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Do you believe that America should pay reparations to African Americans?

Should we pay reparations to the African American community?

  • We should pay reparations to the African American communtiy

    Votes: 15 10.6%
  • We should not pay reparations to the African American community

    Votes: 126 89.4%

  • Total voters
    141
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only if they're descended from American slaves

No one should get money just because of the color of their skin.
 
Africa should pay the repatriation if anyone after all they are the ones who enslaved their brethren first.

Yes, or let's bill the Portuguese, the British, the French, the Spanish, and the Dutch Empire, who provided most of the ships to haul them over here and sell them at auction. Many more were sold to help with the colonization of South and Central America, as well as Canada and Mexico, than were sold here in the U.S. colonies.

And as one by one other North and South American countries and their island possession abolished slavery, some of their descendants wound up here in the USA. So who owes them reparations? The African slave traders who captured their ancesters and brought them to the slave ships? The countries of origin of the ships owners/captains themselves? Or all those other countries who received the black people as slaves? International slave trade to the USA was abolished in I think 1808--working from memory here--as it was in most place during those early 19th century decades. Denmark/Norway for instance ended their slave trade about the same time we did and abolished slavery in that area just a few years before we did. If any descendants of their slaves immigrated here, are we still liable for reparations to them? Or can they bill Denmark?

I think it would be a noble thing for all who feel guilty about black people to set up a fund and start raising money for reparations to them. Just bear in mind that when you do that, you see the beneficiaries of your benevolence as something less than your equals.

But for the rest of us, many of us who were active and instrumental in ending institutional prejudices against black people, think we have paid our dues and prefer to just see our black friends and neighbors as people and equals. Thank you very much.
 
I didn't read the article yet, but yes, I believe the gov. should provide reparations, but in the form of quality education and other EFFECTIVE social programs rather than in the form of land or money. It should also do so for Native Americans.

We should do this anyway, regardless of any supposed 'racial guilt' and it should do so for the disadvantaged of ALL races. I am completely against any guilt based reparations whatsoever. I personally am guilty of nothing.

Justice as a collective thing this far after the fact is itself an injustice. Justice should be an individual thing, except in extreme cases, and be recent in history.
 
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Go ahead and get your checkbook out if it makes you feel better, Glen. The rest of us don't owe anyone anything.
 
Anyone who was ever a slave in America is welcome to come forward for reparations. Anyone who has never been officially enslaved, you've done nothing to earn it.
 
What this reparations argument shows is this: People think that you can address a social and cultural wrong by giving someone money.

We've made a lot of efforts to improve the state of African Americans in our society - we even have someone who identifies as Black as president. So I'm not sure at which point people consider things to be progressing forward and away from the negative issues - and if any amount of money is going to fix things to where these people are okay.

Money is used to buy stuff - hence why countries who caused war pay reparations so the countries they've destroyed can actually repair their selves.

Right now the biggest issues that many African American decedents in the US face are not fixable with some money. Beyond that - they would be paying their own reparations via taxes seeing as how THEY ARE AMERICANS.

And it won't change anything, it won't make anyone feel better about the past. The concept only divides people.

I would feel a lot better if I were given forty acres and a mule.
 
If any particular African American can make an evidentiary claim that s/he suffered some kind of direct and quantifiable loss as a result of institutional racism then I think we should weight that evidence with a bias toward the claimant and make that person whole.

There are quite a few still alive this day that definitely suffered direct and quantifiable loss as a result of institutional government racism in the US.
 
I didn't read the article yet, but yes, I believe the gov. should provide reparations, but in the form of quality education and other EFFECTIVE social programs rather than in the form of land or money. It should also do so for Native Americans.

Now that is a very good response. Amen to you.
 
Anyone who was ever a slave in America is welcome to come forward for reparations. Anyone who has never been officially enslaved, you've done nothing to earn it.

Oh really? What about people who were forced to attend segregated schools? What about people who were denied employment simply because of the color of their skin?
 
Oh really? What about people who were forced to attend segregated schools? What about people who were denied employment simply because of the color of their skin?

This isn't about that, this is about slavery. Nobody alive today was ever a slave. If you want to take up other social problems, that's fine and can be handled on an individual basis.
 
This isn't about that, this is about slavery. Nobody alive today was ever a slave. If you want to take up other social problems, that's fine and can be handled on an individual basis.

It is about that. The system of cruel racial apartheid, that existed in the South up to the late 60s, was established in response to the freeing of African slaves.
 
No one alive today was a slave. So what is the reparation for? In addition the first of my family came to the US well after slavery had ended. One side was Scottish/ Irish, and the other Italians. Not privileged groups in NYC at the turn of the last century. So no, I nor my family benefited from slavery. I owe nothing more than the taxes I pay for the general welfare of all Americans, including black Americans.
 
No one alive today was a slave. So what is the reparation for? In addition the first of my family came to the US well after slavery had ended. One side was Scottish/ Irish, and the other Italians. Not privileged groups in NYC at the turn of the last century. So no, I nor my family benefited from slavery. I owe nothing more than the taxes I pay for the general welfare of all Americans, including black Americans.

I would say that you have benefited from the slave labor that built this country.
 
I would say that you have benefited from the slave labor that built this country.

No, I don't think so. What has a slave built 150 - 160 years or so ago that benefited me? I would say that you have benefited from my labor, though.
 
No, I don't think so. What has a slave built 150 - 160 years or so ago that benefited me? I would say that you have benefited from my labor, though.

You have benefited from the work of people like Madison and Washington. Those people used slaves to assist them in building the infrastructure that started this country.
 
I would say that you have benefited from the slave labor that built this country.

Oh hell - why stop there? Even black people benefit from it. :roll:

Can't change it.
 
You have benefited from the work of people like Madison and Washington. Those people used slaves to assist them in building the infrastructure that started this country.

And non slaves also worked to build infrastructure that started this country, and many died without pay fighting to start this country. The Native Americans before us made improvements to the land without pay, and many died without pay to free slaves, and many risked life and imprisonment to help slaves escape without pay... so what. That has zero to do with anyone today. We all work and pay taxes for the benefit of all, including the descendants of slaves. The blood of Americans spread throughout the land, the upheaval and protests, the court rulings, the integration and social programs, in an effort to beat back the injustice of slavery isn't worth anything? It's never enough is it?
Do my fore bearers deserve anything? What were conditions like for the Irish in NYC? How about the Italians? What do I get from you? silly huh?
 
Ten Reasons Why Reparations For Slavery is a Bad Idea and why its' Racist too!

1)

There Is No Single Group Clearly Responsible For The Crime Of Slavery

Black Africans and Arabs were responsible for enslaving the ancestors of African-Americans. There were 3,000 black slave-owners in the ante-bellum United States. Are reparations to be paid by their descendants too?

9)

What About The Debt Blacks Owe To America?

Slavery existed for thousands of years before the Atlantic slave trade was born, and in all societies. But in the thousand years of its existence, there never was an anti-slavery movement until white Christians - Englishmen and Americans -- created one. If not for the anti-slavery attitudes and military power of white Englishmen and Americans, the slave trade would not have been brought to an end. If not for the sacrifices of white soldiers and a white American president who gave his life to sign the Emancipation Proclamation, blacks in America would still be slaves. If not for the dedication of Americans of all ethnicities and colors to a society based on the principle that all men are created equal, blacks in America would not enjoy the highest standard of living of blacks anywhere in the world, and indeed one of the highest standards of living of any people in the world. They would not enjoy the greatest freedoms and the most thoroughly protected individual rights anywhere. Where is the gratitude of black America and its leaders for those gifts?


FrontPage Magazine - Ten Reasons Why Reparations for Blacks is a Bad Idea for Blacks - and Racist Too
 
I didn't do anyone wrong- so I don't owe anyone an apology.

If you feel guilty for something which you did not do, then by all means, pay up, but don't expect everyone else to do the same.

Let me first say that I'm actually against paying reparations on a theoretical level, but I'll get to that in a bit.

As for your statement, I think there's an inherent institutional continuity in a nation -- it is, in fact, what makes up a nation. So, I do think you essentially have some 'responsibility' (though not guilt necessarily) for your ancestors, as well as your descendants.

That said, I think that reparations would probably have the reverse effect of causing more racism by preying on the 'lazy' stereotype of black people, while simultaneously forcing white people to 'pay them.'

Put simply, it wouldn't go down well.

However, I think the government should issue, in writing and on a gigantic memorial somewhere, an apology for slavery. That would be good.
 
And non slaves also worked to build infrastructure that started this country, and many died without pay fighting to start this country. The Native Americans before us made improvements to the land without pay, and many died without pay to free slaves, and many risked life and imprisonment to help slaves escape without pay... so what. That has zero to do with anyone today. We all work and pay taxes for the benefit of all, including the descendants of slaves. The blood of Americans spread throughout the land, the upheaval and protests, the court rulings, the integration and social programs, in an effort to beat back the injustice of slavery isn't worth anything? It's never enough is it?
Do my fore bearers deserve anything? What were conditions like for the Irish in NYC? How about the Italians? What do I get from you? silly huh?

There is no group in the United States that was enslaved on a scale anywhere near Africans. Not only that, but after slavery right up to very recent US history, blacks suffered from institutionalized, structural, systemic, government racism that was designed to "keep n*gg*rs" in their place, to make them feel inferior, to psychologically cripple them so that they would not be a threat. That is the difference.
 
There is no group in the United States that was enslaved on a scale anywhere near Africans. Not only that, but after slavery right up to very recent US history, blacks suffered from institutionalized, structural, systemic, government racism that was designed to "keep n*gg*rs" in their place, to make them feel inferior, to psychologically cripple them so that they would not be a threat. That is the difference.

No doubt that some blacks suffered under racist attitudes. If someone has treated you in a racist manner, I will be happy to stand with you in persecuting that racist. Who shall I stand against and why? Is it any random white guy? Because that's kinda what you are saying here and that will not do.
 
But the blacks were the slaves.

and here we are, 150 years later . . . and?

If whites and everyone else benefited then that means so have blacks - whether they descended from slaves or not doesn't even matter (because a lot have not - slavery is not the only means by which blacks have come to America).

You want to go further out into the ozone you can says things like 'the entire world benefited from slavery' because it was a worldwide economic concept. :shrug:
 
No doubt that some blacks suffered under racist attitudes. If someone has treated you in a racist manner, I will be happy to stand with you in persecuting that racist. Who shall I stand against and why? Is it any random white guy? Because that's kinda what you are saying here and that will not do.

It's not a matter against standing against some random person. It's just that the government itself sponsored the racism. It was very cruel. I could tell you some far out stories that my grandfather told me. I'm from an area where the KKK is still big to this very day.
 
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