reparations Rating Options

[PurpleDaze112]

we talked about this in my history class. do you think black people should get reparations for slavery?

I actually do think so, and for these reasons.

1. they were PROMISED
2. slavery was an institution that not only displaced a people, but destroyed their culture and history
3. it would help the economy

reparations would cause each person of african descent (about 36 million in america)to get at least $10k. That would lead to new houses being purchased, cars bought, and educations paid for. Small businesses would be started too. And after all, Jews got reparations from the german gov't because of the holocaust, native americans get money for college from the feds, adn Japanese americans too. Slavery wasn't formally apologized for until bill clinton.

[superstitious]

I think that the general use of "whites" and "blacks" here is narrow minded altogether. The entire act of slavery is a mockery to humanity and I completely understand that in the past, massive amounts of people were enslaved unfairly and not compensated. However, I can, to some extent, understand what Josh is saying by stating that it is not this generation's fault that such atrocities ocurred. How long will the current generation of white people be blamed for our ancestor's mistakes?

I get that by saying that, I might get lumped into this "white" group of people that folks like JC can't seem to discuss this issue with. I'll respect that, but I'm not going to lie and say that I don't think that it's unfair. Of course I disagree with anyone who says or thinks that "black community and white communities problems aren't intertwined." All communites, regardless of what race or minority are intertwined. We're in a huge melting pot, after all. I just believe that we, as a group shouldn't be held accountable for actions performed generations ago.

Having said all that, I'm not opposed to reparations. I don't agree with the sentiment that if the concept of white people today being blamed for crimes committed by white people a long time ago.

[mipadi]

I think that the general use of "whites" and "blacks" here is narrow minded altogether. The entire act of slavery is a mockery to humanity and I completely understand that in the past, massive amounts of people were enslaved unfairly and not compensated. However, I can, to some extent, understand what Josh is saying by stating that it is not this generation's fault that such atrocities ocurred. How long will the current generation of white people be blamed for our ancestor's mistakes?

I get that by saying that, I might get lumped into this "white" group of people that folks like JC can't seem to discuss this issue with. I'll respect that, but I'm not going to lie and say that I don't think that it's unfair. Of course I disagree with anyone who says or thinks that "black community and white communities problems aren't intertwined." All communites, regardless of what race or minority are intertwined. We're in a huge melting pot, after all. I just believe that we, as a group shouldn't be held accountable for actions performed generations ago.

Having said all that, I'm not opposed to reparations. I don't agree with the sentiment that if the concept of white people today being blamed for crimes committed by white people a long time ago.

You bring up some well-reasoned points, Rebecca. I know I'm just a white boy who can't possibly comprehend racial prejudices either, but there are a couple points on the issue that are worth discussing:

1. If reparations were paid, how do you calculate the value of the "lost wealth" of American slaves and their descendants? I'm not arguing that the value is miniscule; but rather that it's so large that you can't really expect the government to pay the full value, because it's probably in the tens of trillions of dollars, and maybe even higher. The exact value is probably impossible to calculate. There's no doubt that America's economic success is due in a large part to slave labor, but how much is the question.
2. America wasn't even a country until 1787, meaning that it inherited the institution of slavery from European nations. America is still responsibly for perpetuating slavery, but nations like England, France, and the Netherlands are responsible, too. So the full value of slavery can't be borne entirely by the US -- several European nations would have to "pay up", too. But even this raises some problems: France, for example, has gone through a few iterations of government since the 1700s, so the French government now is not the same French government that is responsible for slavery in the Americas. Likewise, a lot of agricultural products from the South were exported to European nations, so European nations definitely bore the fruit of American slavery.
3. What about whites whose ancestors were abolitionists or fought in the Northern Army during the Civil War? Are they responsible for slavery, even though their ancestors paid a price to free slaves? (And if you want to argue that the Civil War wasn't about slavery, you're on shaky ground: South Carolina's declaration of independence, for example, specifically discusses slavery as a reason for seceding from the Union.) What about northern whites, who owned no slaves? I'm not arguing that the North didn't profit from slavery, but at least northern states forbid slave labor, and most, if not all, prohibited slaves from being imported or transported through their borders.
4. Along with #3, it's important to note that although the government legalized slavery, not all whites supported slavery. Take, for example, Charles Darwin: he abhorred racism and the institution of slavery, and the motivation behind his study of evolution was to prove that all human beings descended from a common ancestor and thus were equal, regardless of skin color. So it's unfair to characterize all whites as blatantly racist slave owners; in fact, even in the 1800s, less than 2% of American whites owned slaves, and there were a lot of people fighting to make slavery illegal. Even in the late 1600s, a number of Dutch slave owners freed their slaves and gave them land on what is now Manhattan, so some whites found slavery to be wrong even then.
5. What about African nations? African slaves were often captured and sold to whites by other Africans. Should African nations be considered partly responsible for the slave trade, as well?
6. Not every Black American is a descendant of a slave, so how do you "prove" such a lineage and decide who gets reparations in the first place? The problem could be solved by investing, as JC suggests, in black communities, but that solution might not be acceptable to everyone.

I'm mostly playing Devil's advocate here. Like Rebecca, I'm not necessarily against reparations, but I think that the issue is much more multi-faceted than some posters are making it out to be.