotry, only this time it is by the lower against the other. It still violates the idea that all men are equal.

All political conflicts are related to pride. The pride of the tyrant is no different than the pride of the rebel. They clash not because they are different but because they are so much the same. Blacks who fight white pride with black pride are just extending the problem into the next generation; they are not solving anything.

Jesus' advice is still the best advice: Love your enemy; have mercy for all. It will always be true that only the merciless need mercy. Always the merciless see themselves as a victim when they are not one.

Beware the mirror.
Politics divides, faith unites.

Nobody can control where, how or when they were born. Nobody should be victimized or given preferential treatment. If we live in today, then we can all get along. "Righting wrongs" is always the wrong thing to do. No matter how you dress it up, it is still revenge. In this case, it is a collective punishment, which is the same sin that was committed originally.

Peace,
Steve
www.behappyandfree.com

Answer 3

"Distasteful" doesn't begin to cover it, but I admire your restraint.

It has to do with bootstraps.

The United States is supposed to be the land of Opportunity, right? Which means pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps. Many people (of many colors) see making reparation as giving some people a "leg up" -- and argue that anyone can make it in the US, they just need to try harder.

Which is all very well except that the "playing field" hasn't been level for over 300 years. Racism was institutionalized into the 1960s and laws had to be passed even to begin to overcome it. There are still places, people, and institutions that practice it or this dialogue wouldn't need to continue... this dialogue about race and why it matters and whether it should and the background of people and what is going on today.

But, they don't recognize this and try to cover it up with the kind of statements seen here: "I didn't have any slaves." I'll bet they didn't own any Native Americans, either, but the US government still has a Bureau of Indian Affairs which is responsible for many acts of reparation for the aboriginal peoples of the US.

As for citizens today paying for the mistakes of the past -- how many generations is it going to take to pay off the national debt of a mistake like George W. Bush? Let alone the horrible environment we are leaving for generations not only of our own country, but the rest of this delicate planet we live on. "The sins of the fathers," as they say, "shall be visited on the sons."

As long as a bloodline can be establish, I say pay.

Answer 4

Because most of white america has no sense of social responsibility. They operate completely on an individualistic mentality, so if they didn't own slaves, they believe they are not responsible. Also, they tend to fall for the american myth, that everyone is on an even playing field, and has equal opportunties, education, and justice.
The rest just want to justify thier lifestyles and uphold the status quo,
Many seem to think Slavery was short, and a long time ago.They do not realize that slavery started in 1619, and by law, blacks did not find equality untill 1965. If most were open to really think about it, they would realize that the free labor and economic success the country benefited from, plus the almost 400 years of slavery, oppression, and economic deprivation from the hands of white brothers and sisters in america is more than enough to call for reparations.

Answer 5

First, there is not a single former slave alive today. If there were they would certainly be due just compensation for their labor, but the ancestors of atrocities do not deserve compensation in any way. As a precedent for this point of view, from the last century, let us look at how the compensation of slave labor during the holocaust of World War II has been handled. The thousands of people that survived that inequity are being compensated by both the government of Germany and by the companies that gained from their forced labor, and rightfully so. But their children have no inherited right to collect for the uncompensated labor of their parents. Certainly the grandchildren and great grandchildren of American slaves never experienced the appalling life of slavery, and therefore, like the children of Jews and others enslaved in Germany 50 years ago, they have no claim for themselves.

Secondly, blacks do not have a monopoly on living in poverty in this country. According to the latest census data approximately 30 percent of blacks and whites live in poverty. Hispanics unfortunately have an even higher percentage living below the poverty line. All this current day poverty can not be attributed to a disgusting institution that was ended 150 years ago. It can however be attributed to present day governmental policy. There should be a monumental effort made by the government, at all levels, to get all Americans out of poverty, but a policy centered on only one race is just as wrong as slavery was.

Thirdly, slavery could not have existed without the complicity of black Africans who supplied most of the unfortunate humans that were sold into this dreadful condition. It was not just whites that kept this retched institution going for over 200 years. In addition, there were over 200,000 white Americans that paid the ultimate retribution during the Civil War, when they gave their lives to end slavery. The reparation debt owed to slaves was paid a long time ago when the North won the Civil War and freed them.

Answer 6

I don't know about distasteful but most will tell you it's unfair.

There are no white slave-owners from the era for which reparations would be paid alive today. Forcing their descendants--assuming that the cost of the reparations would only be paid by their descendants and not by whites who families were never slave-owners--to pay for a crime they didn't commit is ludacris. If it were to be implemented, then the families of the soldiers who participated in Native American massacres could logically be held to trial for those crimes.

It wouldn't punish anyone who had actually participated in the slave trade, either. Like I said, they're all long dead.

There is institutional and casual racism in American society. A person's life-experience can be very much affected by their race. The situation is not fair.

However, addressing current problems by punishing living people for crimes they weren't alive to commit is the height of irrationality.

Answer 7

The answer is simple. Some black persons were never affected by slavery, having come here long after it ended and after the civil rights movement gave black people their due politically and socially. Some black people threw away the opportunity given them as a group by the civil rights movement. Further, many white people never benefitted from the disadvantages that blacks suffered--for example my families, one side not arriving here until 1923, the other only in 1904. They were immigrants, some barely literate and they started at the bottom. How does one distinguish between black people who are entitled and who are not? How does one determine which people/companies should pay reparations? Furthermore, why should only the US pay reparations? The institutions of slavery were introduced here by the English. Are you asking them to contribute to your suggested reparations? Remember also that coastal blacks in west africa were largely responsible for selling interior african blacks to those English slavers? Are you asking Africa to contribute to your reparations fund? Why it is so repugnant to "some white people" is that if you go back in history far enough, you will find that many groups, some of them quite amorphous suffered in similar ways and they are getting no reparations either. Want an example? How about Jews? Would you be willing to pay reparations to what has been done to Jews for not a few centuries but for at least a millenia? (and I am not just referring to Nazi ovens and concentration camps, we are going back to at least the Romans' times). In short, black people have no special claims in this area and should not be expecting some money to compensate for a past that cannot be changed, but should not be forgotten, from people who may or may not be entitled to similar compensations under the same theories and who may or may not have benefitted from the disadvantages suffered by black people.

Answer 8

Well, it goes like this. Your ancestors were slaves, right? And it's a horrible thing that happened. But while your ancestors were slaves in the US, my ancestors were still in Italy. We didn't come over until the 1880's, well after slavery was abolished. Why should I have to pay you money for something that my ancestors didn't do to your ancestors?

I think if you went after specific slave owning families, and they paid reparations to people who were documented slaves owned by those families, you MIGHT be able to convince people that reparations are OK, but then you have the problem that the descendants of slave owners never enslaved anyone. Why should they be held responsible for something their ancestors did a hundred or more years before they were even born? It's not like they could have stopped the slavery if they tried, since they weren't even conceived yet, and neither were their grandparents.

Answer 9

During slavery, unfortunately our Constitution had a Law stating Slavery was acceptable, Ethically, slavery is unacceptable, however, since it was the law than, and acceptable to the people than, shouldn't constitute reparation.
If blacks were to get reparation, it should be to the blacks who suffered, not in today's generation. Only the blacks who lived through slavery.
200 years ago, was slavery, I didn't own slaves nor did anyone in my generation own a slave. I don't believe in Slavery, so the argument is "Why should I pay for something I wasn't a part of?"
Respectfully

Answer 10

for one thing only a small minority of rich white families actually owned slaves and there were plenty of whites who risked their lives from the begining to help blacks become free. also, while white europeans did buy their slaves from africans they were bought buy the CHIEFS WHO HAD NO PROBLEM SELLING THEIR OWN PEOPLE TO WHITES. Africans had been going to war with each other and taking slaves long before whitey even knew what africa was. this is historical fact. it DOES NOT make what happened here in america less wrong and some of the anti reperation sentiment is basic racism but these are some reasons to argue against it. At the very least, since ALL SLAVERY IS WRONG a public apology needs to be made, along with a VERY LARGE ENDOWMENT to the NAACP would setltle the issue.There are plenty of blacks who argue against this and you should research views from black conservatives. It's an interesting and different view.

Vin

Vin