Senior Biden Advisor: We Must Act Now (Reparations)

| March 1, 2021

There is a bill in Congress, H.R. 40, that would set up a commission to study reparations if it passes. According to Jen Psaki, Joe Biden would be supportive of such a study. However, Biden’s senior advisor argues that we must start now with regards to addressing reparations. One example that he provided involved free tuition at traditionally black universities.

From the Daily Mail:

‘And that is to create a commission,’ Richmond explained. ‘He also said we don’t have time to study,’ the White House adviser added.

‘We have to start breaking down systemic racism and barriers that have held people of color back, and especially African-Americans who were enslaved,’ Richmond continued. ‘We have to do stuff now to improve the plights, status and future empowerment of black people all around the country.’

‘And we don’t want to have to wait on a study that we even support,’ he said. ‘We’re going to start acting now.’

Allen asked Richmond if there would be actual payments given out to people who were descendants of slaves.

Richmond didn’t directly answer the question.

‘I can’t tell you if, what the time frame on the bill is, but I can tell you this,’ he said. ‘If you start talking about free college tuition to [historically black colleges and universities] and you start talking about free community college and all of those things, I think that you are well on your way.’

The Daily Mail has the article here.

Category: "Teh Stoopid", Society

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Andy11M

I’ve always wondered how this would work. Would you pay every Black/Native/Etc American a one time pay out and call it good? or what about 20-25 years from now and a new generation of said oppressed groups is reaching adult hood. They were born after those payouts. Will they cry that they missed out and demand a payment as well?

Green Thumb

How would you adjust payments for people claiming 1/16, 1/8, 1/4, etc?

They paid out a few Tribes out here in Great NW and it did not turn out so well.

Banks were offering free checking accounts, etc. Most of the money (10k apiece) would up at the bars, liquor stores and the mall.

Not being rude or racist, just relaying fact.

Sparks

I remember that little feel good event and it did not profit anyone except, bar owners, liquor stores, and car salesmen.

rgr769

For these reparations, much of the profits will go to various unlicensed merchants of mind altering substances. But hey, it would be good for “pump starting” the recovery of the economy. I am certain the narco cartels would love it. And the medical facilities would profit from all the OD’s. There would be multiple new ambulance companies started. Those pipleline workers that couldn’t learn to code or solar could become drivers and/or EMT’s. And if the reparation payments were a couple of thou a month indefinitely, think of the possibilities. The Zetas could even expand all across and inside our southern border.

rgr769

Would Kamala-toe qualify for the reparations payment(s). She is half-Negro. Oh wait, her ancestors of that race were Jamaican slave owners.

USMC Steve

Actually, Heels Up Harris is not a bit of black. The only black in her is Willy Brown, and any other black guys she serviced getting where she is now.

A Proud Infidel®™

^THIS^

Berliner

In her and on her. Don’t forget the “pearl neckless”.

ChipNASA

I want reparations for being denied access and acceptance to a state & federally funded university because they had quota requirements for minorities and in fact, the reverse discrimination experienced by me, at the time, as a single, teenaged, middle to possibly upper, class white male, made me a defacto minority, SO, SUCK ON THAT for a minute…and then give me my cash, bitches.
See how that works fuckers?!~?!?!

Green Thumb

What about the descendants of the 400,000 Union Soldiers?

NotBuyingIt

If anyone tells you they support reparations for slavery, invite them to walk through the civil war era section of a national cemetery and tell them that there, in rows and rows beneath their feet, lie their reparations. Our nation paid that debt with blood and treasure.

Sparks

^THIS^

Anonymous

Amen!

E4 Mafia '83-'87

One of my newly arrived in America Irish relatives joined the Union Army to “prove his patriotism” to his new country, and he died in Andersonville Prison in 1864. I want a piece of what him and his descendants would have made over the last 157 years.
Plus, I want the around $45K I paid for student loans back too.

Sparks

Chip, when I came back from overseas and applied for college with my GI Bill, I was turned down for this exact reason. There were 224 slots open but all were set aside for minority quotas. Even though they could not fill them, I still could not be admitted and went to another university. Looking at this as it progressed through the help of a relative who worked in admissions, only 19 of the slots were filled and those at the bare minimum of entrance requirements, and some below. So the rest of the slots went vacant that year. To say I was pissed is putting it mildly. Being upset, I even did a personal experiment and applied the traditionally Black, North Carolina Central University. Guess what? I was turned down because they took Blacks first, regardless of qualifications and test scores, and made it clear they were a Black university and you white folks ain’t welcome here. That was when I was sure in my mind that racial quotas were going to spread through all of education, workplace, and government and the end was not going to be good.

rgr769

When I applied for admission to various law schools, the counselor at my university advised me not to apply to any state university law schools, because I could not compete with a Black applicant with the same or lower GPA and LSAT numbers. Therefore, I applied to several private colleges and universities, but was only accepted at one. The college in Portland, Lewis and Clark, wouldn’t even dignify my application (and $40 fee) with a rejection form letter. Thank God I wasn’t accepted; or I might be living there now.

UpNorth

I wants my raparations, too, dudes.(see what I did there?) A great uncle on my dad’s side fought for the Union, 7th Michigan Cavalry, under Custer. Luckily, or not, he was wounded at Kelly’s Ford, Va. and at Ft Royal Gap, Va. a year later. He was mustered out of the Army on November 7, 1865. So he missed out on the Indian wars, luckily.
My mother’s family arrived in the U.S. in the 1890’s, a tad late to get in on the slave trade.
So, will I get cash too?

USMC Steve

Here are a few thoughts on this.

Not one single black here today rates a penny of compensation for being black. In legal terms, not one of them could prove any actual harm, because none of them were slaves. The experiences of their great great grandparents, great grandparents, and perhaps grandparents does not entitle them to any compensation.

Now, building on this, since most blacks are utterly convinced the Civil War was all about them, and it was not, every black in America should be forced to pay their “fair share” for the costs of the Civil War, adjusted to 2021 dollars. Given that they were the only ones to benefit from it, or they think so anyway, then they should have to cough up their share of that benefit.

Sparks

Excellent point.

Sparks

So, if they pay reparations for racial injustice, then will the issue of racism go away?

Of course, that is ludicrous to even think. They will put a big chunk of money into the hands of people who for the most part, have shown little to no ability to manage their finances thus far.

The profiters from this will be, liquor stores, drug dealers, car salesmen, big box stores, and in the end these folks will be just as poor and still on welfare.

The government will offer them no counsel on setting up any form of money management, IRA’s, and the like to help them through their lives.

This is just another, “sound-good solutions, to feel-good issues”, but on steroids.

Dave Hardin

I am still waiting on my reparations from dealing with Wingnut and Birdbrain.

rgr769

What about that insurance money you collected from Birbrain’s insurer? Or was that only Hondo?

Hondo

Hondo got zip/nada/squat in the way of “Bernathbucks”. But I did get the satisfaction of outliving that jackass a-hole “fine individual” for over three years now. (smile)

I’m pretty sure TSO did get a fairly decent settlement from Bernath’s insurance company for defamation, though.

https://valorguardians.com/blog/?p=59001

NHSparky

Same here. I’ve resigned myself to the fact I only had the honor and privilege of paying out a couple thousand bucks so a judge could tell Bernath, et al, to fuck off.

So I got that going for me, which is nice.

MI Ranger

Not to mention the inflation this kind of influx of money will cause. Those that do invest in housing (say they currently own a house) will see their investment shrink, because the cost of housing will increase now that everyone is buying).
The only winners will be those who sell the products those with the windfall covet. Not likely those products made in USA.

Martinjmpr

Minor quibble: If housing prices rise, aren’t those who are currently homeowners in a BETTER position than they were before? After all, the asset they own is worth more.

What would hurt homeowners is if a glut of people are given money to buy houses and then those people default, causing the housing market to crash due to oversupply and under-demand. Which is what happened in some (but not all) real estate markets in the crash of 2007.

NHSparky

No, it happened everywhere. I live in an area which had relatively few mortgage defaults, but EVERYONE took a major hit on property values. I bought at the very top of the market in 2006. By 2010, my property value dropped 25 percent. Only in 2015 was my home back to original sale value.

But with the Rona (everyone moving to burbs and rural areas with near zero inventory) and low interest rates, my property value has climbed nearly 20 percent since this time last year.

Not that I’m going anywhere. Yet.

penguinman000

You are spot on Sparks. We already have a system in place that provides a select few who are chronically bad at math/money management with potentially life altering sums of money, the lotto.

Providing those who are chronically poor with a sudden infusion of large sums of cash does not solve the chronically poor problem.

Reparations are stupid, shortsighted and will solve no problems. In fact, it will just further worsen race relations.

Sparks

If this happens, I can’t wait to hear who’s fault it will be for the bad repercussions. The White man of course.

David

“a select few who are chronically bad at math/money management” – You must mean CA, NY, and IL.

11B-Mailclerk

Lottery = Taxing Ignorance and Stupidity

NHSparky

Just once I want to hear the Lotto winner (invariably unemployed, down to their last pack of smokes when they bought their ticket) answer when asked what they’re going to do with the money, reply, “First, Imma get me some dental work!”

KoB

Bison Bagels! That is all.

No, wait, I gots one question for this study. How much will be the current VICE (sic) President’s share for the Africans that her ancestors enslaved. And how much will be collected from the African Tribal leaders that enslaved the Africans that were in turn sold to the Arabs, Portugalese, Spainards, Dutch, English, and New England Shipbuilders. Or is all of this going to come from the white folks of the Southern States, since that is the only place there ever were Africans Slaves? /s/

How much more free sh^t are they going to want? Oops…sorry I asked.

11B-Mailclerk

If some arrogant folks had been willing to pick their own damn cotton, or pay others a wage to do it, none of this reparations bullshit would be happening, nor would that damnfool war have happened.

No one forced folks to buy human beings to claim as property.

rgr769

I once saw a T-shirt emblazoned with the phrase: “If they had known then what we know now, they would have picked their own damn cotton.”

HEIDI

The purpose is to get everyone’s DNA on a database. Makes for some fun GOF research on viruses at an undisclosed location in China.

(kidding of course, that would be totally tin foil hatish)

David

Can the cost of the Great Society programs passed to address racial inequality be deducted? Seems the country has been paying reparations since the ’60s to me.

Hack Stone

You beat Hack to the ouch on that one, Dave. Can we the taxpayers deduct any federal, state and local government assistance provided since LBJ’s War on Poverty?

Hack Stone was on Recruiting Duty in the late 1980’s in the Midwest. Saw it many times on the Reservation where a Native American turned 18, the State dumped $30,000 in their lap for mineral rights on Native American land. The smart thing would to invest that money in a college education, but that was not meant to be. Standard Operating Procedure was to use that money to throw a huge party, buy a Camaro, drive it until it was no longer operable, which was usually a few weeks, then push it off a cliff until the next kid turned 18, and start anew.

Hack Stone

You beat Hack to the punch on that one, Dave.

Hack Stone blames his company issued cell phone. The Vice President of the company that Hack works for acquired the company issued phones from All Points Logistics.

Prior Service

My great great great something or other who served in an Illinois Regiment during the Civil War qualifies me for a statement marked Reparations Paid In Full. I’ve got to get on the genealogy of it but I do have a powder horn and a state medal of his. I keep them for display only so nobody calls me out on stolen valor….

Smitty

My great, great grandfather lost a leg fighting for the Union- do I qualify? remember what Muhammad Ali said when he returned he from the Rumble in the jungle? He said he was sure glad his grandaddy got on that boat.

Bill R.

Holding them back? One of the biggest problems is the fact that we’re not holding them back. We’re allowing kids to graduate high school who can barely read at a third grade level. Why? Because doing well in school gets one accused of being too White. I’ve seen the results of this attitude from working as a maintenance tech in auto parts factories. Some of these young people cannot even do their own paperwork at the end of a shift.

FuzeVT

Unserious, wedge issue and should be ignored as such.
The end

11B-Mailclerk

This reparations crap is intended to perpetuate racism and hate and conflict.

What about my kin that were deathmarched to Oklahoma? Hm?

What about my kin that came here in the 20th century? Hm? My kin that liberated slaves? My kin that..

Racism is stupid and evil. Reject the lie of racism. Reject race, the lie that founds racism.

Anonymous

Hey, how else can Democrats get any votes? (Well, beside a photocopier or cemetary, I know… )

Jeff LPH 3, 63-66, ARNG 75-77

This shit can’t get any better This shit can’t get any better This shit can’t get any better This shit can’t get any better This shit can’t get any better This shit can’t get any better This shit can’t get any better This shit can’t get any This shit can’t get any better This shit can’t get any better. Do I need to say it any more.

Anonymous

“If you think it can’t get worse, it can and it will.” –Brad Pitt (as SSG Collier), Fury

Hack Stone

The irony is that if they do receive reparations, a majority of that money will go to buying sports merchandise made with slave labor.

A Proud Infidel®™

Let’s see, I have two Great great grandfathers who served the Union in the Civil War, BUT the moonbat libs still say that i owe for reparations. WELL SHIT, what about the multiple generations of welfare flunkies who have mooched not only a paycheck but a place to live as well and still call themselves “oppressed”? All I see coming from the left is yet another stab at racial separatism as well as buying inner city votes with our tax dollars as well as more social brainwashing! And yes I concur that no matter the amount given it’ll be gone in no time with that crowd bawling for more!

STSC(SW/SS)

If the Democrats are hell bent on reparations may I suggest that the party of slavery (Democrats) pay the cost.

11B-Mailclerk

Folks need to keep that history front and center.

MustangCryppie

You can kiss my first generation Irish American arse.

Just imagine the clusterfuck this would turn into. There wouldn’t be enough popcorn in the universe to support it. EPIC!

Anonymous

I hear ya! My ancestors didn’t come here ’til after 1865, do I get to be tax-free when it comes to funding this sh*t?

TXNorsky

Same with half of my ancestors. They came around that time, early to mid 1860s. I want the same consideration.

NHSparky

Same here, with the possible exception of any Native ancestry I may possess, although tbh I’ve never bothered to check that far back.

SFC D

The D family got off the boat from County Westmeath in 1865. I owe nothing. Kiss my pasty white Irish ass!

David

3rd generation Mick here in support of reparation payments. You prove you were a slave, prove who the slaveholder is, and I support paying reparations. Otherwise… no.

Hate_me

In 1776, we fought a revolution over a 2% tax on a single commodity.

Clearly, taxes no longer hold the same touch-point value. Times change, this is natural.

Similar to taxation without representation, but viscerally more significant, the entire concept of slavery is abhorrent to me, both as an American and as a human being. While there is still slavery today, even in America, it is not the chattel slavery of the antebellum South. On a societal level, today’s slavery is not as bad as it was 200 years ago; on an individual level, it is almost always much more devastating. On either level, it is nothing short of ugly. In either case, it is unacceptable and contemptible.

However, I have never owned a slave. I have never sought to own a slave, nor done anything but try to free those who are enslaved.

The moment my tax money is used for slave reparations to non-slaves is the moment I stop paying taxes. I’ll not, even tacitly, accept responsibility for something I’ve actively fought against.

I’m not advocating for rebellion, nor advocating against it; it’s simply the hill I’m willing to die on, and the line at which I cease to be an American.

Mike B USAF Retired

How do they determine who will qualify for reparations?

Not all Black Americans are descendants of slaves. So how do they determine who is and who isn’t?

Then if you give a generation free college, then the next generation will want it to. At what point does it end?

And then there is this PC crap as to what one is called. Is it Black, Black American, African American. At what point does one quit referring to themselves as African American?

And if this is such an issue, where is everyone else’s correct ethnicity verbiage.

I’m either European American or Dutch American as my mom was from Holland. My many Greats GF on my dads side was from Germany so would that also make me German American?

Either your ass is a Immigrant making you a whatever based on where your from and once you become an American citizen, your ass is American.

And the last time I checked my skin color is nowhere near the color of a sheet of white paper so why am called white?

Yeah it starts to sound stupid after awhile. One group can cry woe is me and get all “Woked” and the rest of us are confused as to what hell is going on….

Oh and one more thing, you want to go to college, get good grades like everyone else has to and earn a postion.

All back colleges….No problem, All white colleges….Racist.

This world and this country are going to hell in a hurry.

Going to go back to my corner and lurk……

Green Thumb

The issue with the HBC’s is that many are very, very good schools.

Put through an ethnic and shifting scale, Spellman, Morehouse, Clark Atlanta, Morris Brown, Grambling, etc. are considered the “Ivy League” of those institutions.

Point being, they are held in high esteem and as such are selective.

They are not going to want to lower their standards based on “everyone gets in for free”.

Watch the pushback.

O-4E

Every officer I worked with in the Army from a HBCU was functionally illiterate

We actually had a Cadet in my training platoon at Fort Lewis, from a HBCU, that was illiterate. Asked to have her land nav test read to her like “they do at college”

I don’t know any of them I’d rate as “very good schools”

Poetrooper

Yeah, ol’ Poe has to agree that calling any of them very, very good schools academically is a real stretch.

Just what is an ethnic and shifting scale? Lowering the academic standards?

Green Thumb, if you could show us a source substantiating your contention?

Green Thumb

They are good schools. It is just what you put into it. To say that no HBCU is a good school is borderline ignorant.

That aside, I am not putting it under a military umbrella.

I would agree that most folks that I have seen from HBCU’s in the infantry were ate the fuck up. No issue there. I have also met a TON of Officers from traditional schools that were ate the fuck up as well.

I am talking about the broader picture.

Met a few MD’s and other professionals in my day from HBCU’s that were squared away.

Green Thumb

As to the ethnic and shifting scale, you have to look at it through their lens.

Not right or wrong, but it is their viewpoint.

If that is what they perceive, then I have no real issue.

The push back will be the same either way.

26Limabeans

Will the payments be subject to income tax?
Asking for a friend.

Hack Stone

Is your friend the “Reverend” Al Sharpton?

A Proud Infidel®™

I don’t see anything other than liberals stirring the proverbial shitpot, and every one of them need to be forced to lick the spoon!

JURASSICHM

“And we don’t want to have to wait on a study that we even support,’ he said. ‘We’re going to start acting now.’ In other words, We need to slick this through now before the folks who voted for the current crop of idiots in the majority wake up and realize this is a stupid idea.

MK75Gunner

^^^This exactly^^^. The only “African-Americans” that will benefit from these types of grifts are the life long members of the grievance industry and their favored organizations. As the late, great George Carlin once opined, “It’s a great big club and you’re not part of it”. The average Black American will see little to no change in their day to day lives and their long term futures.

Martinjmpr

What is with the democrat fascination with “college for everybody?” Didn’t we just go through an economic crisis where time and time again we were told how awful it was that college graduates had to take jobs as baristas at coffee houses or flipping burgers or just flat out couldn’t get jobs and had to live in mom and dad’s basement in their 30’s? So how does INCREASING the number of “college graduates” help this? Seems to me the only group it “helps” is the colleges and universities that will now get big tuition checks from Uncle Sam. The idea that “college degree = better life” may have been true in the past (though I’m skeptical for reasons that aren’t germane to this discussion) but even if it was true in the past, we’ve seen again and again and again that it certainly isn’t true now. It seems to me a shame that we as a society don’t value the skilled trades as much as we do a “college education.” Having a society where everybody is a white-collar office worker makes about as much sense as having an Army where everybody is an officer. Yes, I went to college – primarily because I wanted to go to law school. But even when I was in school I could see that a significant percentage of my fellow students were just there marking time until they could get out on their own, or because mom and dad were paying their way, or because they couldn’t think of what else to do with their lives. Really, I doubt that many of them got much value out of their college years anyway. When I was 18 I was in the Army, and didn’t go to college until I was an adult, by which time I had real-world experience to give perspective to what I was learning, so I probably got more out of it than some 19-year-old suburban kid who is more interested in next Friday’s party than he is in the Pythagorean theorem. The glut of college educated applicants in the job market… Read more »

Forest Bondurant

I’ll go out on a limb and suggest the reason certain college graduates had to take jobs as baristas at coffee houses or flipping burgers is because they sought after and received worthless SJW degrees (i.e. LGBTQ studies, drama or theater arts, journalism, interdisciplinary studies, etc.,) instead of those such as law, engineering (chemical, industrial, aerospace, computer, petroleum, etc.,).

Pointing that out makes me racciss I suppose.

Hate_me

It doesn’t make you racist, there’s a very real realism to it – but it does tap dance along the same line as democrats telling roughnecks to “learn to code.”

SteeleyI

No, pointing out a trend doesn’t make you racist.

Curious, do you not know how racist is spelled, or did you deliberately misspell it? If so, why?

Poetrooper

“Curious, do you not know how racist is spelled, or did you deliberately misspell it? If so, why?”

Are you being deliberately obtuse, colonel, or merely out of touch?

It’s a derisive misspelling reflecting the pronunciation used by that minority group most invested in its furtherance.

Steeleylbunghole

I’m always out of touch… when I’m not touching myself

SteeleyI

No, I was using sarcasm (that’s a type of ironic statement in which the literal truth is not the same as the actual truth) to highlight that Hate_me’s comment is kind of bigoted.

I thought maybe she would come back with some sort of lame denial. I would never have guessed that Ol Poe would confirm that it was bigoted and voice his approval.

Hate_me

Not sure how my comment was bigoted. It definitely wasn’t intended that way. Please, expound.

I definitely did not recognize that your comment was directed at mine.

I’m male, for what it’s worth – but you can call me Susan, if it makes you happy.

SFC D

Your sarcasm is generally enveloped by your arrogance, and goes unnoticed.

Berliner

Descendant of Scottish immigrants here. The party of former slave owners and KKK founders just wants everybody to pay for their “vote buying” scheme so they can go back to business as usual until people eventually catch on and vote them out.

Daisy Cutter

Same with immigrants. Flood the country quickly, convince them that they owe it to the Democrats to vote that party.

That is why the tax-paying middle class and their wishes are ignored anymore — they basically have them trapped, marginalized and can do nothing about their situation to a large degree… other than their one vote. The Democrats recognized that they can’t sway their vote anyway so use the tax dollars collected to create favorable programs for illegal immigrants and get their votes.

Same for convicted felons. Do them a favor in exchange for their votes.

I’m convinced that this is what is happening.

HMCS(FMF) ret

It’s the (D)’s way of “keeping them on the plantation for the next 200 years”.

USAFRetired

In 1988 President Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act that authorized a forma apology and 20 grand to the living survivors of the Japanese Internment camps during WWII.

So any survivors of slavery still alive should get there apology and $20K inflated since 1988 to the present.

I believe that Franklin D Roosevelt who signed Executive Order 9066 should have his portrait removed from the Dime and it should be replaced with Reagan’s. Or if you prefer since EO 9066 was not rescinded until 1976 by President Gerald Ford, use his vice Reagan’s

11B-Mailclerk

Ford on the dime.
Reagan on the Fifty.

Green Thumb

If I am a third generation felon, do I get anything?

SFC D

Time off for good behavior?

Green Thumb

Good point.

A Legacy benefit.

Hack Stone

If Rachel Dolezal gets reparations, will she be paid in counterfeit money?

TheCloser

An inconvenient truth (once taught in public high schools) is that over 95% of those descended from slaves are also descended from slave owners. So technically, if there are reparations to be paid, they need to pay it to themselves (and pay the appropriate income tax on whatever it is that they get).

SteeleyI

Are you saying that the descendants of slaves should finance reparations because their ancestors were raped by slave owners?

Poetrooper

Are YOU saying that no comely female slaves seeking to improve their stations in life ever employed their sexual attractions and talents to move up in the plantation pecking order?

Goes against everything ol Poe’s eight decades on this planet have taught him about women…

steeleyI

I’m saying that a person who legally owned another human being and had sexual intercourse with that person committed rape.

I’m saying that while slavery was a morally repugnant and obscene institution, trying to use some of the most heinous acts of slave owners to argue against reparations is not only bad logic but is also morally repugnant.

TheCloser

I’m against reparations in total.

Nobody should pay anything because the whole idea of it is absurd. I was merely pointing out yet another irony in something being espoused by the left.

steeleyI – If you are for reparations, kindly state your argument in favor of it, to include who should receive and who should pay.

steeleyI

The the idea of reparations isn’t absurd- there are a number of historical precedents, many in the US alone, some of which have worked and some of which have not.

However, I’m not for any of the reparations proposals I have seen, nor can I conceive of one that would actually work fairly.

That said, arguments such as ‘Black people would just waste the money’, and ‘slaveowners raped their slaves so it would be hard to decide who should get reparations and who should pay’ are not only logically unsound, but are inherently racist.

TheCloser

I’ll try to type slower this time…

I wasn’t making an argument, I was pointing out an absurd irony.

A major assumption behind the call for reparations is the presumed guilt of a group of people for the sins of their ancestors (and guilt by association for any sharing the same skin color). One of the ironies being that if not for a sin (rape) of an ancestor, most of those believing they deserve reparations would not even exist.

Many of the logical arguments against have already been stated. But if it is valid, in your mind, where does it stop? England paying reparations to the Irish (and descendants of every other colony robbed/raped over the centuries)? Egypt paying the Jews?

Are the reparations to be paid periodically to each new generation?

USMC Steve

Were this a court case, the blacks in question would have to be able to demonstrate any actual harm that came to THEM from their great great grandparents, or whatever, being enslaved. They would not be able to. A realistic look at almost any place in Africa, less perhaps Kenya, would show ya that had these blacks been born there, their lives would have been significantly crappier than they are here. The blacks in America rate no compensation, unless they want a ticket back to their supposed country of origin in Africa. And they really would not like it there.

SteeleyI

I’ll ignore the insult.

This is your original assertion:

“So technically, if there are reparations to be paid, they need to pay it to themselves (and pay the appropriate income tax on whatever it is that they get).”

When I asked for clarification, Ol Poe responded thusly:

“Are YOU saying that no comely female slaves seeking to improve their stations in life ever employed their sexual attractions and talents to move up in the plantation pecking order?”

In other words, I was asking you to clarify your post, then responding to Ol Poe’s even more absurd comment

I’ll type this part slowly for you: I am not in favor of any slavery reparations proposal I have seen because I don’t think they are either feasible or fair, and I can’t conceive of one that would be.

However, many of the arguments against are not only illogical, but blatantly racist, to include the ‘absurdity’ that you are now trying to back away from.

The United States has paid reparations in the past, both to Native Americans, to Japanese internees, and even to groups of African Americans. Some of these programs failed, some succeeded.

There are a number of post-War of Rebellion, post Reconstruction, and even mid to late 20th Century issues that could be addressed through reparations at the local and state level- Massive Resistance, particularly in Virginia, is a great example.

Hondo

I’ll ignore the insult.

. . . .

I’ll type this part slowly for you:

Oh, that’s rich. Saying that you’ll “ignore the insult”, then responding in kind with a variant of the same insult less than a half-dozen sentences later.

Engage in hypocrisy often, steeleyl?

Poetrooper

“I’m saying that a person who legally owned another human being and had sexual intercourse with that person committed rape.”

Then likely many of your forebears were rapists.

Under the English common law doctrine of coverture, adopted into use in early America and not fully abandoned in some jurisdictions until the 20th Century, wives were considered the legally-owned chattel property of their husbands.

You sleep through your history and social studies classes, colonel? 🙄

Veritas Omnia Vincit

As if what’s legal was ever a true arbiter of what is moral or proper.

I read a fair quote recently,

“Many become Libertarians when they realize that it’s always wrong to harm others or their property. However, they become Anarchists when they realize there are NO exceptions.”

Hate_me

VOV,

Do you have a citation? I’d love to be able to give proper credit to the quote.

Veritas Omnia Vincit

It’s most likely a paraphrase of Matt Kibbe’s book, “Don’t hurt people, and don’t take their stuff” which overall is a pretty good read on the views of very libertarian, and logical guy…

Poetrooper

A further thought–what about all the current descendants of those mostly European indentured servants who were subjected to a period of several years of slavery to work off their debt of passage?

Are all the tens of millions of white Americans whose ancestors were subjected to this form of slavery to get to this country entitled to some form of financial redress?

And if you’re going to respond that indentured servitude is not slavery then the Universal Declaration of Human Rights disagrees:

https://infogalactic.com/info/Indentured_servitude

What’s truly absurd, colonel, is that someone of your intelligence believes reparations a policy even worthy of serious consideration.

Ex-PH2

Well, if you’re gonna get technical, Poetrooper, what about all those people under the English crown who were executed by fire by Bloody Mary Tudor, just for translating the Bible from Latin to English?

Shouldn’t some of us demand reparations from the Crown? I could write a really snooty letter to the Queen.

Cade

“Slave owners and slave traders should make reparations to those whom they enslaved.
The problem, of course, is that slaves, slave owners, and slave traders are all dead.”

— Walter Willams Highly respected economics professor and commentator. May he RIP

Name edited to protect PII.
AW1

Fyrfighter

In related news, the population of that city will increase exponentially, as soon as the first check is cut.. at least long enough for the new “residents” to get their check.. and I’m sure there will be NO other types of fraud involved either…

Green Thumb

I will say this, when I enlisted many years past, I understood three things:

1 – We were all equally worthless

2 – We were all dirtbags

3 – Every dude, regardless of color, got the same deal (more or less), opportunity and pain.

Equal world.

Veritas Omnia Vincit

As has been noted there was compensation offered to others previously. We paid Japanese Americans reparations for placing them into camps during WW2. It is not without precedent to offer compensation to those we’ve wronged in the past. That said, as all the slave owners are dead, and all the slaves are dead. We do however have clear evidence of denying black Americans the opportunity to achieve real estate wealth equity until the late 60s. Federal policy, created oddly enough by the same administration that interred the Japanese Americans, in 1934 established the FHA which refused to subsidize loans for African Americans while subsidizing entire suburban developments for white Americans. The developers of those suburban properties were expressly forbidden from selling those properties to African Americans. That policy remained in effect legally until the late 60s when the Federal Fair Housing Act finally eliminated the redlining policy. Many of those affected by that policy for over three decades are very much alive to this day, or their children certainly are alive. Simple metrics would allow for an understanding of those who were denied and those who were approved to have a comparative real estate wealth equity calculation and be compensated for their victimization by the Federal Government. White American families that were able to build real estate equity from the 1930s forward used that equity to build a documentable difference in average resource equity. Equity used to finance educations, retirements, inheritances to children, and the promise of the American Dream come true with property ownership outside of city limits and projects. The reality of our government’s documented mistreatment in the acquisition of real estate and the subsequent generational equity of Americans based on the color of their skin existed right up until we landed on the moon. Whether America should address this issue once and for all, or continue to pretend that it did not happen is something to be discussed at a pay grade much higher than mine. But there is no doubt that victims of government policy preventing them from acquiring real estate and all the benefits that… Read more »

Veritas Omnia Vincit

If anyone is interested Richard Rothstein’s “The Color of Law” has an excellent coverage of this very issue and far more eloquent and accurate than my own fumbling words.

LC

Thanks for the suggested book, I’ll definitely take a look. On the one hand, I abhor the notion of people today paying for the sins of their forefathers, but on the other, I can understand the lack of justice in this regard, and how not addressing it perpetuates that injustice, and this time, on my watch.

I’m not sure what my overall take is, but the book seems like a good start in learning more.

Hate_me

I’m not opposed to compensation for those directly affected by prejudicial policies. Reparations paid to the Americans who were actually confined to internment camps made sense. Reparations for direct victims of redlining policies would also be appropriate, in my mind.

When the argument shifts to indirect victims, however, it shifts from a focus on individual agency and damage to one of tribal identity and special interest. The children of chattel slaves, redlining victims, internment camp inmates, and such were clearly impacted by the environments of their parents’ days – but profound pain is a common thing; it is no longer a question of where we draw the line but of how often must we redraw that line and of how we calculate such ambiguous costs.

In northern Iraq, I considered myself fortunate to see Kurds moving back into their childhood villages, rebuilding after decades of destruction. It was, possibly, the best part of an ugly time in my life…. yet, I also saw Iraqis of Arab descent, who had lived in the region for generations – for whom that region was their ancestral home, as well. It’s easy to argue that the Kurdish people were there first, so they have the claim – but what does that really do beyond make an enemy of that Arab, given no option beyond being told his interests don’t matter?

Alternately, I was once attacked by a goose while walking through Forest Lawn Cemetery in Buffalo, NY. It was a little awkward, and not my finest moment, but life is often awkward and embarrassing. That goose’s ancestors are certainly buried deeper there than mine – but where is the line? Is the motive really about descendance and past grievance, or is it something more selfish and immediate? That gander simply saw that patch of grass as his, and he’d die before he let me walk free on his grass. Geese are very similar to sergeants major, at times.

Hondo

Minor quibble, VOV: the Fair Housing Act was signed into law on 11 April 1968. We landed on the moon over 15 months later – on 20 July 1969.

FWIW: both of those dates are in excess of 50 years ago. Perhaps “within living memory” would be a better characterization of how long ago they happened than “fairly recently”.

Veritas Omnia Vincit

Hondo, point taken.

There’s fair documentation that full compliance took a bit of time after the act was finalized.

The CRA was enacted in 1977 to document how many banks were still denying loans to African Americans and with what frequency.

Redfin noted that there is a wealth gap of about $212,000 that can be attributed to redlining and the subsequent effects…

When all factors are considered African Americans earn about 60% of what White Americans earn but due to redlining possess about 5% of the wealth that White Americans possess for those who are homeowners.

So while the law changed in excess of 50 years ago there are after effects that remain to this day.

I also stated that whether or not this should be paid out is for those who live at a much higher pay grade.

It took 46 years to pay the American citizens of Japanese descent their reparations…50 years plus for redlining seems at least worth some consideration…

11B-Mailclerk

Reversing the direction of injustice is still injustice.

Claiming that pigmentation-based “races” exist and are different, thus must be treated differently, is racist. The presentation of either end of the shit stick to whichever recipient on the basis of pignent is racist.

One ends injustice by establishing Justice. Justice knows no “race”.

rgr769

Any scheme to pay reparations, if and when paid, will become another massive fraud and grift just like the Pigford payouts.