What are your thoughts on Reparations ?

Question

Just curious, because I know my thoughts on the subject diverge from others of my particular political affiliation.

Lots of good answers, and I agree with the general sentiment here. Re : Reparations for slavery...You show me one black person who was DIRECTLY affected by reparations, we'll get out the Fed's checkbook. Otherwise it's a terrible terrible idea.

Answer 1

Just trying to get another handout. Time to get over what happened 200 years ago. It only serves to hurt race relations.

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

WHO WILL PAY?

- will the Federal government or all state governments have to pay? After all, the northern ones spent billions and lost most of their young men in the Civil War to free slaves.

- will any governments outside the US have to pay? After all, it was British and Middle Eastern slave traders who did the merchandising, and African tribes who forced conquered people into slavery.

- will all people have to pay? What if your ancestors were not even here?

WHO WILL GET PAID?

- will those who benefited from Afirmative Action get paid?

- will ancestors of Federal soldiers who were killed in the fight to free slaves, get any portion of the reparations? If you as an individual got some payment, would you seek out any ancestors of any soldiers who fought to free your ancestors, and thank them?

- if you are an ancestor of a slave from some other part of the world (Europe, the Far East, Ireland, the Middle East), will you seek out the perpetrators of that slavery and get reparations?

Brothershamus makes a point of some validity. How will the people of today make their case...in civil court, or by legislation?

Point being...a court and a claim is our way of law...to do it any other way would not pass constitutional muster.

Answer 4

They are a complete scam and anyone with half a brain would never reach this as a logical conclusion to ease the pain caused by slavery. Secondly, why do they only go after the US for reparations since it was Africans who rounded up other Africans and sold them into slavery. It seems that these African countries are just as culpable as the the US, but are never brought into the discussion.

Answer 5

I'm all for it! My ancestors were white Yanks. Some fought the Confederacy and died in the name of preserving the union and ultimately ending slavery. When I think about the hell they went through I'm almost reduced to tears. And after all this time, no one has offered a simple "thank you" for their sacrifices.

Some of my ancestors were Native American. A proud and noble people, they were lied to, slaughtered, and eventually their culture was destroyed by the white man. In return they've been given chunks of useless land and a severe alcohol problem.

As descendant of these forgotten heroes I definitely deserve some major reparations.

There's more than one side to this silly argument of reparations...

Answer 6

I think it is about high time the africans provide reparations for all the slavery they perpetrated against the Jews 7 thousand years ago.

Answer 7

I think that if it was the person who was subjected to something reparations could possibly be good. I'm gonna work off of slavery for the analogy. The idea of paying African-Americans whose Great-Great-Great-Great-Great Grandfather was a slave seems ridiculous to me. I think if we pay them reparations for things like slavery then they should be sent back to Africa too...you can't have the best of both worlds. On the other hand, if somehow slavery was still around and someone was subjected to it then hell yes, pay that person for the hell they went through.

Answer 8

Honestly, I think that people who never owned slaves paying reparations to people who were never slaves is one of the dumbest ideas I've heard in a long time.

My ancestors were poor Irish immigrants who came to America with nothing and who endured endless hardships, prejudice and intolerance trying to make a life for themselves, but that was THEIR life, not mine. I also had ancestors who were Native American, they were Cherokee and forced to walk on the Trail of Tears...it was a tragedy that no doubt deeply affected their lives. However, that was THEIR tragedy and I would never think of asking for "reparations" for that because it didn't happen to *me* and really, doesn't affect me.

Where does it end? What about women, for years women went from being the property of their fathers to the property of their husbands. They couldn't vote, couldn't own property, had no rights and, furthermore, their husbands had the right to "discipline" them any way the husband saw fit and there wasn't anything a woman could do about it. Women had to fight for equal rights and still face discrimination in the work place. What about reparations for women?Or what about reparations for the Native Americans forced onto Reservations? Or what about reparations for those who were enslaved but who were not of African descent...there were many slaves who were white, chinese, etc.?

OR, here's a crazy idea, how about we expect people to stop being "victims" in the world and start taking responsibility for themselves and their own lives. How about people grow up, realize the world isn't fair and that no one is responsible for them but THEM.

What happened to our ancestors is a part of our legacy but it does not define who we are nearly 200 years later. We have the opportunity to define who we are...and it's up to us to decide whether or not we are going to allow that definition to read: victim.

Answer 9

I think the accuser of the Duke lacrosse players and Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson should pay reparations to those boys and their team. I also think Nifong should be sued in civil court for damages to their character and future earning potential.

Answer 10

I think I deserve Reparations from the Reagan administration for making divorce too easy. It is, after all, the divorce of my parents when I was very young that caused me to be raised in poverty, despite my white skin. I was practically starved my entire childhood. I never knew a full belly. Who's gonna make that up to me? NO ONE! I guess I'll have to stop boo-hooing and pick myself up by my bootstraps and move onward and upward.

Answer 11

Reparations for what? Are we talking slavery here? If so, no reparations. I, nor my ancestors had anything to do with slavery, why should I pay. Who gets money? One would have to prove they were decendents of slaves. Besides anybody who whould have been a slave is dead now.