Why is it that talk about reparations is so threatening to so many people?

Question

Seriously. We are spending 300 plus billion dollars on a war that many people feel isnt an urgent one. Money wasted after Katrina, a defense budget bigger than the rest of the world combined, even paying representives 13 times the federal minimum wage. If this country can affort such things, why cant if afford to help each african amercian rediscover their roots? Get money to invest in their futures?

Most people can say their ancestors were from "X" given country, but I cant because my ancestors were treated like animals, legally for the first 90 of the 230 years of this country. My last name comes from Europe, the last name of a slavemaster of my ancestors. Black people have gotten nothing. After 400 of tearing our families apart under the nose of the US. government.

Why are people so threatened by talk of reparations? Should we get it or not, why so hostile? Fear, anger? You think being black in America is so easy that we dont need it? Why?

Hostile replies, just as figured.

Answer 1

Some white people in America have the same attitudes as their ancestors so therefore they feel that black people should be cleaning their houses, cooking their meals, taking care of their disrespectful kids, and God knows what else. You won't get a good answer on Yahoo answers because most of these people are conservatives or freaks. The Jews received reparations and what's the difference. White America will never give us what we deserve and they wonder why people keep knocking down their towers. All that we can do is stay in the struggle and continue to work twice as hard. Don't worry brother the revolution is already going on. We will get what is rightfully ours. In the words of the great Malcolm X, "by any means necessary". It's okay for them to burn our churches, rape our women, castrate our men, hang our children, and many other shameful things. It's okay for them to bomb foreign countries and they feel that they are exempt from the wrath of God. Matter of fact when did the Bible tell them that it is okay to kill. I could go on and on but America's arrogance won't be able to continue. My question is, "Why do white people feel that we want a handout?" I am a single mother just like the lady above and I make too much money so I can not receive assistance from the government either so what world does she live in? She sounds a little bitter. Life is screwed up for everyone. Your simple question turned into the story of "mad white people". Well atleast they got to vent so hopefully nobody will hang tonight.

Answer 2

There should be no reparations paid to anyone unless they personally were the person that was aggrieved. If you were a slave then you get paid. If not you have no claim (this is simple tort law).

Throughout the history of the world there have been people that were wronged. You can never correct these past mistakes with money. In this nation alone, under your theory, you would have to pay the Asians, Irish, Native Americans, and a host of others in order to make up of the wrongs against them.

First, everyone in this country is on equal footing. To have the United States Government pay for one social wrong from the past would be unfair to all the other people similarly situated in the United States (in some instances you would be giving money to those who are wealthy and well educated just because they are African American.

Second, only a handful of U.S States practiced slavery, the vast majority of the states were not around during slavery or had anti-slavery laws before this nation was formed.

Third, the vast majority of people in this country (tax payers) are not related in any way to any person or entity that had anything to do with slavery. So, why should the nation as a whole have to pay for it?

Lastly, despite being an ancestor to a slave I would argue that an African American has a better chance at life than a person from Africa today. So the argument that there is monetary damage to the current living African Americans is not true in any sense of the meaning. You, as an African American, has as much of an opportunity as a white kid from the same economic tier. The choice is yours to make the most of the opportunity. Getting a handout will not help you in that at all.

This country should invest in all of its citizens, not just African Americans. And it is no ones responsibility besides your own to discover your own roots. Their are tools and resources available for you to trace your history.

Answer 3

From my perspective, I am tired of people looking for excuses, blaming sins generations ago on their problems today. I am weary of black people crying "victim" for things that happened before they were even born. What you characterize as "threatened by talk of" is not the emotion that it brings up - it is closer to "resentment".

What you experience as a black man is not about slavery long ago. It is about persistent predjudice. Predjudice is wrong, and already illegal. Giving away fistfulls of money won't do anything to change that - indeed it would probably make it worse (as discussed below).

If reparations were offered, how would they be distributed? Who would qualify? Would my black neighbors, who are currently more wealthy and have better jobs than I, living in a home exceeding a quarter-million in value, receive money (taken from taxes I paid)? ...or would there be an income-cutoff?

Existing and past social programs designed to elevate the status and income of the poor have all failed miserably. Why should I believe that a new handout under the disguise of "reparations" would make any difference?

All of it boils down to two prevailing factors: Predjudice suppresses opportunity, and a certain percentage of all races are not able or willing to elevate their standing in wealth. The first is a problem with society. The second cannot be fixed with a handout: We will always have a certain percentage of population that is poor. A handout would only be a temporary solution, and would certainly aggrivate the first - increasing resentment, bias, and predjudice between those who received, and those who funded the "reparations".

Although I am white, no one in my family has ever owned a slave. How do you propose to determine who pays, and who receives? Do you somehow plan to identify only those who actually owned slaves and make them pay? (Remember, half of this nation fought, many at the cost of their lives, to end slavery. Was that not reparation enough for those white families?) Or do you see all whites, by default, as guilty?

Reparations would merely replace an old injustice with a new injustice. And if the real problem with the suppression of blacks is racism, forcing reparation payments would create an entirely new fuel to flame the fires of racism, eventually resulting, in my opinion, in blacks being worse off than they are even now. Surely, you don't think that a fistful of dollars handed over with resentment will magically make you the new boss, make people like you and want to help you succeed, etc., do you?

btw: All your babel about how the government has wasted money has nothing to do with this subject. "The government has wasted so much money, they should take even more from the citizens and give some to me"??? Sure. I see the connection.

Nothing in this post was intended to be deliberately offensive. But you did ask for the other perspective.

Answer 4

It is manifestly impossible to monitarily compensate a person for having enslaved them. What would the amount be? How can you put a price on simple human freedom? And even you arbitarily pick an amount, where would all that money come from? Since, in America at least, white were to blame for slavery, do you raise the taxes of only white Americans to pay for the reparations? Do all white Americans pay for it because our ancestors were guilty of either practicing slavery or tolerating the practice?

There are, undoubtedly, some people who are "hostile" and "threatened" by the concept of reparations. But don't talk as if ALL people who oppose reparations are all "hostile" and "threatened." To some of us, the concept of reparations is just not logical.

Answer 5

Many people think some black Americans have a sense of entitlement and "deserve" to be taken care of because their ancestors may have been slaves. I say get over it and take control of your own life instead of blaming the white man because you have failed to make something of yourself.

My ancestors were here before yours were and they were the first slaves here. The Indian's in Mexico and what is now the United States of America had slaves. When the white men came to steal their resources they found the native population did not make good slaves because they knew the territory and could blend in with the rest of the native population.

I don't think all black people in America can prove their ancestors were slaves.

Many people think many black Americans would squander the reparations on drugs, sex and alcohol as occurred with the people given money for Katrina.

I think many people think that the current Gangster lifestyle that is glorified by both blacks and whites is not helping either.

Giving money to a certain group of people is not going to solve their problems. The only things that MIGHT do that is getting an education which is available to anyone if they really want it, having a goal and the intestinal fortitude to pursue that goal and then maintain that goal once they reach it.

There are many black people who started out poor and became financially successful. Ask them why they succeeded and ask an unsuccesful black person why they haven't succeeded.

Answer 6

Instead of whining about reparation, why not tried posting a convincing argument for them? You can't because there isn't any.

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 7

It is amazing how many racists show up when a question concerning african americans comes up. And since most people were hostile about the subject I guess they agree with the question since they have proved it. Yes, slavery was hundreds of years ago but the affects of it are still around. For many african americans in this country survival and sucess is like running a race where the opponent has already lapped you. How can we truly be equal when when we did not start at the same place. I resent the comments and assumptions that All black people want a free handout in life. I'm black and I go to school and work to get through life but i still encounter racist people like some who have been answering this question. People say everyone has a fair oportunity in this country but if that was true then why is affirmative action needed. And for those who don't believe it is needed. I am tired of hearing white people complain that jobs pass them over in order to hire a less qualified black person. What makes them so sure they are always more qualifed. So if a black person does go to school like people say so they can get ahead and then goes to get a job they are automatically less qualified then the white person who is appliying for the same job? It this attitude that black people are inferior and lazy that make it hard to be equal in this country. How can we move forward if people won't admit the wrongs this country has commited to all it's minority groups. The stereotypes of black people on here disgust me. My family is from Jamaica but I was born here and I understand what you are saying. There should be some compensation because slavery for our ancestors has caused a downward spiral with many black people of today and not just in America. But I don't think monitary reperations will help. Money will not solve a problem that has to do with how our young people think. Plus there are so many groups in America and different income levels within the country, I don't see an effective way to determine who will pay and who will recieve. Too many of us take for granted the things our ancestors died fighting for. The issues that face black people today will take generations to solve. There has been progress over the years and people today are better off than yesterday but our issues have changed. And for those who say not to look in the past, I say if you don't know where your coming from then you are going nowhere.

Answer 8

First, I don't owe you a d*** thing! And, it is my tax money you're after. I refuse to accept responsibility and pay for the actions of people 200+ years ago. Especially when most of the slavers were Africans, not white. That is not to excuse those who bought slaves, but none of us alive today were either and my relatives were still in Scotland, which never had slavery.

If you go back in history, almost everyone has some relatives who were severely abused by someone. Maybe I should go after the church for reparations because some of my ancestors were tortured to death in the Spanish Inquisition or maybe they were crucified, or forced to fight to the death in the colliseum by the Romans, or maybe Egypt owes all the Jews reparations for enslaving them to build the pyramids and on and on. Yet African Americans are the only ones to think people today owe them. Chew on that thought for a while.

Hostile because your looking for another free ride, like AFFIRMATIVE ACTION, at our expense. That program of preferential treatment is the reparations. Myself and thousands of others have lost out on jobs and promotions because of that program even though we are more qualified and not guilty of anything. Hey, maybe you owe me!?

Where does that thinking stop? I suspect a thousand years from now someone will try to use that as an excuse to get some freebie? Should we give the whole country back to the Native Americans and all of us pack up and go back to our ancestral countries? That is totally goofy, but just as valid as what you're proposing.
Just because the government is wasting our tax money on this or that in no way justifies wasting more of it helping every African American find their roots.

Answer 9

Black people have gotten nothing? Although everyone will agree that slavery was wrong and many slaves were treated badly, the fact that you don't want to admit to is that if it were not for slavery, you would not be living in the United States....you would still be living in Africa, and in case you didn't notice, those folks are not doing too well. Much of Africa is wrought with extreme poverty, disease, and drought. And the poorest black people here are better off than the ones that live in Africa.
I may be white, but I am also poor, and if you think I want to go back to Germany where MY ancesters are from.....think again.
And I don't have to call myself a German-american just because my ancesters were german and I want to find my "roots".
Frankly, I don't care where my ancesters came from. I am an American and that's what counts to me.

Answer 10

Were you alive during slavery? Were you enslaved by someone and forced into slavery? Were you kidnapped from Africa and shipped here to America by white slave owners? Are you wearing shackles right now and forced to pick cotton? No, you weren't. Why the hell should YOU be paid for something that happened to someone else, centuries ago? You've never been a slave, so you don't know the pain they felt. Stop trying to take credit for someone else's pain like it applies to you. What a f***ing scam. You live in the land of TODAY, not yesterday. You're not a slave. Either get a job or rob a bank, or win the lottery if you want free money THAT bad. Man I thought I heard it all