The US should consider reparations to African-American descendants of slavery

Same here Merwen.
My family had no trust funds for me, I had to start working at 15 for things I wanted, and I still work to this day at 47. I will never become a rich man unless by some miracle I hit a lottery jackpot...and that's not likely.


There's this perpetuated myth that Whites as a collective all had and have some advantage, well it missed my family....and millions of others.

Furthermore if anyone was supposed to pay, it would have been the slave owners themselves...and guess what, they're dead. This boat was missed and no one alive today deserves any hand out.

 

Oh you mean the same get over privileges that whites have enjoyed since this country was founded. I have seen plenty of whites get jobs that they were not qualified to do, but they got it because one of their parents, their uncle or just a family friend worked there.

How many whites have gotten in to colleges that they weren't qualified for just because their parents went there or a family friend works there.

I guarantee you the numbers are in a lot greater fashion than they are for someone black.

Also how many black men that were qualified for positions didn't get those positions because of what.................

 

Is there a single senator or governor who supports reparations? I'm pretty sure it would be political suicide for any senator, governor, or presidential candidate to support reparations. I would think that only a congressman who lives in a heavily black district could get away with it.

 

Okay, I changed my mind.

As reparations, each person should be mailed a free copy of this book ...

 

Get over privileges? I can get into a school with lower test grades than my classmates? Tell me how.

Try this. Instead of (*)(*)(*)(*)(*)ing about it, elevate yourself to the levels of your peers. To me, being given something I didn't earn because someone felt bad for me is embarrassing.

 

Next years Oscars come to mind.

 

No doubt.

If it's all about racial proportionally and nothing to do with merit, then we can start with the NBA.

Until then, earn your place in this world, or rot at the bottom of the barrel.

 

They enslaved Moses's people.

 

1865 is not "very recent."

 

I might agree with you, except that I don't want anyone getting their act together in my neighborhood. I only want people to move in here than can work and save up enough for a deposit themselves.

 

Oh yea its so easy for all these black students to get into college. All they have to do is show up on the campus and they are a shoo in.

So you didn't earn the college degree you received, can you tell me which schools just give you a degree because you are black. I am pretty sure that is information that black parents and students would love to know.

 

Reparations were paid long ago, they were called FREEDOM and citizenship.

 

Not in the drug business. Reparations hell no, but repatriations are something to think about.

 

no, freedom and citizenship was simple human rights.

 

You mean the injustices were stopped, restitution for the injustices weren't.

 

It wasn't a simple right until AFTER the war...

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Citizenship appears to have some significant value, or else why all those amnesty folks trying to get today? No, the imaginary debt was paid long ago, all we are seeing now is scum seeking to profit off the suffering of their ancestors...

 

So just citizenship rights the wrongs, no it doesn't. Hell many black folks make the sacrifice for that citizenship and even played a role in making this a great nation.

How was the debt paid and who was it paid to. I don't even speak of slavery, I speak of the many black folks still living today who suffered through Jim Crow segregation, lynching, racism and discrimination.

 

War and the blood of Northern soldiers righted the wrong.

What you speak of is something other than slavery, totally different issues at play, but the result will be the same. The time for proper redress is long past and current populations will not pay for crimes they did not commit, nor should they...

 

Yes; wealthy, privileged whites have always stuck together. If you're linked up with them in what you want they say you have it "wired". I believe that is an upper middle class term.

This group has gotten larger over the years and as an outsider to the white community it might look as if all whites have access to this same privilege, but believe me, they do not.

I earned my bus money for school by working as a library page for 50 cents an hour; it took me a week's part time work to earn enough for a bus ticket one way to school, and then had to walk home uphill with a full schoolbag of books for almost three miles every afternoon. If I took a bus in the pm because it was raining I had to walk to school the next morning. I guess I got the library job because I hung out at the elementary school basement library almost every day after school looking for books about dogs. I also picked out historical novels to bring home to my Mom, because she liked those. I think the biggest impression I made was the day I went to the library with my hamster under my shirt. The librarian asked what was going on with my shirt so I pulled my hamster out and she almost fainted.

If you call getting a job at 50 cents an hour while in HS and then folding sheets 8 hours a day during the hot summer while going to college with a couple of pairs of jeans and sweatshirts and little else except a leftover pea coat from WWII white privilege you must really be pretty hard up.

Yes, my Mom did get a house in the suburbs for us; she went from the city on a bus looking for one for years and found a weird old place some strange old couple had fenced for a dog yard that no one else wanted. We were the wrong religion for the neighborhood the house was in, so no one would play with us. My Dad had found a better job by then because he had the good luck of making a piece of furniture for someone that could give him a referral.

I had no money to buy face tissues and always had nasty colds; had to use my Dad's enormous washable handkerchiefs, which made me the laughingstock of my whole class. We never went out to eat of even get takeout because we couldn't afford it. Some days we were totally out of normal food and my parents would have to think up things, like torn up bread for breakfast cereal. It took us years to figure out we were eligible for lunch meal tickets because we were too dumb to realize we were poor.

Sorry to smash your dream, but poor whites do not have white privilege. The only slight advantage we could be believed to have is to fade into the ecosystem better, but not with the poor clothes we wear.

I can see why many blacks don't have the guts to move to the suburbs. Everyone will have more money than you and will make fun of you if you only have one or two changes of clothes. If you are in the high ability classes no one or very few will be friendly, and the kids in study hall from the less able classes will think you're a snob. You will get your books stolen in the bathroom and made fun of for studying in study hall. And, as a black, you will assume that is racist, but it's not. In middle school. or junior high, kids are nasty from grade 7 to grade 9, and everyone suffers. It's even worse in the cities.

Racism is mostly people having an excuse to be as nasty as they really are. It's actually a big time saver, because you don't have to waste as much time on people that would be bad friends. "PC"-ness is actually a disaster in this regard.

Anyway, you want the kind of privilege that affluent whites have. So would a lot of whites. Welcome to the club. But don't cop an attitude with the rest of us--we don't deserve it and will not put up with it, either, any more than we do from each other.

 

Your story of life in the US, not only is the same for millions of whites, but true for million of other races. Having lived mostly in the Southwest most of my life, most Hispanics can tell the same story, including many that succeeded. This is truly the one Country it's possible for anyone to achieve...

 

Our system is actually arranged in such a way that anyone can always decide to rehab their life. Many have messed up in public school, then taken free GED training and testing, and been admitted into college.

The trick with college applications is to apply early in the spring (anytime after Christmas) the year before you want to attend. For subsidized junior colleges you need proof of residence and your school transcripts, and two or three professional references. A pastor, policeman, employer, etc. A visit and talk with the admissions people will yield applications for scholarships, etc, and the forms are not easy to fill out but the scholarships can be helpful, especially for minority students. Students living independently usually have the best shot at a scholarship because there is no parent income to make them ineligible.

No one is going to get a degree without actually doing some hard studying, and some of the material is difficult enough that it can take an hour a page to learn (especially for math and hard sciences); there is no magic wand when it comes to studying and showing up for class and tests.

If you just want to become rich and famous and then give a college commencement speech sometimes a school will give out an "honorary" degree--that's the only way I know of to get one without actually earning it.

 

Here's another that should be included:

http://www.thewaytohappiness.org/#/precepts

 

The forum only presented the first part of "The United States should pay reparations..."

I figured of course this meant pay reparations to Native Americans. Silly me.

But now that I think of, the ancestors of those died fighting in the Union Army to end slavery definitely should pay for their ancestors crimes of giving up their lives to free black slaves. That was a terrible thing they did - apparently.

As for reparations amount, this is an actuarial question. The average income - jobs and government benefits - of the average black African should be compared to the average income - jobs and government benefits - of the average black American (pro-rating for the percentage the person is black.)

Then, if the average black African makes more, American blacks should be paid the difference. If black Africans make less, then black Americans would be billed for the different.

We need to be fair.

 

President Obama, of course, gets nothing because he's not the prodigy of American slaves, is he? I saw it as a real shame that the first black American president was not of slavery ancestry.

 

Not a lot of records were kept and not all blacks were slaves, nor did all blacks come to the USA during slavery, many came later.

How would it be determined which blacks are the prodigy of slaves, which are not, and of what percentage of their ancestry is? Genetically test all blacks forcibly and make comparisons based upon digging up the graves of black slaves for dna testing?

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I bet Republicans hope blacks start rioting for reparations, whatjathink?