Reparations for Slavery.

How?

It's a laughably absurd premise, and has no possibility of eventuating. None whatsoever. There is simply no way you would ever be able to ascertain eligibility in a thoroughly homogenised society. ESPECIALLY a society which simultaneously insists that identity is self-determined, not biological. Your idea was screwed before it even finished forming in your head.

 

well....yeah...other than presumably one having a more realistic chance of being useful to society and those it afflicts rather than harping on about something which has no apparent outcome other than being an inconsequential frivolous gesture...? I would imagine that erecting some form of statue or a memorial or whatever would be a more productive avenue for such energies rather than being consumed by meaningless intellectual and possibly political pantomime. I mean what possible use or purpose do you think this is going to achieve? What relevance does it have in modern time? What outcome are you expecting? Do you think people care?

 

I will answer all your questions one at a time.
1) The purpose of reparations is to restore the descendants of American slaves financially. The freed slaves were denied the help and resources they were entitled to at the end of the Civil War. If they had received the help they needed, there would be no need for reparations now.
2) The relevance it has in modern times is that American Blacks percentage wise, occupy the lowest rungs of the economic ladder. This has been true since the end of slavery and is the direct result of racism and segregation.
3) The outcome I am expecting is for the descendants of American slaves to be better able to participate in the American dream. The slaves helped create the wealth of this country, but their descendants have rarely been able to enjoy it much.
4) Do I think people care? Yes. There are several million Black Americans who are the descendants of slaves who care. They care very deeply. And they are NOT going anywhere. And they are NOT going to forget their history.
I hope I have answered all of your questions.

 

Slavery was LEGAL and in fact aided by African leaders and other nations so why is this all on us now they were freed, chose to stay and not go back to Africa and are better off here assuming they buckle down and work and go to school. Blaming us now for this is crazy and once it became illegal we met our sole obligation to slaves we freed them at a loss to those who owned them. We cannot and should not give money after affirmative action, desegregation and other measures enough is enough.

And how can new immigrants from Africa be so successful they work, send their children to school and push them and many are college graduates with careers as the first generation born here or raised here is it racism and slavery or our indigenous Americans of slave ancestry playing the victim card and slacking? We have hard studies proving this trend is normal immigrants succeed due to strong family units many religious who push their children to exploit all the benefits of our society we give people and native black persons spit on these and blame slavery. Its been over a century and by a long shot so get over it and be responsible for your own selves.

 

And your point is???????

 

One could say the same of the premise of reparations. The time for reparations, if it ever really existed, has come and gone. The current generations have suffered no ill, and the assumption that one particular group is responsible for current day wealth is pretty arrogant.

 

Well....surely this "American Dream" is at best some abstract notion which may or may not be attained by the few and at worst a capricious ephemeral con wistfully imagined by many? How can doling out cash assist in what seems to be a social or class issue....handing out money will not make better people...it will not change structurally ingrained inequalities......surely this has to come from the people themselves!!
I'm trying to get my head round the premise where you mentioned...

....without wishing to sound harsh...so what!!! The economics and social structures of the day was that most workers everywhere lived in a state of poverty and disease...look at the miners, potters, cotton workers etc etc in the UK!! They were also treated almost like slaves; they were slaves in everything but the word -they had few rights or remedies in law, they had no real prospects. To me harking back to these times is a pointless excercise as life has moved on; it serves no purpose. I have no idea about the lives of Black Americans but if its anything like the ethnic communities in the UK then they need to re-think their view of life and stop thinking like the world owns them a living and stop playing the black down-trodden routine and find their own sense of community and identity....crap...I don't know.
I'm just not sympathetic to this argument as it will just slap another layer of antipathy onto an already difficult situation...to me it just sounds like whingeing?

 

I don't know what else to tell you. I've explained reparations the best I can.
It was good talking to you. Have a nice day.

 

No, the time has not come and gone. Reparations will be achieved in the future. Have a nice day.

 

I notice that not one poster has disagreed with me about the enslaved Africans being the source of America's first wealth.
If that fact can't be denied, admitting that the slave's descendants deserve reparations should be very easy.

Please check out www.ados101.com
This site has lots of great information.

 

On April 16, 1862 President Lincoln signed the District of Columbia Compensated Emancipation Act. This law gave the approximately 900 slaveowners in the District of Columbia $300.00 for each slave that they were forced to free.
Think about that! The slaveowners were given reparations for losing their slaves. What were the slaves given? My bet would be NOTHING, NADA, ZILCH.
That's why the American descendants of slaves want our reparations.

 

If you can't even hope to determine eligibility TODAY, you have far less chance of doing so in the future. Any integrity of identity that was present immediately after the fact (of slavery) diminishes exponentially with each generation. Entropy is real.

Do it right now, as an intellectual exercise. Instead of just repeating "they'll figure it out", tell us how you'll do it TODAY.

 

Everyone contributed. In my country it was prisoners. I have several in my ancestry, and can prove it. But no one who is descended from those people (forced onto ships and sent to the other side of the world, where they were treated as slaves) has proposed reparations. Yes the British who did it were a-hats, but so was everyone back then - by today's standards.

 

I think I've made the case for reparations very clear to anyone who has read my posts.
Have a nice day.

 

Your ancestors and mine were completely different. Your ancestors were not chattel slaves.
Your ancestors were not stripped of their names, language, culture, history etc. My ancestors were.
So, there is no comparison.

 

Your memory is very short lived... you quoted a post of mine, that stated that very thing. Post #235, in which you make a declaration, with no validation, against my post that read:

 

Nothing about reparations is arrogant or false. The enslaved Africans DID create the foundation of America's wealth.

 

As I previously said, to think one group was the only group to create the foundation of wealth, is arrogant. Did no one else exist at that time? Did no one invent anything, farm anything, other than what salves were involved in? As much as I dislike the statement made by Obama, it fits: You didn't build that.

 

whites already pay themselves billions in reparations, this is a new subject we are discussing.

 

morgan freeman

 

you good. i'll let you be in eternal spiritual debt instead

 

its not like yall arent already having "the dumb shake down". just read that yall "paying $420m to ppl who werent victims" when yall werent even the oppressors.

it proves that western governments are institutionally racist.

 

chattel slavery may have been legal in your town but not anywhere in africa. if africa was now the most powerful continent on earth you can bet that you would be paying up. this is the reason why western governments are institutionally racist because they know the debt they owe to africa will one day be claimed, god willing

 

slavery was the number one factor BY A LONG MARGIN as to how Europe/america came to power with the industrial revolution. without slavery, europe would still be in the dark ages.