by MYOHNSEPH 43 Replies latest jw friends
(yes, there are thousands who still line the Deep South and the banks of the Mississippi)
Don't have to look at the deep south for an example of slavery. Heck, just look here in Chicago. Good ol' Mayor Daley receives some 97% of the black vote in the general elections.
Reparations arent going to do squat for the African-American community. A change in their leadership and understanding that programs like this one only work against a community will bring about real change.
Black guy against reparations, here.
People being enslaved by other people is just part of mankinds uncivilized history. That doesn't mean that slavery was OK, obviously, but since most groups can trace back some ancestor being enslaved by some other group, African American slavery wasn't that big a deal in the whole picture. Hell, the holocaust of Native American Indians on this continent was far worse than black slavery in America, IMO.
Black America needs to get its house in order. The 70% child illegitamacy rate is of far greater concern to the progress of black people than a great, great, great grandmother's slave lineage. Black people who work hard and do the right thing succeed just as much as anyone else (unless you want to be a college or pro football head coach ). "The man" is no longer keeping anyone down, in fact the laws on the book do much more to protect the rights of minorities more than anything. The black middle class keeps growing, and as more black kids go to college and make something of themselves, or more blacks open their own buissnesses, etc., economic empowerment follows. Obviously, blacks overall still lag behind, but as has already been said, reparations isn't the answer.
How would the reparations be distributed, anyway? The more of a full blooded negro you are, the more money you get? Does a person who is 1/64th black qualify? If not, why shouldn't they? And if the money is coming from the government, won't I be partially paying for it anyway, or will there be a "reparations exemption" open only to African American tax filers? Will asians and hispanics have to shoulder some of the burden (maybe even american indians )? If I were mulatto, do I pay and collect reparations? Obviously, it would be a logistical nightmare.
As far as the "blacks are better here than in Africa" comment, while this is certainly true, remember whites would have been worse of if they could not have exploited Africa, as well. Africa would have been better off without the colonialist involvement, and Europe worse off without African markets and resources. It's not like Africans were happily waiting to have their land pillaged by outsiders, they had their own societies going, as well .
First of all, I'm really gratified to see all the response to this thread. Since I started this thing, I think I should put my two cents worth in.
I grew up in southern Mississippi and Louisiana, back in the 40s and 50s. I was the eleventh child of share-croppers. My parents never owned a home, an automobile or much of anything, till the day they died. I remember a lot of shotgun shacks, coal oil lamps, wood-burning stoves and outdoor toilets. We were the quintesential deep south "white trash" share croppers. I know first hand just how bad a lot of the black people had it, because most of our neighbors and fellow sharecroppers were black and there wasn't a great deal of difference in their lives and ours. They were abused and taken advantage of, and so were we. They, and we, were promised a lot of things we never got. By the time I got to be about fourteen years old, I knew I'd had all that kind of life I ever wanted. I quit school in the eighth grade, stuck my thumb out, and ended up about two thousand miles from Mississippi. I knew then that I had two choices. 1. I could cry and piss and moan about my lot in life and try futiley to get compensated for all I thought I had been cheated out of, or 2. I could get down to the business of putting all that behind me and making a better life for myself. I chose the latter. Today, forty-six years later, I am by no stretch a wealthy man, materially speaking, but I have a pretty comfortable life, I don't feel like I owe anyone anything and I sure as hell don't think anyone owes me.
So, what' my point? Do I think that's all really special? Not at all! That's the point! It's not special!It's just the way things are. You're born on this ball, you grow up, you work hard and do your best to make a decent life for yourself and your family. Some of that hard work succeeds and some of it fails. Some of us have a tougher row to hoe than others, but ultimately, most of us have the lives we have made for ourselves. Our life is the result of the the choices we have made and the seeds we have sown. For me to tell my neighbor he has to help me buy a bigger house or a newer automobile because of some unsettled debt my great grandfather owed his great grandfather, a hundred years ago, seems pretty absurd to me.
But, that's just me!
Having just enrolled a kid in college, & now paying the hefty bill, I saw just how many scholarships there are out there for "people of color', An African-American student", etc. You can all rest assurred there is enough help, money, & admission quotas out there to help black people run this country, if they are willing to work hard.
Why focus on reparations for slave... what about jews and japanese americans....was is just?
My family is Native American. When do I get the country back?
No way, Meadow...the Native Americans immigrated here from Asia. You have to give it back to the buffalo!
Shouldn't Christains (and therefore most Republicans), be in favour of reparations?
Afterall, according to their world view we are justifiably paying for the mistake of two people who lived thousands of years ago, even though it really wasn't our fault they made an error. Repayment for a wrong that happened about 200 years ago should be automatic (whether it was your fault or not), then.
WhyNow2000, the Jews and Japanese Americans who got reparations were directly wronged. If there was an African American alive today who was born under slavery, I would be OK with such a person getting reparations, as I am with the Jews and Japanese americans.
How many generations do we have to go back to be called "native American"? My family goes back several generations in this country, can I be native American? My father's mother was full blooded Cherokee, do I qualify to be native American by that? My grandparents on my mothers side were mostly English, am I native English? or, do I just have to claim that I am native Earthling?
Borgfree
cownboy <<the Jews and Japanese Americans who got reparations were directly wronged.>>
When it comes to Japanese you are right..but the jews descendents did received reparations.
