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Unfortunately that's not how housing booms work. That's two generations of compounded wealth, wealth that was used to set up the next generation w a leg up on their peers. You can't recover that lost wealth, especially when the initial buy-in period has long gone and the jump on point afterwards gets more and more expensive, for less and less return.
This is like not only Black people being barred from buying Google stock at its IPO, but everyone else getting free money to buy those stocks. Then fast forward into the future, the people sitting on decade's worth of Google's return telling Black people who were barred from buying it... well buy it now.
Imagine someone who bought Google at $95/share telling people that buying it at $2,000/share evens the scorecards...
Not ALL white people had those advantages either, most didn't. How do you explain the success of Asians who came to this country penniless and not even knowing the language who took advantage of all of the opportunities presented to them in the country and now are exceeding white people in wealth? How is it possible for them to overcome and not POC who at least had the advantage of knowing how to speak English?
Tough **** isn't an argument that's going to win the day for yall. Even if y'all didn't do slavin', you benefited from the system that barred participation from Black people.
At least no one's asking YOU to pay that burden. The govt sponsored it, so it's on them to settle the bill.
Reparations should come for the treatment of Black people STARTING with slavery and continuing THROUGH Jim Crow America and whatever's legacies were left behind after the CRM.
Black people were literally barred from accessing the biggest source of American net worth for decades, and that's a debt that might even be a bigger financial hit than the generations of slavery Black people lived through.
I think we need to move forward and help ourselves and not force people to pay what they don't want to pay.
Life will always be unfair. But if the need for reparations is too big to ignore...
Why doesn't someone who believes in reparations set up a GoFundMe page or a charitable organization... outline how they will distribute any funds received... and let people freely give? This would be handled much more efficiently than the people in government could do.
Not ALL white people had those advantages either, most didn't. How do you explain the success of Asians who came to this country penniless and not even knowing the language who took advantage of all of the opportunities presented to them in the country and now are exceeding white people in wealth? How is it possible for them to overcome and not POC who at least had the advantage of knowing how to speak English?
Yes you did. You didn't use it, but you had access to it. You had it as a goal for yourself and your family. That's more than any Black family had for generations.
And model majority myth of Asians was a self-fulfilling prophecy. We banned Asians from immigrating for years, and when we finally lifted it, we put in strict immigration requirements so that only educated and motivated Asians were allowed into the country. Your "stock" of Asians was already primed to make the most of their situation, which is also the same reason that incoming Africans are some of the highest achievers.
That's neither here nor there b/c the Black Americans who were already here were completely cast aside and robbed of the opportunities that their native-born peers used to boost themselves up. So stop comparing the situations of people systematically beat down by the American system to the highest achievers from a foreign country that we selected.
Unfortunately that's not how housing booms work. That's two generations of compounded wealth, wealth that was used to set up the next generation w a leg up on their peers. You can't recover that lost wealth, especially when the initial buy-in period has long gone and the jump on point afterwards gets more and more expensive, for less and less return.
This is like not only Black people being barred from buying Google stock at its IPO, but everyone else getting free money to buy those stocks. Then fast forward into the future, the people sitting on decade's worth of Google's return telling Black people who were barred from buying it... well buy it now.
Imagine someone who bought Google at $95/share telling people that buying it at $2,000/share evens the scorecards...
Nope, you don’t get it. I’m saying that blacks haven’t been barred for the last two generations. So let’s say back two generations ago, they started with zero - like the Jews and Asians arriving two generations ago and arriving with nothing. Today, both groups are at the top of the income scale (as a group), even though they’ve only had two generations to get there. They too missed out on generation upon generation of housing boom, but they’re not making excuses - they hit the books, worked their a*****s off, didn’t have babies out of wedlock, and got on the homeownership path.
Also, you seem to think that all whites have gained from generation after generation of housing booms. Lots of whites haven’t been here for more than one or two generations in the first place. Then there are half the people that never own at all - they rent their entire lives.
You can keep being resentful about all the whites you THINK have had generations of advantages, and instead concentrate on what blacks can do now, and that is to reduce the illegitimacy rate and get some sort of job training post high school.
I think we need to move forward and help ourselves and not force people to pay what they don't want to pay.
Life will always be unfair. But if the need for reparations is too big to ignore...
Why doesn't someone who believes in reparations set up a GoFundMe page or a charitable organization... outline how they will distribute any funds received... and let people freely give? This would be handled much more efficiently than the people in government could do.
You think donations are what's going to recover the decades of lost wealth to Black Americans? The tab owed to Black Americans is in the 9-10 figure range. That's getting recouped from generous supporters, regardless of how generous or supportive they are.
This was an institutional abuse and the only fix is an institutional one. And I am not for lump sum payments either in case you think I'm making a case for Black people get a pay day.
Yes you did. You didn't use it, but you had access to it. You had it as a goal for yourself and your family. That's more than any Black family had for generations.
And model majority myth of Asians was a self-fulfilling prophecy. We banned Asians from immigrating for years, and when we finally lifted it, we put in strict immigration requirements so that only educated and motivated Asians were allowed into the country. Your "stock" of Asians was already primed to make the most of their situation, which is also the same reason that incoming Africans are some of the highest achievers.
That's neither here nor there b/c the Black Americans who were already here were completely cast aside and robbed of the opportunities that their native-born peers used to boost themselves up. So stop comparing the situations of people systematically beat down by the American system to the highest achievers from a foreign country that we selected.
Who SAYS he had access to it? Two generations ago, many of us here sitting in our upper-middle class family rooms were the (yet unborn) grandchildren of poor immigrants, fleeing Europe and Russia for their lives. They came without a penny. No home ownership in their backgrounds. Yet, the next generation were college graduates.
That’s what we are trying to say. Plenty of people, including the many in the black middle class, can look back two generations to where their parents or grandparents started with zilch. But they made the right decisions, had the right values, and ended up living financially successful lives.
Nope, you don’t get it. I’m saying that blacks haven’t been barred for the last two generations. So let’s say back two generations ago, they started with zero - like the Jews and Asians arriving two generations ago and arriving with nothing. Today, both groups are at the top of the income scale (as a group), even though they’ve only had two generations to get there. They too missed out on generation upon generation of housing boom, but they’re not making excuses - they hit the books, worked their a*****s off, didn’t have babies out of wedlock, and got on the homeownership path.
Also, you seem to think that all whites have gained from generation after generation of housing booms. Lots of whites haven’t been here for more than one or two generations in the first place. Then there are half the people that never own at all - they rent their entire lives.
You can keep being resentful about all the whites you THINK have had generations of advantages, and instead concentrate on what blacks can do now, and that is to reduce the illegitimacy rate and get some sort of job training post high school.
Jews and Asians arriving in America had the benefit of communities who were already established in the America (Jews and White immigrants) or had their own communities that weren't systemically targeted for oppression (Asians). The outcomes of these groups is incomparable to what Black Americans had to deal with in order to establish ourselves.
All things being equal, an Asian or Jewish immigrant had to do less to extricate themselves from the bottom of the social ladder than a similar Black person. An Asian or Jewish immigrant had ZERO hurdles to overcome besides securing their money to get themselves into a nicer neighborhood to raise their family.
The effects of that discrimination didn't stop just b/c policies were erased. There were a long-tail outcomes that came from that discrimination -- denied housing, denied loans, real estate "steering," lack of funds to reinvest in communities, housing discrimination, etc. There's decades of negative repercussions from that ONE policy decision regarding housing.
That's not even counting the lost opportunity from other policies like the GI Bill or War on Drugs.
You think donations are what's going to recover the decades of lost wealth to Black Americans? The tab owed to Black Americans is in the 9-10 figure range. That's getting recouped from generous supporters, regardless of how generous or supportive they are.
This was an institutional abuse and the only fix is an institutional one. And I am not for lump sum payments either in case you think I'm making a case for Black people get a pay day.
Like I said... life is unfair. You are not going to recover everything. The best thing people can do is make something of themselves today. Many black folk are doing that and are successful without reparations.
Donations would help... every little bit would help.
My suggestion was just about getting the ball moving and allowing a means for people who want to pay reparations.
If you are looking to equal the score - it's not going to happen. You can't put a cost on what our ancestors went through, and the lives that were lost. I'm not sure what your goal is if it's not about allocating money. What would satisfy you?
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