Six,
Because they aren't going to give away their money, no matter what the color of the long dead people whose backs their forefathers enriched themselves on are
That's exactly the answer I was looking for. So it's ok for ancestors of one race to enrich ancestors of another race, and there can never be and evening out?
Some of you have mentioned slavery going all the way back to Biblical times, as though that excuses it. You must also have forgotten the concept of Jehovah's Jubilee Year. Every 7th year EVERYONE was returned to a level playing field. Therefore, if you somehow found yourself enslaved, at least you had the knowledge that at the end of the 7th year you would get SOME level of equality.
I think it rather odd, this notion of 'white man's guilt' that some of you have mentioned.
I don't think I'd be willing to give up my millions if my great grandparents had owned slaves, and yet should I wonder why I attempt to assuage my conscience by sitting on a charitable board here or making an endowment to the United Negro College Fund there?
Funky Derek asks:
Are you saying that I am to be held responsible for every action committed by one of my ancestors which would nowadays be considered a crime, and that I am to be given reparations for every such action that was committed against my ancestors? How far back in time should we go?
Not at all. What I'm saying is, if you're going to pay reparations for one group, you have to pay it for all.
Six says ancestral stories are
Kinda like the bible?
True enough, some of the Bible is no more than fables, but does that mean that EVERYTHING in the Bible isn't true?
How did you expect slaves to hand down stories of their homeland to their children? They weren't allowed to speak their own language, or do anything that was reflective of their homeland. Oral traditions became critical. Some of them are so reliable, that is how black Americans are able to trace their geneology, (which is something white Americans mostly have no problem doing). No records were kept, families were ripped apart with no regard for structure.
This is also how Native Americans document their history, even currently!
It's too bad you have to be so unappreciative of something you don't understand, Six.
And NO I am NOT saying we should pay reparations. But is there nothing we can do, as a nation of great thinkers?
Funky Derek you always crack me up, because you don't even live in the US (if I'm not mistaken). The US considers itself the vanguard for human rights, and yet it was only 30 years ago that signs still hung "Niggers not allowed here." Your perspective, while valuable, is certainly different from the perspective of an American who has educated themselves on the history of this country.
It never ceases to amaze me, how this country so easily ridicules black Americans. So many jokes about 'baby's mommas' etc etc. Don't we understand that is the price we are paying for destroying the family unit of the African? Slavery has at times been a necessary evil, but cruelty to slaves and the tearing apart of family is NOT a hallmark of all slavery.
FunkyDerek, yes, Irish were slaves many times. And yet. you know you are Irish? Can you ask a black American what country he is from? Africa is not one country, it is many different countries. Yet, there is probably not one black American who knows what country his ancestors are from, what language they spoke etc etc.
It's no wonder they have invented a whole new culture for themselves. Hip Hop or whatever you want to call it.
Very sad dialogue. I see most have ingrained ideas that can not even be questioned without offense or incredulity, let alone changed. Very sad.
Lisa
