UN Report: US Owes Black People Reparations for a History of "Racial Terrorism"
 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...ays-u-n-panel/

Damn right!

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-37499686

Tough to watch.

hmm,

So where do we draw the line? My heritage includes german jew, my wife is cherokee indian. I think most all if not all folks come from a history of some atrocity. Why would I owe for something that was done in the distant past,something I had nothing to do with, and further not even by my family. I say that because my family was not part of the small percentage of wealthy that owned slaves. Of course slavery is reprehensible, but I didn't do it. I am not racist in anyway. Do I think that black people and white people have the same standard of living? Of course not. The question is why. I do not have the answer, and if someone can come up with an answer or just way to fix it, I am all for it and will participate fully.

So how do you atone for this? How do you make it right? What would it take to actually correct the situation and make the black people feel like they have been given justice? Seriously, how do you fix the problem?

Nope, we don't owe reparations. We financed and fought a war over the issue of slavery at great expense in terms of lives and treasure. If there were a way to seek reparations from plantation/slave owners who directly profited from slavery, maybe. But I think that shipped sailed about a century ago. However, if you wish to start a charity and collect money from people who sympathize with your view enough to give money to the cause, have at it. Just don't call me.

Until equal treatment for all is the norm, throwing money at the problem will do little except adding more fuel to the fire. Those who feel any payments or special treatment is a handout or "entitlement" will be upset. For being left out or having to pay.

My personal feelings is more needs to be done to bring all disadvantaged into a better life full of promise. Employment, education and or training yes even welfare. In this country where we have less then 1% earning hundreds of times the average workers salary and others homeless and starving a balance needs to be obtained. If not a forced one will come about in time, history has shown over and over.



Barney

Reparations is a bad word. Pisses people off. People think the moral blame for slavery, and lynchings, is landing on them, and they haven't enslaved or lynched anyone.

But people are still dying, and it's still because of history that won't die. If you don't want the blame, then fine, not many ever have. You're in the good majority.

But the potential for hate is inside each of us. It's just human. And if you think now that the people who say 'black lives matter' are wrong, you are part of the problem.

It will never end, until we decide to make an end. And that means going ahead and taking some of the blame, whoever you are, and whether you think you deserve it or not.

If someone has a wound that is bleeding, no one complains about the futility of 'throwing bandages at the problem.' And if they need some stitching up, you get them that. And if they need some nursing, and some antibiotics, that too. You do what it takes to heal the wound, or it doesn't heal well, and breaks back open.

How things are in terms of economic justice, both for you and the guy getting out of the hospital, is important. It's not to be disregarded or deferred, but it's another question.

Black people definitely got a bum deal from whitey but how do you make up for that? Cut em a government check for 50 or 100K each? The backlash would be horrendous.

Who gets the checks?

Does Barack Obama only get one for half the amount because he's half white?

But howabout the part white black people who got that white DNA from when the slavemaster raped their great great great grandmother? Maybe they ought to get more. :confused:

What a can of worms.

And then there's the Indians.

They took it in the ass from whitey too.

'Everybody gets a check' is an ignorant idea, and the fact that everyone thinks that when reparations are brought up is one reason why it's a bad word.

Did you read? "The reparations could come in a variety of forms, according to the panel, including "a formal apology, health initiatives, educational opportunities ... psychological rehabilitation, technology transfer and financial support, and debt cancellation."

Whatever therapy is best for healing, to continue my 'heal the wound' metaphor.

And far from the least is the thing that will cost the least: a 'truth and reconciliation' process.

To quote the UN Committee again: We ought to just admit this publicly, and apologize for it.

I am a declared s******st. You show me the program that educates, provides for, and improves any person in need and I am on board, fully and completely. A simple handout does not do it. It may be needed as part of the process, but in itself it does not SOLVE the problem.

The best thing we could do is pass and implement Universal Single Payer Healthcare, and tuition free college. That would benefit the poor more than anyone and since minorities are disproportionately poorer it would help even things up.

Yeah and the best part is that we wouldn't have to take responsibility for the centuries of injustice, which continue to this very day, that we've heaped upon black Americans. Cool!

A simple handout would not be an effective program to materially better anyone. It would be an tangible symbol of acceptance that harm has been done, but it would likely do more harm, overall, than good. It's nowhere near my idea of 'reparations,' which boils down to 'what it takes to heal us.'

'Us.' Not 'them.'

YEP! We agree but with a small addendum of mine added.


Barney

As to a free education, I would go one step further. If a person is getting welfare, one requisite could be that they are in fact educating themselves, even if it is part of what we have to pay to them to do so. You want welfare, you must also get an education. Note just a token class, but a real education.

I would even go as far as making it part of families who need welfare. Mother need to be sent to school. Put their kids in daycare while mom is in class. Put her kids in school too, make sure they get what they need to be educated. I am nuts overboard on this. Set up dorms and communities for this if needed. Support these folks to get what they need to break out of the poverty trap.

You need to read up on TANF. Welfare as you know it ended, back in the Bill Clinton administration.

Wait!

Didn't we already give them 40 acres and a Mule?

That should have covered it.

We probably should start at the bottom, free college is not much use if K-12 is done in poor schools. And to benefit from better schoos we should stop using children like coal mine canaries to detect the presence of lead in their environment. Dear God there are so many things needing change where do we start? I suppose the place to start can be found in our mirrors.

+1 to that, merrylander.

Are the tribes in Africa going to pay as well. They sold many of these slaves to the traders. Easy for the UN to say what "we" should do, specially if they are not the ones paying.

love this perspective

thanks for the post

Brilliant post.

Thank you and will do!!!

Hell no!

As soon as I saw the word "reparations" I fired from the hip.

I find it saves time to do it that way.

Especially since the Civil War solved the problem.

Thing is, many of the problems that afflict us are unsolvable.

So, why even try!

Why not?

Precisely!

Well played!

Ah, they're to blame too! As I posted elsewhere, shouldn't we blame the slaves?

And as I posted here already:

As I see it there is sufficient blame to go around but can we simply say I am sorry and then get on with fixing the whole fucking mess? Finger pointing may make some folks feel good but it is about as much use as a milk bucket with a bull.

White people are always trying to restrict the conversation to slavery. That way they can let themselves off the hook and whine about being blamed for the sins of their great or great great grandparents. But it isn't just about slavery and it didn't end with the Emancipation Proclamation. Slavery's legacy of persecution, intolerance and exclusion from the benefits of our society are still a factor in the daily lives of African-Americans. The recent gutting of the Voting Rights Act, the gradual neutering of the Affirmative Action programs through things like the Bakke Decision, disparities in the quality of educational opportunities and the continuation of slavery through prison labor and the mass incarceration of black Americans are but a few examples.

Indeed, and as long as we allow these inequities to continue, we are all guilty. This, just another part of the failed legacy we've left our children.

I am sorry, but this makes little sense to me.

"...it isn't just about slavery."

But it is because

"Slavery's legacy of persecution,......."

I misunderstand or I disagree.

Sure, minorities do not live at the same level(prosperity, etc) of the white folks. No argument there. However, your suggestion of why I find hard to agree with. Maybe it is the legacy of slavery, but then slavery was the cause. Although that was where the problem started, it certainly is not the only cause of the problems today.

Then present a counter argument that explains our treatment of blacks - not "minorities" - in terms other than as the legacy of our having enslaved their ancestors.

For instance, show me examples of other countries where blacks were never enslaved but are treated similarly to the way we treat them.

The bolded part is my issue. I am not certain the blanket statement of "our treatment of blacks" is one I agree with. Some people treat blacks racially. Some blacks still foster hate too. Some folks do not. The problem probably started in slavery. I think it is far more complex than that now. Poverty traps, hate from some of the people on both sides, ignorance from folks on both sides, and so on.

BTW - I use the term minorities simply because saying "blacks" feels like I am being racist. I think referring to any group of people and labeling it with their skin color is racist, at least breeds racism. This is quite possibly one of the roots of the problem.

I can't say I feel much better about using the term minority either though.

The meme that blacks are niggers has been passed down, from generation to generation. You learned it in your childhood, perhaps first in 'nigger jokes.' It passes from older kids to younger kids, even if parents would not explicitly teach such a thing, or even teach against it.

Now you grew up to be a decent person, and you'd never use the word, probably not even as I just have, to talk about how things work. Still, the identity is back there, in your mind. If you explicitly think 'What are blacks?' that word is one of the answers.

And sometimes when events or circumstances put blacks and whites in conflict, perhaps in the workplace, perhaps in the school, perhaps at a demonstration, certainly when policing the streets, and in the courts, and in the jails--that word, and all it implies, are ready and waiting. Maybe you keep it closed up. Others let it sneak about in their minds, and some glory in it.

That's the legacy we're dealing with.

A lot comes from your personal frame of reference. I grew up in the Jim Crow era in a former slave state and, like many people who grew up in the upper middle class, my experience with black people was limited to interactions with the family maid. I got lucky.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Talford_Scott

My mother died when I was 11 and Liz became the closest thing to a mother I had in my life. She was a remarkable, generous and talented woman who loved my sister and me unconditionally.

Having Liz in my life armored me against the casual racism of my class and race. She taught me the lie of it just by being in my life.

Hey Don,
I think I can honestly say that the n word is not in my mind when I deal with, hear about, or read about the black folks. Seriously, it is not. I would bet my kids never think it, might not even know the word. Yes I heard the jokes, some, when I was a kid.

I do get myself into trouble with the word boy. My northern midwest farm boy culture sneaks in. "How are you boys doing? I never learned it as a derogatory term, in fact as a term of endearment. Thus the slip.

Even so, you do make it clear, that the "legacy" is still likely alive. Hopefully it will be dead by the end of my children's generation.