Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I just ask myself, all the black people at the top in terms of riches, are entertainers and athletes.
Wrong, wrong wrong.
Black people are at the upper eschalons of ALL aspects of American life these days. In terms of the power structure, we're talking the PRESIDENT, secretaries of state, congresspeople, judges, police chiefs, mayors. In business, over the past few years notable CEOs include the CEO of American Express, and McDonalds. Not to mention countless executives in top companies.
Black people are fully woven into the "machine" and are quite literally, "the man" these days. Such a rapid growth in just a few decades, too.
One does not have to be millionaire status to "make it" or have a good life in America.
That your community does not put emphasis on taking a standard professional path to upper middle class status (which is what most people of any color can REASONABLY hope to be if they work hard, get a professional job, etc.) .... that's nobody else's problem.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Heavenese
So it's no wonder most black male youth aspire to be rappers, basketball players, or entertainers in general. None of that is building the wealth of the black community. How come you never see a black person create something like a facebook? How come you never see a black person create something innovative like a google or youtube, becoming billionaires over night? I watch a lot of shows like "Epic Homes" and "Extreme Homes". I've yet to see one black person on there, showing off their expensive and creative homes. I also watch "Epic Yachts" (Epic has a couple of different things there) and shows presenting Mega Yachts. Not one time I seen a black owner. That upsets me. I would gladly give up the 90% black population of the NBA just to see a good percentage of black people in things like that. (I really do want to see more asian, latin, and white people in the NBA and NFL. Please, show us up, then maybe we can focus on other things seeing we aren't the best in sports)
What does this have to do with reparations? How will the government do anything to change this? Other than encourage what it's trying to encourage all people to do: go into science and tech fields. Don't study "African American studies" in school, and then expect to make it rich. Go into computer programming.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Heavenese
One of you mentioned black people have faired well in this country compared to other places in the world, yet most black billionaires live in other countries. (Particularly Nigeria) If this country has been so good to black people, don't you think we should have the most black billionaires out of every other place in the world?
Those billionaires are rich because of oil and resources in their home countries. Nigeria is rich with oil. Check the occupations and source of wealth for the other black billionaires of 2014:
But, the general population and quality of life of Nigerians are light years behind the American black population. A PERCENT of the American black population is in poverty. In Nigeria, everyone is in poverty, and a PERCENT is not.
The richest man in the world is a Mexican. Would you say Mexicans live on average better than those in the United States?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Heavenese
Imagine if black people in america in those days were to just in unison took all the crap as it came to them. Didn't speak up about it, didn't complain, but just went along with it. What would America look like today? Do you think affirmative action still would have taken place? I almost wish to know what America would have looked like if black people just took it, and tried to work their way up like everyone's immigrant ancestors did when they were abused. Apparently, only our black ancestors complained instead of working hard like everyone else.
None of this has anything to do with the original premise of the thread.
This is a moot point because either way you slice it, you are against paying anything. Even if all those groups said they would pay, you would be against paying.
Of course I am against paying a penalty for a crime I didn't commit. Every innocent person should be against paying penalties for stuff they didn't do.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Heavenese
Yet anyway, none of those groups are responsible for the harshness the buyer imposed on the product. They didn't change our names, they didn't breed us like animals, and they didn't terrorize us afterward. Slavery was slavery, but there was no kind of slavery like the slavery that came from the Europeans. People talk about slavery being in the Bible and in other cultures, but they were forbidden to kill their slaves. In fact if a slave was injured, the Biblical laws stated that slave was to be set free on account of their injury. Also, since I know a little bit about Biblical slavery, if anyone was found with a man who was kidnapped for the purpose of making them a slave, the owner would be put to death. America violated all those laws and then some.
Conjecture and opinion, but regardless, not a single practitioner of slavery at the time it was made illegal in the entire United States is alive today. Not one. So reparations would be a penalty imposed on innocent people for something none of them had anything to do with, and it would "compensate" people who were never wronged by the the practice prior to it being declared illegal.
Isolated incidents in the post-Civil War south are not a national crime, and even those crimes are at least two generations removed from the present day. An adult practitioner of Jim Crow abuses in the South would be in their 70s today, bare minimum. The remnants of institutional racism are either senior citizens or dead. Nobody under the age of 50 was even alive in a United States that didn't have a Civil Rights Act. Nobody under the age of 71 was of voting age in a United States that didn't have a Civil Rights Act. So right off the bat, your list of people who "must pay" for some racist sin of post-slavery abuse is limited to people older than 71 who were alive, of voting age, and part of the actual practice of institutional racial discrimination that resulted in loss of property or other physical harm.
So is it your contention that an entire nation of innocents should be penalized for something they didn't do?
Again I wonder what America would have been like if black people never complained in the 1960s?
Well there was a small event in our history where a bunch of white people in one area fought and died against some white people in another area, and some under heard of and not well known President white guy declared slavery abolished. Black people didn't have a voice to complain with, and (some) white people fought and died for their freedom.
It's a small insignificant event, probably real hard to find information about it. The name slips my memory.
Not a single white person died for the ending of slavery in the civil war. Poor brainwashed whites were fighting a war For rich white business owners who fought other whites for economic reasons. The ending of slavery was a byproduct of the war, not the reason for it.
Not true at all. Most of the Union soldiers were, indeed, fighting specifically to abolish the "evil sin of slavery." It was not out of an affection for black people--it was really to save the souls of white people.
Another large contingent were fighting to maintain their own freedom. This contingeant included Irish and German immigrants who felt directly threatened by suggestions from the South that they, too, should be relagated to slavery. A huge amount of the Irish and German resistance to the Fugitive Slave Act was for that reason...it permited them to be kidnapped and taken to the south as slaves.
Another group of whites fighting against slavery were those who realized that slavery reduced the value of a white man's labor, especially in the new western states. Once wealthy slaveholders got a grip in those states, it would become impossible for a white man to make his fortune there by his own labor.
A lot of Civil War history buffs have many of their letters in collections. Those soldiers wrote home to their loved ones passionately about their crusade to end slavery. The blue-coated soldier on the battlefield was indeed fighting to end slavery. Call it "brainwashed" if you like, but that's what he was fighting for.
I dont care how many pictures of soot covered breaker boys you want post up, You cant post ad nauseum about the way one group of whites treated another group of whites IE the irish (nothing more than white on white crime.)
None of those groups and i mean absolutely none of them had to Shed blood and die for trivial prosperities.
So white on white crime that is based on ethnicity is ok but black on white or white on black is something different?
Well there was a small event in our history where a bunch of white people in one area fought and died against some white people in another area, and some under heard of and not well known President white guy declared slavery abolished. Black people didn't have a voice to complain with, and (some) white people fought and died for their freedom.
It's a small insignificant event, probably real hard to find information about it. The name slips my memory.
+1 because I'm only allowed 1 rep per post
I wonder....do the decedents of slaves owe reparations to the decedents of those who died fighting for their freedom?
....
Listen, let's end all the social programs then, since black people are the poster family for all of them. Just give us our reparations and afterward if you wish, you can forget all about slavery.
Out of curiosity, what are we talking about when it comes to reparations? What should be given and who should it be taken from?
Not a single white person died for the ending of slavery in the civil war. Poor brainwashed whites were fighting a war For rich white business owners who fought other whites for economic reasons. The ending of slavery was a byproduct of the war, not the reason for it.
Never said that war's goals or aims was to abolish slavery. White people fought some other white people. A President declared slavery abolished. The cause of the War might have been over 2 goats, a chicken, and a pound of flour for all we care.
Something happened. Something else happened. One did not cause the other, but that is what happened.
Not a single white person died for the ending of slavery in the civil war. Poor brainwashed whites were fighting a war For rich white business owners who fought other whites for economic reasons. The ending of slavery was a byproduct of the war, not the reason for it.
The "economic reasons" that concerned southern rich men was first and foremost, tied to slavery. So slavery was the kindling for the fire that was the Civil War. Slavery was THE "states right" that so many claim was the reason for southern secession.
Now, the Union didn't go fight the south to end slavery in the south, but the reason why the south ceded from the Union to begin with, was pretty much rooted in the issue of slavery, which had threated to tear the country apart for decades.
The end of slavery was used to recruit soldiers to fight in the war, including black soldiers.
So yes, the end of slavery in the United States required a war.
And by the way: But-for "white people" (rather, the principles of the enlightenment in Europe) coming up with the new idea that slavery was bad in and of itself and eradicating the practice amongst those parts of the world it controlled, it would likely be a far, far more commonplace institution today than it is. One could and can see this phenomena in east Africa, where the Arabs and Africans had been (and still are, in many places) engaged in slave trade before any modern European decided to take up the practice in west Africa.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
