• This is a political forum that is non-biased/non-partisan and treats every person's position on topics equally. This debate forum is not aligned to any political party. In today's politics, many ideas are split between and even within all the political parties. Often we find ourselves agreeing on one platform but some topics break our mold. We are here to discuss them in a civil political debate. If this is your first visit to our political forums, be sure to check out the RULES. Registering for debate politics is necessary before posting. Register today to participate - it's free!

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
Status
Not open for further replies.

Glen Contrarian

DP Veteran
Joined
Jun 21, 2013
Messages
17,688
Reaction score
8,046
Location
Bernie to the left of me, Hillary to the right, he
Gender
Male
Political Leaning
Progressive
Te-Nehisi Coates' recent article in The Atlantic has raised a few eyebrows, and showed me just how much I did not know concerning how America and America's government has oppressed the African American community in the past...and even to the modern day.

Coates points out that reparations isn't a matter of "we can't afford it" or "how do we determine who gets paid how much", but a matter of right and wrong. America - and America's government - committed great wrongs against the African American community over many generations, including within my own lifetime.

I was raised to believe that if I did somebody wrong, I should apologize sincerely...and I should do my level best to make it up to those I wronged. I was taught that a refusal to make up for what I have done to others is not just wrong, but dishonorable.

It is for this reason that I agree that we as a nation should pay reparations to the African American community - because it is a matter of right and wrong, a matter of our national honor.
 
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.
 
If I'm white and my great great great great great grandfather, who I never met and know nothing about was a slave, do I get free money too?

If you weren't a slave yourself, you don't deserve free money. If we're going to start paying people for what happened to their ancestors, I think the Jews are first in line.
 
No more than we should pay those of Irish, Italian, Mexican and Chinese descent. This is where PC screws everything up, there are very few true "African Americans", if any since we only recently began allowing dual citizenship. Munging the language causes this sort of nonsense.
 
Te-Nehisi Coates' recent article in The Atlantic has raised a few eyebrows, and showed me just how much I did not know concerning how America and America's government has oppressed the African American community in the past...and even to the modern day.

Coates points out that reparations isn't a matter of "we can't afford it" or "how do we determine who gets paid how much", but a matter of right and wrong. America - and America's government - committed great wrongs against the African American community over many generations, including within my own lifetime.

I was raised to believe that if I did somebody wrong, I should apologize sincerely...and I should do my level best to make it up to those I wronged. I was taught that a refusal to make up for what I have done to others is not just wrong, but dishonorable.

It is for this reason that I agree that we as a nation should pay reparations to the African American community - because it is a matter of right and wrong, a matter of our national honor.

If you feel so strongly by all means open your checkbook up and start writing. I however feel no such obligation, and my honor is intact.
 
If anyone SHOULD get reparations.....it'd be the native American Indians long before anyone else.....
 
If the nation as a whole did something wrong, is it not our duty as a nation to right that wrong?

Nope. If it's something the majority of us recognize as a wrong, the government's duty becomes not to do it again/any longer.
 
If the nation as a whole did something wrong, is it not our duty as a nation to right that wrong?

No. If someone feels victimized or was enslaved they can sue the government, that's what courts are for. The "victims" can go get an ambulance chasing lawyer to get them justice for a 30% fee, like everyone else.
 
Te-Nehisi Coates' recent article in The Atlantic has raised a few eyebrows, and showed me just how much I did not know concerning how America and America's government has oppressed the African American community in the past...and even to the modern day.

Coates points out that reparations isn't a matter of "we can't afford it" or "how do we determine who gets paid how much", but a matter of right and wrong. America - and America's government - committed great wrongs against the African American community over many generations, including within my own lifetime.

I was raised to believe that if I did somebody wrong, I should apologize sincerely...and I should do my level best to make it up to those I wronged. I was taught that a refusal to make up for what I have done to others is not just wrong, but dishonorable.

It is for this reason that I agree that we as a nation should pay reparations to the African American community - because it is a matter of right and wrong, a matter of our national honor.

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.
 
Te-Nehisi Coates' recent article in The Atlantic has raised a few eyebrows, and showed me just how much I did not know concerning how America and America's government has oppressed the African American community in the past...and even to the modern day.

Coates points out that reparations isn't a matter of "we can't afford it" or "how do we determine who gets paid how much", but a matter of right and wrong. America - and America's government - committed great wrongs against the African American community over many generations, including within my own lifetime.

I was raised to believe that if I did somebody wrong, I should apologize sincerely...and I should do my level best to make it up to those I wronged. I was taught that a refusal to make up for what I have done to others is not just wrong, but dishonorable.

It is for this reason that I agree that we as a nation should pay reparations to the African American community - because it is a matter of right and wrong, a matter of our national honor.

Only you, ecofarm, and other White Race Apologists.

While you're at it, shell out to other origins who were "mistreated" too.
 
Problem is - as the article points out - the wrong continues to this day, and to a greater extent than most of us know.

And that's just nonsense. Btw, want to guess where slavery does actually still exist, and not the PC visualization of slavery, but the real thing? Look to Africa for the answer.
 
No. If someone feels victimized or was enslaved they can sue the government, that's what courts are for. The "victims" can go get an ambulance chasing lawyer to get them justice for a 30% fee, like everyone else.

Ah. So all we need to do is have 12 million more lawsuits in our courts? Gee, what could possibly go wrong with that?
 
Ah. So all we need to do is have 12 million more lawsuits in our courts? Gee, what could possibly go wrong with that?

If they have a case and its similar to the others, they can do like everyone else and certify for a class action suit. But to be honest if there 12 million lawsuits, I wish them luck they are gona need it. I encourage anybody who feel so strongly they were wronged, to sue the perpetrators.
 
We have been paying reparations for the last fifty years
 
Oh HELL NO!
 
Te-Nehisi Coates' recent article in The Atlantic has raised a few eyebrows, and showed me just how much I did not know concerning how America and America's government has oppressed the African American community in the past...and even to the modern day.

Coates points out that reparations isn't a matter of "we can't afford it" or "how do we determine who gets paid how much", but a matter of right and wrong. America - and America's government - committed great wrongs against the African American community over many generations, including within my own lifetime.

I was raised to believe that if I did somebody wrong, I should apologize sincerely...and I should do my level best to make it up to those I wronged. I was taught that a refusal to make up for what I have done to others is not just wrong, but dishonorable.

It is for this reason that I agree that we as a nation should pay reparations to the African American community - because it is a matter of right and wrong, a matter of our national honor.

My grandparents emigrated (legally) to the US from Germany in the late 1800's. They didn't keep slaves. Nobody in my family has ever kept slaves. In fact, nobody in my family has ever so much as discriminated against blacks of any kind. And, I'm sure there are a whole lot of other Americans who can say the same.

Why should we be a part of any reparations to someone who isn't even alive anymore? The most any blacks alive at this time deserve is an apology...which they've gotten multiple times.

Move on, folks.
 
If the nation as a whole did something wrong, is it not our duty as a nation to right that wrong?

If those who did wrong could right that wrong by paying reparations to those who were wronged, I would agree. But those had no part in it don't owe anybody anything nor are those who have not had to go through the abomination of slavery due anything. If anybody owes the Black Americans anything now, it would be reparations for 'feel good' social policies that have served more to keep people poor and needy and infused with an entitlement mentality than any good those policies have done.

Nobody I know or have ever known commends slavery. There is absolutely no justification of any kind for it. But we ended it just under 150 years ago. Seven or eight generations is a pretty good distance to have something behind us. Segregation ended well over a half century ago. Numerous black people, many who grew up under segregation, have been elected mayor of major cities, elected to state legislatures, elected to Congress, appointed or elected judges in the courts including the Supreme Court, and we currently have a black American as POTUS. Millions of others are or have been CEOs of major corporations, sports leaders/coaches, beloved figures in the entertainment industries, university professors, doctors, lawyers, scientists, and hold other positions of prestige and influence. Should all the black Americans who have so significantly benefitted because somebody way back then dragged their ancestors over here pay extra for the opportunities they have received because of that?


It is time for all African Americans to follow those role models and it is time that we all allow a society to become color blind so that skin color is of no more importance than hair color or eye color.
 
Last edited:
Te-Nehisi Coates' recent article in The Atlantic has raised a few eyebrows, and showed me just how much I did not know concerning how America and America's government has oppressed the African American community in the past...and even to the modern day.

Coates points out that reparations isn't a matter of "we can't afford it" or "how do we determine who gets paid how much", but a matter of right and wrong. America - and America's government - committed great wrongs against the African American community over many generations, including within my own lifetime.

I was raised to believe that if I did somebody wrong, I should apologize sincerely...and I should do my level best to make it up to those I wronged. I was taught that a refusal to make up for what I have done to others is not just wrong, but dishonorable.

It is for this reason that I agree that we as a nation should pay reparations to the African American community - because it is a matter of right and wrong, a matter of our national honor.

Paying reparations to the African American community would be an excellent way to set race relations back 100 years in my opinion.
 
Problem is - as the article points out - the wrong continues to this day, and to a greater extent than most of us know.

I agree that most folks who oppose reparations don't consider the many ways other than chattel slavery that African Americans have been "wronged".

By the same token, most folks who advocate for reparations don't consider the many ways that African Americans have been "compensated" by the American taxpayer for their living situation.

At the end of the day I think it's probably a wash in the general sense.

This country has really bent over backward over the course of the last few decades to give African Americans a fair shake and to provide food, homes, spending money, education, and job opportunities to those most in need.

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.

But i think it's outrageous to expect that we go through another, more contemporary, round of "40 acres and a mule" (maybe something like "Condo and a Kia") for every American whose skin is darker than some arbitrarily chosen shade of tan.
 
Last edited:
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.
 
Africa should pay the repatriation if anyone after all they are the ones who enslaved their brethren first.
 
If I'm white and my great great great great great grandfather, who I never met and know nothing about was a slave, do I get free money too?

If you weren't a slave yourself, you don't deserve free money. If we're going to start paying people for what happened to their ancestors, I think the Jews are first in line.

what about all the blacks who came to the u.s. after slavery..are they entitled also?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top Bottom