Reparations: Should Blacks Get Them and Do Neo-Whites Deserve to Pay Them
This is the fifth and final section within the topic on Integration. This discussion will focus on the controversy of reparations and how the fight both for and against them impact the Black Community.
The 3 Questions
1. Is there a valid reason for not giving reparations to descendants?
2. How should reparations be paid out?
3. What would you do with your reparations?
FRONT STREET
Seemingly everyone that the United States has ever done wrong has been compensated through land, payment, and other means…except for Black people in America! An ungodly number of lives and money were tied up in the institution of slavery, with amounts ranging in the billions of dollars amassed through it. For nearly a century after America became a sovereign nation, slavery could to grow and feaster with death and profit growing right beside it. It was not until hundreds of thousands of lives lost in a civil war that Black people on mass could even whisper of freedom and the chance to finally oversee their own destiny…almost!! With no education, property, or anything else to call our own, Black people were set free to nothing. Adding insult to slavery, the gains proposed and even passed to help eradicate these disadvantages were under-minded with concerted efforts made to torpedo those proposals once again leaving the greater Black population destitute. A fair argument can and has been made that Black Americans never reached full citizenship until 1964-65, leaving hundreds of years of mistreatment claims for Black people. Reprisal of course, never took place and it has become more and more of a heated debate as too if, when, how, any reparations will be given to Black Americans. This issue must be addressed and determined if the idea of reparations will lead to the destruction of Black Community?
Please write in and response to our 3 poll questions or post some questions that you would like to see asked. These question and more were addressed on 10/15/2022.
1. Is there a valid reason for not giving reparations to descendants?
HELL NO. The only reason to not pay it is that the amount could never be enough, but thats like saying there is no need to put someone in prison cause their crime was too heinous. Bottomline there is no real reason.
2. How should reparations be paid out?
I think all Blacks should not be obligated to pay taxes, all Black children (with the desire to) get free education for as long as Blacks were denied the opportunity to free and fair education, and finally all every living Black American receive 750k(this includes kids)
3. What would you do with your reparations?
If we got a cash settlement of any significant amount, 6/7 figures, i would invest a third, buy a house/land in another country, and spend the change up on any debts.
1. Is there a valid reason for not giving reparations to descendants? Many ideas of how to pay reparations are way too expensive and will simply never happen, besides, how do you repay hundreds of years or poor treatment with money? Impossible.
2. How should reparations be paid out? The best plan I’ve seen discussed is one where blacks would not have to pay taxes and receive free education.
3. What would you do with your reparations? Invest it, the tax portion saved that is.
1. Is there a valid reason for not giving reparations to descendants?
Not really other than resentment; the usual pushback is given in anecdotal responses such as ‘my ancestors fought for the union army’ or ‘I’m a recent immigrant’… ‘why should my taxes pay for that’, and ‘I’ve never owned any slaves, why should I pay for the sins of my ancestors?’
However, other groups already receive reparations in the form of monthly cash payments (the North Carolina Eastern Band of Cherokee is the only one I know off the top of my head… but, they are a relatively small group if you’re talking sheer numbers and cost.)
Furthermore, a good case has been made that despite only part of the country relying on forced labor in its early days, the states making up ‘The North’ took full advantage of the cheap goods coming out of The South (such as cotton for its textile manufacturing), and the buildup of wealth to make the US the richest and most powerful country in the world, which descendants of northern inhabitants and more recent immigrants enjoy today, has its foundations in the legacy of slavery.
2. How should reparations be paid out?
I agree that tax relief is probably the best option, since (I think) it addresses the usual pushback because it technically does not actively remove money contributed by others from the tax pool. Free or at least discounted higher education sounds good too; and possibly federally-guaranteed mortgages for primary residences.
3. What would you do with your reparations?
If I were to qualify for reparations, probably invest by either adding it to my stock index fund, paying down my mortgage, or saving for my kids’ tuition (unless reparations included tuition).