Do reparations for slavery make sense?

Question

California entered the union as a free state, unlike Georgia. So should Californians be exempted? What about Californians whose ancestors came from Georgia?

There used to be communities of Quakers in North Carolina who were in conflict with their slave owning neighbors. Eventually many of these Quakers left North Carolina for free areas like Indiana. Should people descended from Quakers and other abolitionists be exempt?

Not all "African Americans" are descended from US held slaves. Some are immigrants from other slave holding societies, such as Haiti, and others emigrated to the US from Africa after the abolition of slavery.

Not all slave owners were "white". There were some "black" slave owners. Should descendents of black slave owners have to pay reparations?

Many "black" Americans are descended from "white" ancestors as well as "black" ones. Some "whites" may have some "black" ancestry. Will this have an effect on the value of reparations owed?

Let's say some commission decides that $20,000 per person is just compensation for slavery. What happens when ten or twenty years down the road we see that handing out lump sums of cash didn't change the basic relationships between "black" Americans and "white" Americans? Do more reparations have to be paid or will it be considered settled once and for all?

Are people descended from "whites" too poor to have owned slaves considered guilty merely because of their skin tone, or are they considered victims because they had to compete economically against wealthier "whites" who owned many slaves?

Answer 1

No, they don't make any sense. There might be a case if there were any living ex-slaves. We all agree that slave labor was exploited and part of making this country successful BUT so were a lot of other ppl.

There used to be signs in windows of some states that read, "Irish Need Not Apply." My point is that I agree slave labor was exploited but that is just life unfortunately.

Let's talk about reparations TO WOMEN!!!! Women have been oppressed since the beginning of time. We have raised the children, worked in the fields, fed the men, etc.... and blacks in the USA received the right to vote BEFORE WE DID. AND we were not even allowed to own our own property or go to college until the 20th century.

So if anybody wants to talk reparations, I'll take on the argument any freaking day.

Answer 2

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 3

They make no sense at all. I agree with others that if there were still living ex-slaves, those people would be eligible for reparations. One of the pillars of American common law is that the sins of the father are not visited on the son. In other words, we do not hold future generations accountable for the crimes commited by their ancestors.

Besides, if we pay reparations, why only stop with African slaves? Isn't that notion racist in and of itself? Consider my own heritage: English, Scottish, Welsh, and Finnish. Would my English ancestors owe my Scottish and Welsh part reparations because Edward I invaded and conquered them? Do the Russians owe me reparations for abusing Finland? How about the Swedes? Can I get money from France, Denmark, and Norway to pay my English self for our loss at the Battle of Hastings? After all, the entire feudal system was based on a form of slavery (serfdom). If you have any continental European blood in you, can you get reparations from Germany? The Huns? Do the Greeks owe everyone from Turkey to India for Alexander's conquests? How about the Italians for the Roman occupation of the entire Mediterranean? How much money does the world owe the Jews? They've been enslaved by just about everyone in Europe, the Middle East, and parts of Asia.

See how this can quickly grow to ludicrous extremes? I personally in my life am unaware of having enslaved a single person and I alone am responsible for my actions. If someone can prove "beyond a shadow of a doubt" that I directly (I'll even give indirectly) enslaved them, I'll help them figure out how much I owe them and do my best to pay it back.

Answer 4

This is an interesting question..scratches his head..the answer is plain.....no, reparations for actions of the few is totally out of the question.

My family came to this country in 1740, we have never owned any type of slaves or indentured servants; why should we have to pay today for what was not a part of our lives then.

The query then is....Do we know definitively, who were descendants of slaves and to whom these slaves belonged to during this time in question? The biggest problem with this type of program is that slavery, in all its moralistic evils, was an acceptable practice in the United States, even before the formation of the United States during the colonial period....President Lincoln had a plan to send former slaves back to Africa, Liberia to be precise.....Johnson chose not to continue this plan....

Another problem with this type of program is that many of the slaves sold to the Dutch and other slave traders were spoils of war between tribes in Africa....this is common knowledge and do we then expect these tribes to pay the reparations to these generations removed from slavery? The answer is one of common sense.

No, I am not a racists or prejudice in any way.....I am however, a historian and the facts speak for themselves. Thanks for a great question.....

Answer 5

The truth of the matter is that everyone TODAY has benefited from slavery. Without slavery our economy would not be what it is today...thus the world's economy would not be what it is today. Not only that, but it gave a nice thrust to technological advances...just think about it.

Every great empire has had slavery, yet you do not hear any talk of reparations anywhere else. So why is it such a big deal here? I'm not trying to make light of the issue, just merely trying to make a point.

Answer 6

Your right,
But this will just continue for eternity, next will be reparations for Africa and so on...
Should only white americans have to pay? Or only white americans that came to the US before 1870ish?
What about Chinese railroad workers that built the railroad? Should we track down their ancestry and help them out too?

This isnt gonna help black people its just an easy issue for some to promote.

Answer 7

I think they do because the Native Americans got reparations after they took there land. So I think that since they took the Africans freedom (which is worth more than land) that they should get reparations. As for the poor White people they should get $1,000 because they were put below other white people even thought they were the same race.

Answer 8

I don't know about all this. How can something that happened between 146 and 300 years ago be relevant to people who are alive today?

WE all have grown up in the same America, we have all gone to the same schools, watched the same TV shows and movies. If there is a divide between people of different skin color, it is a self imposed one.

I think there is ONE race, and it is HUMAN!

Until we stop all this racial divide, nothing is going to change

Answer 9

It only makes sense to those who deserve it... If you are still alive and were a slave in the 1800's, or even early 1900's, then you deserve reparations......

If you were not born yet then why do you deserve reparations for what somebody else endured....

simple answer....NO.

Answer 10

This is stupid that was so long ago.Maybe the Christians should get money for what the Romans did to them? Plus other African tribes also kidnapped and sold people into slavery.