Do African Americans deserve Reparations?

[The Black Wooster]

Should the government really have to pay black people money as a way to apologize for slavery?

[Yori]

Wooster if this is an alt, Its not funny -_______________-

[TheBlackChidori]

Oooh... this could cause quite the stir...

[Wooster]

Originally Posted by Yori

Wooster if this is an alt, Its not funny -_______________-

How do you blame me for it...

[Jinchiruuki]

I say no. Because then this ideal would need to be applied to many other people..such as the Germans paying todays Jews and other races that they nearly extinguished back in the day. Or how about the British paying the Scottish and Irish for the many years of slavery, rape, murder and exploitation. Or how about British paying South African countries that they pretty much ravaged, like Sierra Leone.

There are very few people alive that actually experienced anything like this. I think it's ridiculous to automatically pay someone for something they themselves did not experience and just because of their skin color. Same applies to the general idea that whites make more than blacks.

[AshenREAPER]

Originally Posted by Wooster

How do you blame me for it...

It's got Wooster in its name, therefore anything and everything it says defaults to being your fault. You may want to try shifting all blame to kingsnoke while you still have the chance.

[Vornmusion]

Maybe they deserve it, but apologizing to them in that way will create more trouble than it's worth. Every other group would want something and the US in particular owes some people quite a bit, more than they are willing to give.

[Wooster]

Fine, I blame Kingsnoke and believe he should pay money to American Blacks.

[CrackFat]

I BLAME UNDEAD! There, it's out.

[sakura_blossom]

Originally Posted by The Black Wooster

Should the government really have to pay black people money as a way to apologize for slavery?

You know not all black people are African American. Neither were all slaves.

Just throwing that out there.

[Kreegah!!!]

In many ways, the natives were the ones who were hosed the most. Reparations of any kind this far into the future is actually more of a slap to the face. We cannot ignore what happened, but this approach solves nothing. We document what happened, teach the kids how it happened and the mess that resulted, and we move on. We treat everyone equally. No racial benefits. No racial un-benefits. Just equal. Does this make people feel great? No, but it's the only viable solution. Also, the only unexplored option, of course. Reparations are just a form of ingratiation. Besides, it would just promote a cycle of this behaviour, and that's stupid.

[Vornmusion]

Considering the Natives Americans were very nearly completely wiped out due to the genocidal acts committed by the US, had their entire homeland taken, and to this day do not have the racial equality barriers that others do, I would say they have a greater claim to any reparations than anyone else does when it comes to the US.

Of course the US has already tried to buy them off, I believe one of the major tribes is currently being offered some 400 million as payment for taking their sacred land. Though despite the fact that they are all poor and mostly live in the wilderness, they refused, stating they only want the land.

They also aren't stupid, the specific lands they want (read: are entitled to based on contracts that are being ignored) are extremely rich with untapped resources and in the long term are economically worth trillions, something they all know. Even if they took the money, it isn't even worth a fraction of what the land is actually worth to the dollar, let alone the pricelessness it holds to the Natives being sacred ground.

/Rambles

[Nick Tasogare]

Nope.

[deidara#1]

No. It's not like we did the suffering ourselves. If they were going to do something for slaves it should have been done when the former slaves were still alive.

[The Forgotten One]

No, why should I have to pay for something that may ancestors weren't a part of (Italian)? Not sure exactly when they moved to America (1900s-10s I think).

To add fuel to the fire, my grandma (who's still alive and healthy) should get reparations for how the government in the New York city where she grew up treated her family because they were Italian. Italian =/= Mafia. Rant-mode off

[mrsticky005]

Originally Posted by The Black Wooster

Should the government really have to pay black people money as a way to apologize for slavery?

No, the government should not pay them. Stop living in a past that not even your parents were a part of. You don't deserve diddly squat. You're not entitled to anything. Maybe your ancestors were but you are not.
I didn't enslave anyone, none of my relatives as far as I know enslaved
anyone. Heck I can't name a single person who's ever enslaved anyone.
And just because I'm white doesn't mean that my ancestors were slave
owners. I hope you realize that it was RICH white people who owned
slaves on their plantations. The middle class and poor ones (yes believe
it or not. Poor white people exist) couldn't afford them. Also not every
black person was a slave. That doesn't mean their life was good by
any means but just because you are black doesn't automatically
mean you're due in for your "Let My People Go" Paycheck.
Seriously can you even NAME one of your ancestors that was
a slave? Do at least that much and then I'll consider paying you
for "reparations".

Call me racist if you want but I don't think we should judge people
by their ancestors but the merits of their own character.


Just for the record I don't think the Jews, Japanese or anyone else deserves reparations either.

[Kreegah!!!]

Originally Posted by mrsticky005

No, the government should not pay them. Stop living in a past that not even your parents were a part of. You don't deserve diddly squat. You're not entitled to anything. Maybe your ancestors were but you are not.
I didn't enslave anyone, none of my relatives as far as I know enslaved
anyone. Heck I can't name a single person who's ever enslaved anyone.
And just because I'm white doesn't mean that my ancestors were slave
owners. I hope you realize that it was RICH white people who owned
slaves on their plantations. The middle class and poor ones (yes believe
it or not. Poor white people exist) couldn't afford them. Also not every
black person was a slave. That doesn't mean their life was good by
any means but just because you are black doesn't automatically
mean you're due in for your "Let My People Go" Paycheck.
Seriously can you even NAME one of your ancestors that was
a slave? Do at least that much and then I'll consider paying you
for "reparations".

Call me racist if you want but I don't think we should judge people
by their ancestors but the merits of their own character.


Just for the record I don't think the Jews, Japanese or anyone else deserves reparations either.

Yes. Acknowledgment? Definitely. The Holocaust was real. Reparations? You cannot repay the dead in any fashion.

[mrsticky005]

Originally Posted by Kreegah!

Yes. Acknowledgment? Definitely. The Holocaust was real. Reparations? You cannot repay the dead in any fashion.

True.

Interesting thing to think about.

If reparations are government money which comes from taxes...

Then wouldn't blacks just being paying for their own reparations?

There's of course the option of blacks being excluded. But that's easier said than done. I mean defining black (or white for that matter)
isn't as easy as it sounds. I mean for one thing would that include
biracial people?

[Vornmusion]

Would be more trouble than it's worth. Unless they don't want everyone in the country going to get the work done to see what kind of blood they have in them, they will need to set a blood % requirement. That alone would strike the nerve for probably many people of "So we're not 'black' enough for the government now?".

There's already a somewhat similar thing going on with the Natives right now, if we can take anything positive from that, it's that reparations create more problems than they solve.

[Wooster]

Actually, the Pigford settlement essentially is reparations to blacks. Was supposedly just to be black farmers that were directly discriminated against when applying for farm aid.
But now with Pigford 2 passed, nearly any black person can get money from that.