In these post-George Floyd days, calls for reparations to the descendants of black slaves have been intensifying. But should Americans, many with painful life stories of their own, be forced to pay for crimes they did not commit?
If California Governor Gavin Newsom gets his way, the Black Americans living in his state could soon be hitting the proverbial jackpot. Newsom, one of the most radical progressive liberals in the country, created a Reparation Task Force in 2020, a nine-person group tasked with gathering data to estimate the impact of historical racist policies on black people in the state, and how that impact translates into monetary damages to be potentially compensated with reparations. Eligible Californians, the task force has ruled, are the descendants of African American slaves or of free black people who lived in the US before the 20th century.
Nearly 6.5 percent of California residents, roughly 2.5 million, identify as Black or African American. The task force is expected to release its final report this year, but the early numbers look staggering already. Housing discrimination from 1933 to 1977 alone - one of five fields studied - warrants a compensation of around $569 billion, or $223,200 per person. Whether those should be education or housing grants or cash payments is still being debated.
Needless to say, the proposal has triggered a political firestorm in the US where the white population as a whole is being accused of systemic racism and even white supremacy. By an overwhelming majority, White Americans, as well as Latinos and other historically marginalized racial groups, do not think it is their duty to pay for crimes they did not commit, against people who were never slaves. At the same time, many Black Americans are of the opinion that it's the only fair way of addressing the centuries of oppression that their ancestors have endured.
Last year, an online survey by the University of Massachusetts Amherst found that 86 percent of African Americans supported compensating the descendants of slaves, compared with 28 percent of white people.
Despite this extreme divergence of opinion along racial lines, it is interesting to note that some of the most heated opposition to reparations comes from some members of the black community.
"Do you think that we're the only group that has had something awful happen to them in this country?" the political commentator Candace Owens asked a group of university students. "Did the Japanese get reparations for the internment camps? Should the Irish get reparations for the 'Irish need not apply' period and all the terrible things that happened to them? What about the Jewish people, should they get reparations for the Holocaust?"
"No matter where you go in history, someone was oppressed. You cannot look to correct history by writing a small check, because every single person in this room would get a check," she concluded.
Notably, California was not the worst-offending state when it comes to slavery in the 19th century, with only several thousand reportedly having been forced to mine during the Gold Rush. And while the plight of even one slave could be considered a tragedy, not all of these men and women suffered a terrible fate, as was the case with an African American slave named Edmond Edward Wysinger (1816-1891). He is said to have arrived in the Northern mine area of the California Mother Lode with his owner in 1849. After a year of performing hard labor, he was able to buy his freedom for $1,000 and went on to lead a relatively successful life.
And then there is the question as to who exactly should pay the reparations considering that many Africans were initially sold into slavery by their own tribes. Will African countries be willing to shell out half a trillion dollars to turn historical wrongs into rights? Somehow I doubt it.
The push for reparations is coming at a time when many white people in the United States are already feeling sidelined by the wave of progressiveness that sees them being pushed to the back of the social justice bus, so to speak. At the corporate level, for example, the decision on new entry hires is no longer based purely merit, as it was in the past, but on "inclusivity and equity," which is a polite way of saying race quotas. With businesses taking a strong hand in leveling the playing field, women and minority groups stand a good chance of equaling white men in terms of pay and social standing in a few short decades.
So why the need to fork over billions of dollars for a problem that has been at the center of the Civil Rights movement since the 1960s? The US taxpayer has already spent many billions advancing the rights of minorities through Lyndon Johnson's 'Great Society,' which saw the birth of the welfare state and affirmative action, and gave educational and work privileges to the disadvantaged. So when is enough, enough?
Robert Bridge is an American writer and journalist. He is the author of Midnight in the American Empire, How Corporations and Their Political Servants are Destroying the American Dream.
Reader Comments
My thinking is, since Europeans were African slaves and Africans were American slaves why not let's just call it square but keep in mind if not for that, chances are they'd still be in Africa living a much different life while waiting for the food that whites grew, produced, paid for and sent there out of generosity.
Yeah, and what about the Irish that were slaves brought to America from Ireland by the British slave traders before they brought the blacks from Africa. Where is our money we were slaves first !.. Blacks got no right to my money first, O, I see where just white trash right and don't deserve it, well, I can tell you what to do with it and it aint pretty. I want my welfare too, I have no shame. If we I don't get it you are Racist.
For that matter, as an Englishman I demand reparations from Italy for the Roman occupation of my country 1800 years ago.
Alfred
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Leuren
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I saw one of the first articles on her site had a headline: "The world is full of kings and queens, who blind your eyes and steal your dreams."
I have my beloved cat's ashes on a shelf in my bedroom, and above it I hung these words from the Nobel-Prize-winning (in 1910, in the days when the Nobel Prize meant something,) Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore:
"God is weary of kingdoms... but he loves the little flower."
"God is weary of kingdoms... but he loves the little flower."
The other avatar, the golden, thinks all people are his best friends and would go home with them in a moment. If you want a friend dog, he is your friend for life.
In other news, small syndrome yappy dogs are things I want to drop kick into a dumpster.
I often introduce my golden as Mr. Friendly, so watch out, he may jump on you. Goldens truly dog "love" everybody.
No.
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All forms of history(whatever happened) as well as futurology(what is going to happen), belong to the highest bidder.
Money is the highest form of consciousness. The most money is the most high. The most correct and certain. The most just and legal.
This is why we must digitalize all currency.
Get it into our computers.
And make all the computers smarter with money.
Better.
Stronger.
Faster.
All that.
And more.
Have a fully conscious day.
$$$$$$$
ned,
out
When Jesus advised against mammon, he was advising against technocracy.
Only he didn't call it that.
He called it 'mammon'.
He lacked the proper nouns.
Boy, was he stupid, eh?
$$$$$$$$$$$
ned,
OUT
Epic Rap Battles of History - Lara Croft vs Indiana Jones [Link]
Does it sow good will between blacks and whites, or divide and conquer?
Does it improve the economy of whites, blacks or America? Or does it create "equity" which is Framed as "equality"?
Does this help to destroy America, the Constitution, the Bill of RIghts?
This current US government has turned on its people, of all races. But soon, the people will be coming for them...
Wouldn't this only apply to descendants of slaves? Just because one is black doesn't mean that one gets a check, no?
Shouldn't those in Africa who captured and sold those slaves be on the hook as well?
Do descendants of those who fought to free the slaves, do they still have to pay?
But here's what will really happen. Those who got the cash will be resented by those who didn't and then nothing in the community will change and then the excuse given why nothing will change will because the amounts given will not be enough.
And lastly I will leave you with this quote by the late great Walter Williams. One of the finest minds in American history who opposed reparations.
" If black America were a nation it would be the 12th richest nation on earth"
I MHO, I think Black Americans should compensate us Whites for spending our money and doing them the favor of transporting their ancestors out of the shithole that was their home in Africa, and bringing them to America, where they are far richer than any of their tribal brothers back home in the Dark Continent.
It’ll be used to launder money back into the pockets of politicians. That’s it.