who thinks that there should be Reparations for slavery?

Question

dont just give a 1 word answer please, tell me WHY

i dont thing anyone shud get them btw
because desendence of slaves from the atlantic slave trade have no idea what its like living with or being a slave and therefore dont deserve it. what about all the poor men who died fighting so the slaves could be free shud their decendence get some money?

BUT lets suspend logic and sanity for a sec and say it does happen who dsoes it go to decendence of slaves or Black people? let me know about that as well

and please dnt start sprouting racism because its not

Answer 1

No, I do not feel that reparations should be paid blacks for slavery and for that matter do I feel we owe them an apology. Before you compare slavery with victims being paid for their part in the Holocaust look at the differences between slavery and the Holocaust. Many perpetrators of the Holocaust are still alive, as are the victims. With slavery, none of the perpetrators are alive. Not all white people living here in the US are even descendants of slave holders which course the issue of slaves follows the same reasoning. Many families here immigrated here after the Civil War. Who do you suggest should pay reparations? How would the government determine who contributes? If the government just gave a chunk of its money for reparations it would be money that it collected in taxes from white, black, Asian, Mexican, Irish, German, Americans, etc. Thus the contributors, many of whom have no ties to slavery in this country, would be paying a bill they did not incur. There is no feasible and fair way to do it. Also, throughout history entire nations, peoples, and citizens have been wronged. In fact many African nations were and continue to be involved in the trading of slaves and certain should be required to participate in any reparation. If we go back far enough we can find the ancestors of many Americans if not all, had something bad done to them, especially women. Women didn't have the freedoms that we enjoy today. Should they seek reparations? Why should anyone pay someone something they didn't earn? Life isn't about taking from others, it's about earning.

Finally, there are the deaths of more than 650,000 whites who ended the system of American slavery. I say a payment in blood is reparation enough for anyone.


God Bless You and Our Southern People.

Answer 2

Are we talking reparation or reconciliation?

If this issue had come up while our population of former slaves was still alive, I can see the wisdom of providing some kind of redress and compensation for the misery they were forced to suffer. Few former slaves had any education or the wherewithal to make their own livings. The time for redress was when the slaves were freed.

It has been such a long time since then that I think our focus ought to be on some symbol of reconciliation...a monument, perhaps, like the Holocaust Memorial. Let's use our money to make a monument to the lost and abused and dedicate ourselves to never allowing such to happen again. That may be more useful to everyone in the end than dividing up a chunk of money between millions of people so that everyone gets a dollar...what good is that?

Answer 3

I don't think so. Perhaps if there were slaves alive today, maybe it would be right to compensate them, but certainly a fourth generation descendant has no claim. But even if there were some alive today ... back then that was the thing. You can't go back in history and sue say, France, for once attacking Spain or whatever. That's just what happened back in that day. When Abraham Lincoln was shot in the head, the first thing they did was probe the wound with a steel rod - do we go and sue the hospital today for that malpractice? No, they didn't know any better then - I think once a period in history passes, say, when everyone involved has died, then it becomes history - not an ongoing event, and certainly not an ongoing tort.

Answer 4

I agree. No they should not get one.

Personally I think this is why lawyers keep making the big bucks to back kooks who keep coming up with this stuff. And I'm not excluding the judges who allow these cases to be heard and brought to trial. Think of the millions of dollars tied up, possibly for years, in the courts just to prove whose ancestor was here or not.

If Reparations do take place I see no reason why the poor men's descendants who fought that the slaves could be free should get theirs too. But the court costs alone would be staggering.

The Reparations should go to the descendants on both sides. For sure Alex Halley's family's descendants for sure.

Answer 5

Sure - the Moslems of North Africa and the Barbary States would owe England, Ireland, and Italy a fortune - especially the Moroccans. Remember - it was not only Black people who were enslaved. Also, the actual capture of slaves - for either the Atlantic or Indian Ocean Slave trade was done by Arabs. They can certainly afford to pay reparations. Iran also was a major marker for slaves, as was Iraq - so both them can pay up as well. Who compensates whom for the millions of slaves who died building the Great Walls of China must be a moot point, as it was other Chinese who enslaved them.

Answer 6

No, I do not.

It seems like everyone in this country is looking for a free ride.

They got their reparation when they were given their papers, 40 acres, and a mule. Sure there has been racism along the way, but that has happened to almost every race that has come to this country.

But, to be fair, if Bill Cosby, Tiger Woods, and Barack Obama all vote YES on reparations, then we should provide them. The reparations should be that anyone that wants it can get a one-way ticket back to Africa.

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Answer 7

Reparations are a scam. I never owned slaves. And the people receiving the reparations (a soft word meaning government imposed handout) never worked as a slave. Why should I have to pay for someone else's poor judgement?

Answer 8

This is a case where justice could actually be detrimental to the recipient. It is undeniable that slaves were robbed of the fruits of their labor and denied common human rights. In this sense it would be only fair for those who profited to pay reparations; and, since the victims of the injustice are dead, the reparations would go to their descendants.
The trouble is, that defining the descendants of slaves as a victim class is actually harmful to them. It maintains them in an inferior position, and assumes they are incapable of competing on an equal basis with others.

Answer 9

No.
Yes it was a bad thing, but it was the norm of the day, everywhere. They were kidnapped and sold to whites, by other African tribes. Native Americans did the same thing, and kept slaves themselves. That was just part of life, it's only been diminishing for like the last 150 yrs, in what, since humans came to be?

Answer 10

They are the ones saying that we should all move on into a world without color. Why should i have to apologize for what happened several hundred years ago? My family fought on the side of the north, we believed in freedom of people, so what i had a deranged distant relative who owned slaves, it isn't my fault.