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Democratic Sens. Kamala Harris (Calif.) and Elizabeth Warren (Mass.), who are both running for president, have reportedly said they support reparations for black Americans affected by slavery.
The New York Times reported Thursday that Harris affirmed her support for reparations in a statement after agreeing last week with a radio host that reparations are necessary.
How would this work? Would there be some kind of payout to the present generation of blacks in America? What if the next generation of blacks demand their payout?
Last edited by CaseyB; 02-22-2019 at 09:39 AM..
Reason: copyright violation
While we're talking about achieving justice and fairness, remember that it goes both ways.
If you're going to seek reparations from the United States, then I guess you need to seek reparations first from the British, Spanish and French since the territory that now makes up the United States were colonies of those countries during the first 150 years of slavery. Are you going to sue the Netherlands, Denmark, and Sweden, too, while you're at it? After all, they all had Caribbean colonies with slaves whose descendants ultimately wound up in what is now the United States.
Oh, and I guess you need to take legal action against the ancestral homelands in Africa, given how slaves were the spoils of war for one tribe conquering another. Europeans weren't trekking into the African bush to round up slaves. Nope, the slaves were delivered into the hands of Europeans by Africans at the coastal trading post. It's also worth noting that slavery existed in the United States for far longer as a colony than it did as an independent country. So, if you consider things from a pro rata standpoint, former colonial powers in Europe should really be on the hook for the larger share. Or, if an African American traces his ancestry to Haiti, which gained its independence from France in 1803, should that person be eligible for reparations?
Now, what about those African Americans whose ancestors immigrated to the United States after the 13th and 14th Amendments were passed? Do they get part of the Jubilee, too? And if there are white, Latino, and Asian Americans who are almost completely descended from those who came here after the Civil War ended, how much should they have to pay? What is their culpability? For example, if someone is of Asian descent whose family immigrated to Hawaii, what exactly is that person's responsibility? Is it justice for that person to pay up? What about those who are biracial? Is their allotted payment half that of a white person's? Or do they only get half of what a black person receives?
And how do you really figure the economic contribution of slaves? Sure cotton was a cash crop, one that made the Southern states prosperous. But with the end of the Civil War, the South fell into absolute poverty. Meanwhile, can you really make the case that the industrial north or the west grew and prospered because of slavery? That would be really difficult to prove, given the very small population of slaves that existed in the northern states before slavery was outlawed altogether as the colonies gained their independence. Or what about people in states such as Minnesota, North Dakota, Alaska, Idaho, and all the rest, where every field was plowed, every building erected, and every road paved through the sweat of paid labor? Do those states need to pony up?
In other words, slavery was a tragedy and a blemish on American history. I can't imagine any sane person arguing otherwise. But expecting modern-day Americans to pay up for events that were set into motion almost four centuries ago by other nations--before our country was a sovereign power--and have no control over today, is also an injustice. My family moved here from Germany around the year 1900. My grandfather grew up in New York. What is their culpability? What is his? What is mine? I can't even wrap my head around the tortuous calculations that you'd need to come up with.
In truth, I think the United States paid the price for slavery in blood in the period of 1861-65, when roughly 2% of the American population died in combat, the equivalent of 6 million Americans dying today. In addition, the American South was devastated by the Civil War for a full century afterward, first from the damage of the war itself followed by the rampant poverty and the economic exploitation that followed. Meanwhile, if by some freakish set of events, this batty shakedown was indeed made into law, all you'd do is offer up a fresh set of injustices to those who never committed those offenses in the first place.
Last edited by MinivanDriver; 02-21-2019 at 04:28 PM..
See, this is the work of politically thinking black Americans demanding what is owed to them. No longer are we going to vote without expecting something in return. The work is not done yet. True reparations will be an investment worth trillions of dollars, over a period of years. Let the conversation continue!!!
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