In the news this morning, studies are showing that the idea to pay Black Americans for the acts of slavery performed on their ancestors is gaining popularity. Most had thought this idea would be fading, but it is in fact gaining steam.
Opponents to this idea states that everybody who were slaves are dead, so that it makes reparation to the ones who deserves it impossible. Others believe that today's descendents of those slaves should be able to claim an inheritance on any reparation owed to their forefathers, so paying the descendents is justifiable.
Do you support or oppose this idea? If it was up to you what would you do instead? I'm sure this will be one of those heated answers, so please mind your manners when answering the question.
2006-07-10 00:16:32 · 15 answers · asked by Tristan K 2 in Politics & Government ➔ Other - Politics & Government
Odd, seems last I heard the idea was pretty much laid aside due to lack os support from the black community.
2006-07-10 00:28:21 · answer #1 · answered by xtowgrunt 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋
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.
2006-07-11 16:43:04 · answer #2 · answered by Carl 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
OK how about this:
1. Slavery was legal everywhere in the United States in 1860.
2. Slavery was abolished by PRESIDENTIAL DECREE.
3. We are supposed to live in a country of law and a Presidential Decree is not law.
4. Therefore the freeing of the slaves, while the right thing to do, was an illegal act.
5. If reparations is making amends for governmental error, then the families of slave owners should be compensated for the illegal expropriation of their property. The government should be paying the decedents of the slave owners!
BUT WAIT! That is ridiculous!.... right... so is paying people for something that they were not subject to.
Perhaps we should give America back to the Indians .... or paying the Muslims reparations for the Crusades... or.....
2006-07-10 00:34:19 · answer #3 · answered by mlwasp 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
This is a good question, one I am not entirely certain how to answer. Yes, I think that Black American's are due something for the suffering of their ancestors, but I also feel that it is not just to the families that are paying because they are paying for the mistakes of their ancestors. It's funny because the concept is a very ancient one, from biblical times even, when a person sins their family is punished for generations to come in the Old Testament. So in keeping state and religion seperate I can give you 2 answers to this. Legally, I think the families of former slaves should get some sort of compensation. On a religious level however, I believe in forgiveness (especially when the slave owners are all dead now too) of your fellow mankind. What is the point of making a family pay when it's not like you are teaching them a lesson, they aren't the ones who were enslaving others to begin with. Sorry this was so long winded, I just had to write it all out.
2006-07-10 00:27:55 · answer #4 · answered by Tact is highly overrated 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The concept of reparations has its roots going all the way back to Sherman's March to the Sea in 1864. You could say I'm partailly responsible because I had a great-great-great uncle who was one of those soldiers. Sherman's Army leveled plantations left and right and suddenly freed slaves had nowhere to go, so many of them followed the Union Army. Sherman was baffled as to what to do with these thousands of ex-slaves. He came up with the idea of giving each adult male ex-slave forty acres and a mule to start there new lives, using the old plantation land. Congress eventually cancelled the deal, fearing political uproar in the South.
I don't know the current price of land in rural Georgia, but four years ago the cost for 40 acres and a mule was about $50,000. So let's say $75000 now for the sake of argument. Some of those calling for reparations have demanded over half a million bucks for each Black American, additional money due to pain and suffering and the Jim Crow era. This idea gains steam every 8-10 years and then fades away when fiscal reality sets in.
Reparations will never happen because the window for when it could happen slammed shut long ago. There is no feasible way to figure out who pays who how much and who gets to decide.
2006-07-10 00:51:51 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Reparations is not a good idea. There are no slaves from that era left alive. Me or anyone in my family have ever owned a slave....so why should I pay reparations?
Look...slavery was wrong..it always was...and always will be. But slavery has been gone for 150 years. Should Israel pay reparations to the Jews cause they were slaves during biblical times? Please!! Its time to Stop focusing on the past and start going forward.
I think (in my humble opinion) that the people looking for reparations are looking for a quick buck. Looking to get something for nothing. Like parasites. They after all weren't slaves.
2006-07-10 00:27:29 · answer #6 · answered by akebhart 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No reparations. With one possible exception. Those who believe they should receive reparations should be sent at no cost to them BACK to the country their ancestors were taken from.
If their ancestors hadn't been taken as slaves they wouldn't be here now. So why should the US government pay reparations?
The forcible removal of their ancestors from their home country was not done by the US government but by private companies. So why should the US government pay reparations?
The capture and sale into slavery of their ancestors was more than likely done by members of their own race. So why should the US government pay reparations?
My ancestors weren't even in the US when their ancestors were brought here against their will. So why should my tax dollars be used to pay reparations to someone whose ancestors have been here longer than mine have?
2006-07-10 01:14:47 · answer #7 · answered by namsaev 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I believe that every black American who has been enslaved should be paid reparations. Are there any slaves still alive?
I've not owned the first slave, has any one here? Is any one here a slave? Is there any one here who is forced to work and not receive monetary compensation for it? If so, that person is due reparations. Otherwise, no reparations.
2006-07-10 02:05:30 · answer #8 · answered by kelly24592 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No, I don't agree with reparations of slave descendants. If the American government was to pay anyone reparations it should be the Native Americans since degradation of our native peoples is still on going.
2006-07-10 00:23:03 · answer #9 · answered by Grace 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No, I don't think we should. Don't a lot of black people already try to get special treatment because their families were slaves almost 150 years ago? To me it sounds like people trying to get free money. I don't think we're obligated to do anything. Has anyone's life been ruined because their great-great grandmother was a slave? And since when was everyone supposed to have whatever they want handed to them on a silver platter? This just doesn't make any logical sense at all.
2006-07-10 00:51:48 · answer #10 · answered by irishharpist 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
blacks should pay white for 40 years of counter racism called 'affirmative action' where totally unqualified people get jobs ahead of qualified people based on skin color, pure racism if you ask me
I support reparations on 2 conditions: first one has to prove one was a slave, and second, get out of the country after u get reparations.
2006-07-10 00:56:20 · answer #11 · answered by marceldev29 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋