ok if jews people were compensated for the Holocaust. why not black people for slavery?

Answer 1

Okay, this will be unpopular, but here goes.

My father was a Holocaust surviver and he did receive some compensation from the German government - his father received compensation for the house and business that were taken from him and my father received compensation for his lost education. They did not lose any immediate family (thank G-d) so they didn't receive any compensation for that, and I'm not certain if we would have gotten anything if he or his father were not alive to receive the compensation.

I should point out that my dad and his family were actually from Germany and received this compensation from the German government, not our government. I'm not sure if this applied to Jews who were not from Germany. But I do know that the German government also gave some compensation to Jewish charitable organizations to make up for people who were no longer alive.

Having stated that I know something about this directly, I think that, yes, African Americans certainly SHOULD receive some compensation. They were supposed to receive it right after the war (remember 40 acres and a mule?) but it was stopped by Congress.

I think a lot of time has passed, and it would be hard to give money to individuals, but some form of compensation is in order. My family wasn't here during the period of slavery, and so we have no direct connection to enslaving people. But I still feel that we, as a society, ARE responsible, and we certainly reap the rewards of a country that was built on slave labor.

I say some kind of compensation should be worked out. It will be harder given all the time passed, but that's no reason to not to do it.

And, if other wronged people were not compensated (like the Irish, for example) that's STILL not a reason to avoid compensating those we can. We should try to right wrongs whenever we can.

Answer 2

The Jews who were compensated were Holocaust survivors.

I am not receiving reparations payments from Germany.

There are no black people in America today who were enslaved by Americans. Therefore, Americans do not have to pay reparations.

Slavery sucks but people today can't cash in on their ancestors' hard luck.

I'm Hungarian. Hungarian people are Slavic. Slave comes from the word Slav. I'm not asking Europeans for compensation.

Since you personally were not enslaved, there is no reason why you should receive money.

Who would pay the reparations? When you say 'the government' you're talking about tax dollars, so you're saying, 'everyone.' If you want to trace your genealogy back to whoever owned your ancestors, look his descendants up in the phone book, march down there and hold out your wallet, be my guest.

My family wasn't over here until the 20th century and never owned slaves. I feel no need to give you my money.

Answer 3

A lot of jews only scraped back a tiny percentage of what they lost and some countries took years to acknowledge that jews should be compensated even though they could prove the material possessions, businesses etc they had lost. So the reason black people are not compensated it fairly obvious, governments are not prepared to hand over vast ammounts of money even when there is evidence to suggest that compensation should be given, and what with the slave trade ending so long ago it will never happen.

Answer 4

I'm unaware that the Jewish people were "compensated" except by giving them an official homeland back where they originated in the first place before the diaspora.
In fact, before us Brits did that particular good deed, I seem to recall that there was a good mix of Jews and Arabs living cheek by jowl quite amicably in what is now Israel.
A similar compensation for African black people whose ancestors were taken as slaves, would be to tell them can go back to the areas around the River Niger to live; which they can do anyway, but would they want to?

Answer 5

SFAIK the victims of the holocaust or their descendants were compensated. mostly because the holocaust- apart of the murder - also involved legalised thieving. Done by an identifiable state against an identifiable group of people

In the case of slavery-
why should compensation involve ONLY black slaves/ descendants? There were plenty of others- from Europe (arab slave raids went as far north as Iceland) Asia, India

who should pay the compensation? the arab slavers who captured them (look up "Tippo Tib" who raided from Sudan as far as Zimbabwe? the Brazilians? the government of Cuba? Saudi Arabia (who was one of the major "customers" - way bigger than the US)?, Turkey (another major customer, also sponsor of massive slave raids into Europe, Asia and Africa)? or China (where the law allowed the importing of slaves- but only castrated men)?

Maybe we should pay compensation to the governments in Africa (why Only them, BTW?) so that they can spend the money on guns and more slave raiding (yes, it still goes on today- eg in Sudan

If you want the legal aspect- the US slaves WERE compensated. Land was purchased in Africa and was given to those ex-slaves who wanted to go "home" (most had no idea where they came from). They were given it free and formed a country there. It is called Liberia today

Answer 6

American blacks who were slaves are all gone. Their descendants have had some difficulties to overcome, but their lack of overall success is in large part due to their unjustifiable adoption of the attitude of the helpless victim! ...a quote from Bill Cosby.

Those who enslaved black people are all gone. My great-great grandfather owned slaves. I did not and do not own slaves and I do not and will not apologize on his behalf - he did as he believed was right and was not an evil man. And because every black person has as much opportunity as I have to get along and make a living for himself/herself, and is not at all affected by slavery, I absolutely refuse to countenance any compensation to today's black people. You want a decent life, get off your black butt and get a job!

Answer 7

It believe it would be a bad idea to compensate for the wrongs done to Jews or African Americans, because this would be sending the message, 'if you pay money to humans for all your wrongdoings, it makes it everything ok'.

You cannot buy peoples' happiness.

Thats like when a crashed airliner pays money to the family for a lost loved one, do you really think the settlement money takes away the pain?

Answer 8

In justice, they should have been compensated when freed for many years of unpaid hard labour, abuse and their 'imprisonment' as slaves but it didn't happen then. It can't happen now as they have long-since died. I think few victims of the Holocaust who survived or the families of those who were murdered were given any compensation.

Answer 9

Following the Civil War, USA set up the country of Liberia in West Africa as a homeland for ex-slaves who wanted to return to their Ancestors' homeland.
I think only a small minority of ex-slaves took this opportunity.

Answer 10

Holocaust SURVIVORS were compensated......not all Jewish people in general. There are no survivors in the african american race today of those who were slaves during the US Civil War years.