The Question Of Whether Americans Should Pay Reparations Is Thornier Than You Might Think

[mystery-ak]

 The Question Of Whether Americans Should Pay Reparations Is Thornier Than You Might Think

It's undeniable much was taken from enslaved black Americans, but forcing those uninvolved in slavery to pay reparations risks worsening racial tensions.

By Dennis Weisman
April 23, 2021

After being first proposed more than 30 years ago by Rep. John Conyers, D-Michigan,  the 116th Congress of the United States voted last week to advance H.R. 40, the Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African-American Act. Aided by the Democratic Party’s control of the executive and legislative branches of government, the current sentiment in the country regarding racial justice and equity may provide the bill’s proponents the opening they seek.

To start, it’s worth noting reparations are not without precedent. The United States paid reparations to Japanese-Americans as restitution for their internment during World War II. It also made reparations to American Indians for seizing their land and mismanaging natural resources.

Yet paying reparations to black Americans who are the descendants of slaves is likely to prove more contentious for a multitude of reasons, not the least of which is the vast length of time that has passed since slavery ended, coupled with the fact no living person has participated in the heinous practice. Indeed, as it violates our fundamental sense of fairness and justice, we tend not to visit the sins of the father upon the son in this country.

Furthermore, while all the relevant demographic data isn’t reliable, it is safe to assert the majority of non-black Americans are descendants of individuals that immigrated to the United States after the end of the Civil War in 1865.

Nonetheless, this issue of the time that has elapsed since slavery ended is not dispositive. To wit, the return of art stolen by the Nazis to its rightful owners would be justified even if centuries passed before the reunification occurred. As such, I don’t believe a brash, reflexive dismissal of the question of reparations is advisable or necessarily cathartic for the country.

There are seemingly two overarching questions pertaining to reparations. The first abstract question concerns whether reparations are “owed” at all.

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https://thefederalist.com/2021/04/23/the-question-of-whether-americans-should-pay-reparations-is-thornier-than-you-might-think/

[DefiantMassRINO]

If we pay the reparations, who says there won't be future shakedowns?  That's what Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton were great at.

Also, If I pay a reparation, does that mean I can turn my back on them and ignore their present and future plights for perpetuity?  Paying a reparation only holds value for me if it absolves me of past, present, and future white guilt.

As someone of Irish Catholic heritage, I'm still waiting for my reparations from the Queen of England.

[dfwgator]

If we pay the reparations, who says there won't be future shakedowns?  That's what Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton were great at.

Also, If I pay a reparation, does that mean I can turn my back on them and ignore their present and future plights for perpetuity?  Paying a reparation only holds value for me if it absolves me of past, present, and future white guilt.

As someone of Irish Catholic heritage, I'm still waiting for my reparations from the Queen of England.

They won't be happy until we are all dead.

[PeteS in CA]

It's very simple. No!

[GtHawk]

Who pays reparations to all those that gave life and limb to free slaves...................oh wait let me guess, that was WHITE privilege right?

[goatprairie]

The elephant in the room is the irrefutable fact that American blacks are much better off in America than they would be back in Africa.
I'd like to ask all the blacks demanding reparations if they'd prefer to be living in some sub-Saharan black sh*thole or in America.
I think I know the answer I would get. But they just can't admit it.
The Law Of Unintended Consequences applies here.
As Muhammad Ali said after his fight with George Foreman in Zaire answering a question as to what he thought about Africa: "thank God my great-granddaddy got on that boat."

[catfish1957]

Think of every dollar and life lost freeing the slaves since 1861.  Fast forward 100 yeas, and then add what we have spent on LBJ's little social experiment" 

Reparations?  Yeah, but coming from the opposite direction.

[jafo2010]

Will Rachel Dolezal be eligible for reparations?  If so, I too am black.

What utter poppycock.  Black people need to start using their damn brains, rather than voting forever more for the stinking Democommies.

85% of blacks voted for Biden.  That is no awakening, in my humble opinion.  That is business as usual.

[Fishrrman]

Cue up Mark Knopfler, playin' "Money for Nothing..."

[Fishrrman]

jafo wailed:
"Black people need to start using their damn brains, rather than voting forever more for the stinking Democommies.
85% of blacks voted for Biden.  That is no awakening, in my humble opinion.  That is business as usual."

Not going to happen.
Ever.

The "race problem" in the USA can never be solved -- for same reason it has never been "solved" in any other place or country where blacks live in proximity to whites (or Asians, if you can find such a society). As a racial group (notice that I say "group", not as "individuals"), blacks will never achieve parity with the accomplishments of whites or Asians (again, as a group). That we are not permitted to discuss the scientific reasons as to why inevitably leads to the emotional alternative explanation of "racism" as the cause for such results.

And the DCP is sure makin' hay with this "alternative explanation" right now, having gained almost full power in DC.

(DCP = democrat-communist party)

[goatprairie]

Not aired even on conservative tv is the fact that blacks are anywhere from one half trillion to a trillion dollar annual drag on the U.S. economy through crime, welfare, and simply incompetent people arbitrarily placed in positions where they can't do an average job. Think Lori Lightfoot in Chicago. She shouldn't be allowed to be chief dogcatcher.
Nobody in positions of power has the guts to tell the truth about the financial drag blacks have on America.

[jafo2010]

We can thank the Democommies for the plight of the blacks in the USA.  LBJ and his efforts were all to keep the black man in place, and yet, idiot blacks praise LBJ.

Their failure as a group to value education is their downfall.  And then there is the lack of knowledge of history that does their cause no good either.  Groups like BLM pushing marxist ideology, please.  Pure ignorance.  We are pursuing the Idiocracy life with great abandon.

My great great grandfather lost a leg fighting for the Union in the Civil War.  From my perspective, we owe black people nothing.  The concept of reparations is idiotic.

[Sled Dog]

It's not a thorny question at all.

I know the answer.

Just say no.

Just say, if you don't like it here, don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.

Also, I can trace my ancestry back to Africa, too.