Do you support reparations for slavery?

Question

I do & I'm a 20 year old suburban white male. I think every black American should get $10,000.After that though no more affirmative action Black History Month/Miss Black America/Bet/Congressional Black Caucus or Al Sharpton & Jesse Jackson.

Answer 1

Every slave should receive compensation from their previous owner. That settles it. All of both groups are DEAD. And so should this absurd idea. Heck, my ancestors fled Europe because the Roman Catholic Church's Inquisitions were killing off the Anabaptist. Should I sue the Vatican? Gimmie a break!

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

No, for several reasons. Most living Americans have no connection to slavery. The two biggest waves of immigration occured after 1880 and after 1960. How could we require victims and refugees from other countries to pay reperations? The claim is based on race and not injury. The reperations that have been paid in the past have been to direct victims or their immediate families. There have already been significant payments for slavery and even segregation. During the civil war, more than 350,000 Union soldiers lost their lives. Are there relatives going to be asked to pay more? The war destroyed 60 percent of the southern wealth and agriculture was cut by three fourth compared to that of the north. Slavery is an ugly mark not only in America but on the world. As I said this is a race issue, not an issue of injury.

Answer 4

Doesn't work that way they want the 40 acres and a mule with 120 years of interest and they still won't be happy. The great white father still hasn't settled the Department of the Interior's, Indian Trust Fund so why do you think they are in a hurry to settle a slavery issue that the Union army used public funds to win a war to settle the abolishment of slavery.

There is nobody alive today that has owned slaves legally in America. There has not been any legal slaves in America since 1865. People need to find a new mule to beat and as for 40 acres they can have the northeast.

Answer 5

I do not because it will never end -

If you have a historical problem with the many many wrongs that were committed then go dig up my great great grandpa It was him not me you had a problem with

However if you want to apologise to one you have to do it for all or it is not fair


I will wait for my check from the English who invaded Scotland stole our launguage and so forth I will wait for my check from the Americans who started the war of 1812 driving loyalist out stealing thier lands and so forth

The English will wait for thier check from the representitive of the Roman Empire (the pope ) for the invasion of England

Oh and the Germans never did pay for ww 1 or 2 for that matter


Do you see my point ?

Answer 6

No way!

There are NO native African Americans living today who have ever been a slave - nor have their parents or grandparents.

There are NO native non-African Americans living today who have ever OWNED a slave - nor have their parents of grandparents.

It is one of the silliest notions I've heard.

If you want to talk reparations, let's talk about the Native Americans; many of whom are among the poorest of our citizens with fewer services, more homelessness, more health problems, poorer schools, medical facilities, poor or non-existent utilities, water.

Answer 7

No, I don't suport it. First of all, how do you divy-up who pays and who receives. Should whites whose ancestors were still in Europe after 1865 still have to pay? What do you dow with whites whose lineage was, say, 9/16 in the U.S. at that time? What about whites whose families have been in non-slave states since their arrival to the U.S.?

What about blacks whose families weren't her before then? What should we do with mulattos? If someone is half black and half white, should we force him to pay himself $10,000? What if somebody is half Asian and half black or white?

Basically, we would have to do something like Nazi Germany where people would have to prove their lineage dating back to 1865.

Answer 8

Typically American. Money fixes everything.

Answer 9

No. My ancestors never owned slaves, ever. Why should I contribute taxes to pay for the mistakes of others? No one is volunteering to pay me for my ancestors who were slaves.

Answer 10

Yes. Every living person who was a slave is owed money by every living person who was a slave-owner.

What's that? They're all dead? My job is done here. Case closed.