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Paul Congemi, a candidate running for mayor in St. Petersburg Florida, is making huge waves in the news. During a debate he addressed one of his opponent's ideologies about reparations. Saying black people already got their reparations in the form of our former president Barack Obama. To add insult to injury, this dude went on to say if black people don't like it here in America, we could all take a cozy plane ride "back to Africa". Here's the clip.....
Man, tell us how you really feel! This guy is a joke, but I hope it gives Jesse Nevel much needed media attention. I hope Jesse wins because his entire campaign is centered on reparations. If he wins and makes changes to St. Petersburg, that could mean big things on a national level. It's time for the US to pay what it owes to black descendants of slaves.
And some people wonder why alot of Blacks vote the way they vote. Stuff like this might cost this candidate alot of votes. Paul Congemi isn't the first politician out of Florida to go on a racial diatribe.
And I have to think about this. There are people who say "Democrats and liberals are the real racists". To anyone that would say something like this, explain Paul Congemi and Frank Artiles, both of whom are Republicans.
You know...if the OP spent as much time marshaling financial resources from his chosen community to be used for these AA business ventures, and less time whining about how nobody is giving him free money that he/she didn't earn, he/she would be a lot further ahead.
I guess that's the most important takeaway in this litany of complaints.
Sounds like the Paul Congemi does not understand the definition of reparation, does not understand our voting systems or Constitution and is, frankly, a racist.
In fact he is a racist, as well as an accused felon. A local nutjob.
I hope Congemi loses the mayoral election. Perhaps he will. Did he ever consider that his big mouth not to mention his past would catch up to him? Or does he even care?
You are making a distinction related to this abstract thing we call a "country" that shouldn't matter. i.e. if there were french slave owners in Louisiana prior to the Louisiana purchase somehow "America" now owes them reparations? Why not France? Britain is still around, why aren't they on the hook for the reparations for their colony's slaves?
The wealth that was built in the colonies through slavery, transferred as America became a country. America bought land with the wealth the slaves help create. All the land, all the wealth, is still here in America today. That is where my claim is coming from. Now France owes Haiti reparations. That's there fight. The British and all the European powers owes money to. That's a fight anyone who wants to make that claim has to take issue with. My claim is here in the US. A claim that doesn't just include slavery, but the hundred years that led us to this modern state. Slavery wasn't that long ago, the wealth is still here today. Even more so, Jim Crow definitely wasn't that long ago, and America is done with building a middle class. Black people were locked out during a critical time, and today is the day of the have's and have nots. Without the deserved reparations, Black America will forever be an underclass doomed to jail and poverty.
You truly don't understand how America to this day is still keeping black people down through government policy. How many black majority areas have record levels of lead in their water? How black people are targeted to go to prison. I mean you have something called a school-to-prison pipeline in the black community. That is insane! I've mentioned redlining in our community already. There's also unemployment among the educated black population. How black people with college degrees have to take jobs that are less than their qualifications. They're predatory loans that keep black people in debt. All of these things are current day things keeping us down, backed by the government. Yet we have no claim to reparations?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Avram42
So you're saying poor white people don't exist? The accusations from democrats is that those are the very people that elected Trump. Do they exist or was that something else Russia hacked?
There are poor white people, but they have more wealth than over 60% of the total black population. Poor white people have over 10K in net worth, where as poor black people are negative. Poor white people also have social capital. Which means they know people who are police officers, they may have a family member who is a judge in court. They also probably have family who are not poor, and they certainly aren't living on top of each other in public housing.
Last edited by Heavenese; 07-20-2017 at 10:15 AM..
Truth is, I'm not that concerned about the reparations part of this. I'm more concerned that someone running for mayor feels bold enough to say the things he said. Either he doesn't care that he might lose. Or, he might try to appeal to those who hate Blacks. Or he's mentally unstable and shouldn't be running a city.
Actually there's an interesting point to be made here. Again I believe reparations is an American debt, and the resources should come from the country itself. Yet in addition, if individuals can trace their ancestry to specific claims, then that should be allowed in addition to the overall slavery reparations. An example of this can be seen in Georgetown university. If they didn't sell their slaves, there would be no Georgetown today. So the descendants of the slaves that were sold to keep Georgetown alive, could make their claim to the school's endowment.
Rome doesn't exist today, and lives aren't effected today by what Rome did over 2,000 years ago. How are the Irish Americans being effected today by what the British did? In contrast, Black Americans are still being effected by discrimination today. We have no net worth in a country where you need capital to live a decent life. We have no net worth not because of our own doing, but because we were locked out and terrorized. Now we help build the wealth of the richest nation on this planet, and we are deserving of our share.
Maybe Oprah or Jay-Z will give you some of their "wealth".
You truly don't understand how America to this day is still keeping black people down through government policy. How many black majority areas have record levels of lead in their water. How black people are targeted to go to prison. I mean you have something called a school-to-prison pipeline in the black community. That is insane! I've mentioned redlining in our community already. There's also unemployment among the educated black population. How black people with college degrees have to take jobs that are less than their qualifications. There predatory loans that keep black people in debt. All of these things are current day things keeping us down, backed by the government. Yet we have no claim to reparations?
I agree that I don't know. Educate me. If the Drug War is one of your examples I'm already on board with ending that.
I am empathetic, but I don't think a free check is necessarily the solution. "Predatory loans" still require a voluntary interaction on the part of the 'victim'. You could easily claim that the way to address that is with education or regulatory labeling (not that I'm advocating for either) rather than a payment. Higher education is likely not a race issue in general... we have far too many people of any color or gender getting degrees in studies that aren't very useful. I live in a liberal town and I have people with more time in school than myself serving me at restaurants.
I also agree that the government is the problem but I advocate for less meddling, not more.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Heavenese
There are poor white people, but they have more wealth than over 60% of the total black population. Poor white people have over 10K in net worth, where as poor black people are negative. Poor white people also have social capital. Which means they know people who are police officers, they may have a family member who is a judge in court. They also probably have family who are not poor, and they certainly aren't living on top of each other in public housing.
The first is likely true just in aggregate but this is otherwise a lot of thoerysplaining. I'm probably considered middle class and my 'net worth' is technically negative. To the latter: I know no police officers or judges--I'm not sure where this assumption even comes from.
Truth is, I'm not that concerned about the reparations part of this. I'm more concerned that someone running for mayor feels bold enough to say the things he said. Either he doesn't care that he might lose. Or, he might try to appeal to those who hate Blacks. Or he's mentally unstable and shouldn't be running a city.
You don't have to worry about him winning. He's mostly just another guy who simply put his name on the ballot to see how far he can get. Yet I wouldn't put the hate strategy by him seeing how Trump used it to get elected.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MPowering1
This is a post that OldHag1 left some time ago in a thread about reparations. I found it an interesting take.
To this quote, this person might as well be Oprah. The data says the overwhelming majority of all black people are as flat as a pancake in terms of net worth. Government policies like Affirmative Action did help us at one time and some black people did get benefits from being in the army, but those things aren't nearly enough to override what has been done to us in this country. By the way, the idea that black people are better off having been slaves in this country versus staying in Africa, is utterly ridiculous. One of the main reasons why a lot of African nations are where they are now, is due to the drain of millions of people out of those countries. The Europeans drained an entire workforce from these countries, and caused them to become unstable.
You don't have to worry about him winning. He's mostly just another guy who simply put his name on the ballot to see how far he can get. Yet I wouldn't put the hate strategy by him seeing how Trump used it to get elected.
It wouldn't surprise me if he did put on the hate strategy. Some politicians will do that. My theory is this. If a politician will talk hateful and say nasty things, I wouldn't put it past said person to do hateful things.
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This guy is a joke, but I hope it gives Jesse Nevel much needed media attention. I hope Jesse wins because his entire campaign is centered on reparations. If he wins and makes changes to St. Petersburg, that could mean big things on a national level. It's time for the US to pay what it owes to black descendants of slaves.
