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"Of the first five presidents, four owned slaves. All four of these owned slaves while they were president.
Of the next five presidents (#6-10), four owned slaves. Only two of them owned slaves while they were president.
Of the next five presidents (#11-15), two owned slaves. Both of these two owned slaves while they were president.
Of the next three presidents (#16-18) two owned slaves. neither of them owned slaves while serving as president.
The last president to own slaves while in office was the twelfth president, Zachary Taylor (1849-1850).
The last president to own slaves at all was the eighteenth president, Ulysses S. Grant (1869-1877).
So twelve of our presidents owned slaves and eight of them owned slaves while serving as president."
So just possibly it was legal
I said aren't, present tense.
I'm aware that this used to be legal. Lots of things USED to be legal which aren't. The Salem Witch trials come to mind.
Why would we pay reparations for something most people recognize as a horrendous injustice that was practiced on a national scale?
Would of those of us who had ancestors who fought for the Union get some sort of profit-sharing from the reparations since their lives were at risk earning that freedom?
I have often thought of this, my ggg grandfather fought at Gettysburg for the north.
To make the argument that slavery was 5 generations old and no one is alive who experienced it is kind of closed minded. Can we honestly say that those actions made by some ancestors, had no effect on the generations that came after? If we can prove that, then we have no morale or ethical responsibility to fix it. But unfortunately like most issues relatted to U.S behavior in the past, the opposition argument is more of an argument for not being responsible for human rights violations and setting them right vs we are generally sorry and will try hard to make sure human rights violations wont happen in the future, i say this because all one has to do is go back in U.S history after slavery and watch how we as a country continues to violate other peoples human rights. Native Americans, Hawaiians, Minorities etc upto current times.
I didn't own slaves, my father, nor his father owned slaves. Everyone alive today was born free, no more slaves.
This country is supposed to be great because with a lot of hard work, and a little luck, anyone can make it. Thats still true, but people don't want to do the hard work part, without guaranteed good luck.
To make the argument that slavery was 5 generations old and no one is alive who experienced it is kind of closed minded. Can we honestly say that those actions made by some ancestors, had no effect on the generations that came after? If we can prove that, then we have no morale or ethical responsibility to fix it. But unfortunately like most issues relatted to U.S behavior in the past, the opposition argument is more of an argument for not being responsible for human rights violations and setting them right vs we are generally sorry and will try hard to make sure human rights violations wont happen in the future, i say this because all one has to do is go back in U.S history after slavery and watch how we as a country continues to violate other peoples human rights. Native Americans, Hawaiians, Minorities etc upto current times.
We can say that once the person who would have received the reparations is sufficiently distant from the current person, then reparations would be so minor that the cost of providing them outweighs any benefit.
lets say that the victim of slavery was owed 1,000,000 (all dollars in todays dollars) for it. Generation #2 of 2 kids get 10K each. (people tend to spend windfalls that aren't extremely large-and a million doesn't come close). Generation #3 gets $100, #4? $10-probably far less.
maybe a big mac by the time we hit generation #5.
The person who had the harm deserves the money, NOT their children. Course im not a big fan of inheritance determining peoples success in life.
I have often thought of this, my ggg grandfather fought at Gettysburg for the north.
We'd have to set up some sort of sliding scale. Was your GGGGF wounded? Did he really, really, really like Black people (extra money for that one). Now to be fair, your GGGGF will probably get some money taken away because he probably used the "N" word sometimes. Who knows, it might be a wash.
Are you sufficiently sorry for all of White people's sins? Can you self flagellate yourself over the horrors that happened in this country? You might be able to get a few percentage points back that way, but it'll be hard to tell.
There's no case for reparations. No one who was a victim of legal slavery is still around. How many generations removed from slavery are we, four or five, minimally?
In fact, people of African descent were singled out and persecuted al over America post Reconstruction, from the forced labor practices of the South, to the discrimination yea exclusion all over the North. I'm sure there are a few fundamentalist Christians around who still talk about the mark of Cain.
White America does not deserve a free pass for the systematic oppression of those of African descent which occurred through maybe 1980 or so.
In fact, people of African descent were singled out and persecuted al over America post Reconstruction, from the forced labor practices of the South, to the discrimination yea exclusion all over the North. I'm sure there are a few fundamentalist Christians around who still talk about the mark of Cain.
White America does not deserve a free pass for the systematic oppression of those of African descent which occurred through maybe 1980 or so.
So if a black is born after 1980 they get no reparations? Now we're getting somewhere. Who pays and how much?
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