For years when I would hear someone suggest people who descended from slaves in this country should be given reparations for the wrongs done to their ancestors I would almost immediately dismiss the idea. No one alive today has been legally a slave in this country. And no one alive today has legally been a slave owner in this country. So who and why should anyone alive today be responsible for something they didn’t do and who should receive compensation for a wrong they did not suffer?
I recently saw the error of my ways. I reached a state of enlightenment on my own. I am now in partial agreement with those who are demanding reparations for the terrible injustice inflicted upon so many people by legal slavery so many years ago.
With this blog post perhaps I can convince more people to see the light and spread the word of how we can deliver a small measure of belated justice. Please, hear me out on this. It’s important.
As I said in the opening paragraph the problem I initially saw with reparations is that no one alive today was alive when the wrongs occurred. But I now see that the descendants of those who were forcibly brought here would have had a much different life if their ancestors had not been brought here. Therefore if the descendants of people forcibly brought here choose to live their life in the land where their ancestors were taken from then I can see the justice in providing them a one-way ticket to their ancestral homeland on the condition they not return except for occasional visits.
With that part of the issue settled we still have the question of how to pay for this transportation. I think I have that issue figured out too.
It is my belief that there are some descendants of slaves who consider themselves fortunate that they were born in this country and are free citizens here rather than living in the land of their ancestors. Therefore, I propose these people pay the price of a single one-way ticket to a fund to send those who wish to escape this country back to their homeland.
If there are insufficient funds to send everyone desirous of returning then a GoFundMe account should be easily able to make up the difference. I know that I would pay a fair amount to such a fund just to get people to, once and for all time, stop whining about reparations. And I’m sure a lot of other people would too. I don’t think there would be any problems getting sufficient funding to sent all those people back to their homeland.
If, on the other hand, there ends up being an excess of funds in the account the funds should go to the descendants of the slave owners*. The reasoning for this is that the people grateful to be here rather than in their ancestral land owe a debt, which they have never paid for being here. It’s true that the descendants of the slave owners didn’t pay the price of bringing current wrongful residents here, but it makes as much or more sense than the original version of reparations.
There is one more wrinkle that I can see worth ironing out. Many of the descendants of wrongful residents are also descendants of people who voluntarily migrated here. I propose their contribution to the fund or ticket price for their return, whichever they chose, be prorated according to the percentage of DNA they have which traces back to the ancestral homeland of the slaves.
Please share and help heal the wounds of that terrible institution of legal slavery once and for all.
* To the best of my knowledge none of my ancestors were slave owners so I can’t see that I’m furthering my own self-interest here.
Dad’s side came here in time for the Indian Wars, but after the 13th through 15th Amendments.
Mom’s side came in (just barely) living memory, and being greasy WOPs didn’t get a chance to oppress anyone.
I resent the very idea that, “wasn’t me, didn’t do it,” is NOT a positive defense here.
However, I will be willing to work off my ex post facto white guilt by covering the price of a ticket for those poor souls who feel so put upon that their ancestors were forcibly taken from Africa to America.
According to Robert Johnson, reparations are due because median black wealth in this country is about 30K per individual vs. 350K for the median white person.
He fails to consider the alternative however. According to Wikipedia, the median wealth for the continent of Africa is $1219 and for Ghana, one of the continents richest countries is $1706. Perhaps a gratuity is in order?
Robert Johnson, is the billionaire owner of Black Entertainment Television.
With the major differential between his net worth and the net worth of the median black wealth in this country, he owes a lot of black people a LOT of money.
This is the same approach that occurred to me.
I will end my comment here, as I would quickly get into “[types] [deletes]” territory.
I know this post is sarcasm, but you know this wouldn’t fly. By reparations, they mean “subsidize my life and never question my actions”.
None of this will end well.
That’s why the signs in the national parks say “don’t feed the bears.”
They like the free food in the moment, but… it doesn’t end well.
The Democrat party should pay for any and all reparations. From the Jackson presidency to the Civil War, the Democrat party supported slavery as policy. After reconstruction, the Democrats passed Jim Crow laws and used the KKK as an armed force to keep Blacks from voting. The also actively denied a quality education to Black children under the ridiculous doctrine of “Separate but Equal.” In the modern era we have Democrats telling Blacks that they aren’t smart enough to get ahead unless the white Democrats grant them the privilege of preferred education and jobs. We even have a Democrat presidential candidate telling Blacks that if they even consider voting for a Republican “They ain’t Black.” If anyone should be held responsible for keeping the Black population from achieving their “Proper place in society” it is the Democrats.
“The also actively denied a quality education to Black children under the ridiculous doctrine of “Separate but Equal.”
In the modern era we have Democrats telling Blacks that they aren’t smart enough to get ahead unless the white Democrats grant them the privilege of preferred education and jobs.”
I suspect that that separate education system might have been a good thing for both of us, if done properly. The problem is the black race has a much lower IQ than any other. It might be a bit higher here in the US due to intermixing, but I’m not clear on that. The problem with using one schooling system with two groups with such a wide gulf in intelligence is you end up with classes that default to the lowest common denominator. The end result is neither group is served well, and that is bad for our society in general, let alone the individual students. You get similar bad results due to artificial hiring and school placement practices. That is truly stupid.
Also, how much wealth has been coercively transferred from whites to blacks since LBJ’s Great Society programs began? Surely it’s in the trillions of dollars, and all of that now counts for nothing?
I too am a victim of slavery. Although none of my ancestors where slaves, and none of my ancestors were slave owners, I still have to suffer from being accused of wrong-doing because of the color of my skin, I’ve still been paying money for it all my professional life, and I still have to listen to insanity being seriously proposed as government policy.
So when do I get my reparations for having been insanely accused of benefitting from “white privilege”?
I agree with the previous comment suggesting the Democrat Party pay any and all reparations. That of course would include the now 90% or more of black Americans who’ve joined the Party since MLK and Malcolm X were murdered and the civil rights movement was taken over and repurposed by the racist, Eugenicist, Progressive Marxist (Romish) Democrats.
I looked a bit at what Robert Johnson was pushing for. He claimed that blacks (whatever that means) should get $300k each, and that this would enable them to start a business or do other good things with their lives.
There are some obvious problems with this, for example:
1. Who pays? Everyone? Non-blacks? Whites only? Non-black non-Amerind people? Does it include those who immigrated after 1968?
2. Who receives? Every black? Define black — is it the Jim Crow definition of “one drop of black blood”? 1/16th or more, as in Apartheid South Africa? Hm, maybe we get to resurrect obsolete terminology like “octaroon”. Are black immigrants who came here after 1968 eligible? What about immigrants from, say, Haiti, whose ancestors were enslaved but by the French, not Americans?
3. And the big one: once the big payment is made, and the pretended benefits don’t materialize, will he come and ask for more? If yes, under what pretense?
No no no and NO. Any admission of any debt to be paid to descendants would start a chain of claims that would never be satisfied.
So much for the, Bill of Attainer, Corruption of Blood, clause in the constitution?
Damn, can human nature be more predictable?
And what about us crackers who’s forefathers were slaves? My first ancestor was shangi-highed off the streets in England. Made to work the ship to Jamestown colony in 1670. Sold to slavery, for 20 yrs., then escaped to the frontier. (No need to send a check folks, I’m getting social security).
Which as Lyle mentioned. We have been paying blacks welfare, or reparations, for far to long. We also founded the country of Liberia for them. (just for this very problem). And deportations of anyone not happy with the constitution as written should shipped there post haste. Regard less of color.