Should African Americans Receive Reparations
Will black people who are incarcerated, dropped out of high school and addicted to drugs receive a larger amount of money or scholarships for school? Can we prove that the conditions created in their lives are more directly related to the aftermaths of slavery?
The girl who sat directly in front of me in my ninth grade algebra class answered the teacher’s question incorrectly. I was devastated. How the heck could she get the question wrong when knew the answer. I mean, don’t all white people live like the Brady Bunch, I wondered to myself. Her long, golden, blond, perfect hair lay softly on my desk. And everyday in class, I fantasized about what it would be like to have a perfect life and perfect hair just like hers. We eventually became friends and I was shocked to learn that she also envied my hair texture and the creative styles that would remain in place. I couldn’t believe that she came from a single-parent home; and she was surprised to learn that I lived with both parents who worked full-time in car factories. I learned that her life wasn’t perfect just because she is white and that I wasn’t a victim of American society just because I am black.
If America decides to compensate African Americans for pain and suffering endured during and after slavery – yes, I will take a check. Who am I to turn down money to pay off my student loans? But for the record, I would like to be the first to claim Oprah Winfrey, Dr. Benjamin Carson, Colin Powell, Venus and Serena Williams and Michael Jordan’s share of the spoils. Oh, and since Tiger Woods and Halle Barry are bi-racial, I wonder if they are entitled to only half as much money? But by any means, I am open to their share as well. I don’t know if the young, self-made black millionaires who created something out of nothing – “Hip Hop” a new genre of music that has swept America’s youth both black and white will qualify for reparation benefits. Given the history of oppression and racism in America, rap music should not exist in our vocabulary today given that these young moguls were not apart of the “old boys network.”
Will black people who are incarcerated, dropped out of high school and addicted to drugs receive a larger amount of money or scholarships for school? Can we prove that the conditions created in their lives are more directly related to the aftermaths of slavery? While Congressman, (D) John Conyers is conducting his research for reparations for African Americans based on the affects of slavery, I hope he takes into consideration the efforts of white people such as: The Quakers were the first group to actively help runaway slaves. Pennsylvania, Thomas Garrett was arrested for breaking the Fugitive Slave Law in 1841. He was forced to sell all of his property and left destitute. John Fairfield, born to a slaveholding family, posed as a slaveholder and rescued several hundred slaves.
Elijah P. Lovejoy and William Lloyd Garrison published newspapers speaking out against the evils of slavery. Benjamin Franklin organized the first Abolitionist society in 1775. If blacks don’t want to create further injustice, we must make sure that non-racist white people who did not contribute to slavery and who are not benefiting economically from slavery do not feel undermined. History shows that not all white people participated in slavery. There were many poor white folks who picked cotton along side our ancestors. Although very few indeed, history also note that there were black slaveholders as well.
Yes, I am aware that other ethnic groups have been allotted reparations for pain and suffering endured by a government. In my opinion, where there has been a form of monetary reparation, the ethnic groups involved were not integrated into that particular society, similar to America’s relationship with Native Americans. Yes, they can attend college free of charge, they have been given land and are governed by their own laws; but for the most part they are socially isolated from mainstream culture. In addition, although Jewish ethnic groups received reparations from Germany they do not view it as their homeland.
If blacks and whites are playing on the American team, then we need to think of more creative solutions such as Affirmative Action to bridge the gaps that slavery created, not waste our time blaming each other for the broken bridge.
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User Comments
Pumbafire Hoodyrat
On February 20, 2008 at 4:52 pm
what in the world is this. you did not answer my quetsion
Valigator
On May 30, 2008 at 9:43 am
I cant even believe such a question exist. I have previously read that all black incarcerated men are due compensation for their ancestors and lately I read they deserve compensation for increasing the value of prisons in rural communities, I believe the request was $25,000 per black inmate. Now I think I have heard everything. Reading these proposals has activated my fence sitting on reparations more than ever. To put it bluntly: Over my dead cold white hands…I will go out of my way to educate White America just what is included in the Reparations Act. If one wasnt racist before this issue, NCOBRA set race relations back 300 years..
Melanee Murray-Hunt
On October 22, 2008 at 3:54 pm
And exactly why do you think the question should not exist? Or rather, should not be posed?
Many Jewish people who were not integrated into German society had what black people did not and continue to not have- a place of refuge.
The small elite college I attended in New England was forty percent Jewish. I believe this statistic is a constant in various Ivy Leauge colleges across the country. The United States backs Israel, a troubled, but powerful and recognized “homeland” for Jews.
Blacks on the other hand have no such refuge and there has never been an “America” for black people, i.e., a place where we could flee America’s racism and create wealth for ourselves. And while Jews did face discrimination in America, they benefitted from our own American caste system. Jewish people might be despised by other Christian whites, but they were not, during the great waves of migration from Eastern Europe blacks, who occupied the bottom rung of our own caste ladder.
A fine book that touches upon this subject is called When and Where I Enter, and it points to the honorary white status that heretofore persecuted Europeans- Irish, Jews- achieved upon arriaval in America.
The reason Native peoples are not integrated in American society is a complex one. I live in Canada where residential schools were so harsh and abusive that Native people are attempting to heal those wounds by recreating their traditional livelihood on reserves.
In both the case of Jews and Native peoples, they are both free to integrated withing American society and derive benefit from that integration. Whatever they choose, they still receive reparations.
(From what I understand, global coporations which operate in America paid reparations to Jews for the Holocaust)
While many blacks fled to Canada, they still faced discrimination here (legally – post slavery) and did not create enclaves where wealth was accumulated and passed down from one generation to the next. Liberia could have been comparable I suppose to Israel, but like many African countries, Liberia did not accumulate wealth, and was still used in cold war games by European superpowers.
As fat as your cold dead white hands- fine by me. However, have it be known that African Americans are accostomed to that stance. We had to deal with the cold dead white hands belonging to those who thought emancipation was a travesty as well as civil rights. You are not much different from your antecedents who though that freed blacks and civil rights were unthinkable
Melanee Murray-Hunt
On October 22, 2008 at 5:56 pm
And why are reparations a form of “blame”. I believe the question was not answered. Blacks receiving reparation for slavery and post-slavery legalized discrimination (which continued, post slavery to rupture our families and prevent us from building wealth)is not “blame”- merely a way to balance a deficit created by slavery. If that deficit is paid then black Americans will be even more productive contributors to American culture, economic growth and society in general.
Melanee Murray-Hunt
On October 22, 2008 at 6:01 pm
And one last thing
Blacks demanding reparations do not so on the basis of their ancestor’s suffering, BUT, what that suffering means for us in the present. If you google Tim Wise, a white man, you will find his blogs and articles on the subject very illuminating.
But I do not seek reparations based on the suffering of my ancestors. However, I know that I did not receive any of the wealth earned by the continued slave labor of my black ancestors or the white ones who “owned” them. I know a white ancestor of mine was disinherited because of her marriage to my great grand father.
I know that post slavery job discrimination, psychological and economic abuse, the threat of lynching, were not a part of many of my white friends’ lives. Of course, EVERYONE has to struggle in life- whether it be emotionally or financially, but an extraoridinary imbalance exists collectively between blacks and whites and that is a direct result of not just slavery but the discrimination following it.
anthony russ
On December 29, 2008 at 8:40 pm
It’s funny i was watching this program on the Tele, about a captured black American soldier during the Vietnam war and they were in a enemy underground hospital, and a Viet Namese Dr. ask this particular man why do fight for that country that treat you
people so bad?, I have thought about that, and if one really knows exactly, i have read about the way the African-American Black was treated during WW1-WW2, and they fought on 3 fronts home, overseas, and the higher ups/ military and civilians during that time, there’s a saying America love it or leave it
i choice the second i live in Melbourne Australia.. i served in Viet Nam 1969-1970,.
martrenia montgomery
On June 18, 2009 at 2:11 pm
I do believe that ever african american should get paid every other race is why not our’s we are still looking for freedom we get treated worser then other races we never get awarded for anything we are still suffering this world is nothing but lies we don’t get created for noting that our people came out with like cooking so on call me racist if you like but its true they say we don’t wont to work we are tired of being slaves we got to get handme downs why can we get our share the holocust is a lie those are germans that took the true jews and killed them and too there religon everything the world is still racist help some getto blacks and stop putting them down we tired niot write the got blacks in prison for drugs but the let california legalize weed but the got our people look up for gods herbs that is going to continue to grow thats not right
Thomas Montgomery
On June 30, 2009 at 6:46 pm
The whole idea of reparations for African americans is completely proposterous. Throughout time every ethnic group, including white people have suffered and will continue to suffer. America has already apologized for slavery and is no longer a nation that discriminates against minorities, but is continually being fueled by power hungry politicians who do not want the issue to die down. Racism is equivalent to ignorance and white people are goinig out of their way for equality, while black people are teaching how racist the white people are. This is not true. Black people have the same opportunities today as white people, and America should not give money to people who choose to do wrong and do not want to work, whether they are white or black.
akelleysr
On July 10, 2009 at 5:33 am
There was a comment that the Irish was slave and was brought to America as indentured servants. Ok, that sound good. Well, my parents were share croppers in Alabama in the 1950’s. No matter how much they plant and harvested they always ended up owing the land owner. They couldn’t quit because the police would have brought them back when caught. They had to leave Alabama in the darkest of the night to get away. What is that other than slavery. So, if the Irish indentured servants were slaves, then my parents were slaves in the 1950’s. That makes slavery ending about fifty years ago.
akelleysr
On July 10, 2009 at 5:35 am
Today I googled “reparation for African Americans 2009. just to see what was being written and discussed on the subject. After reading a few articles and hundreds of comments by my fellow White Americans I was saddened by the hatred and bigotry in there statements and comments. You stated everything from black are lazy, whining, greedy, and stupid, to people who just want a hand out and need to be given a ticket back to Africa.
It’s 3:51 am and I am up typing on my computer because I couldn’t sleep. These comments from my fellow Americans disturbed me so. As an Africa American, or Black man, who have been so for almost forty seven years I could write a book on the racial injustices I’ve personally experience in my life time. I could write a book on the ones I’ve personally experience in the last twenty years, and so could just about every African American I know.
When most blacks were freed from slavery some one hundred and fifty years ago they weren’t given any rights. The only rights they had was to survive without money, a home, an education, without any future, while being raped, murdered, beaten, hanged, and exploited by the racist white under the colors of the confederate flag. There was no justice for blacks when they were finally allowed to own property, and the KKK would burn them out. Sometimes entire families would be wiped out. The police didn’t do anything because many of them were and still members of the KKK.
How many arrests are documented for the hundred and fifty years of crimes against blacks. Most of the arrests came in recent years. They just arrested a white man in the last eight years for bombing a black church in Alabama fifty years ago. Not because they couldn’t solve the case, but because they had no desire to solve the case. Animals today have more rights than blacks had pre 1970.
Even after 1970 the playing field wasn’t level. The people who had the right to hire and fire us, determine our raises, determine our guilt and innocence, approve our loans, educate us, protect us from crime and injustice, and literally determine every aspect of the lives of blacks, were the same racist that burnt crosses in our front yards, threw rocks a the my father, my neighbors, and Dr. Martin L. King when they marched in the 1960’s. Your hatred and bigotry didn’t end just because blacks got the right to vote.
Racism, and bigotry is alive and doing well today. If you don’t believe me just Google reparation for African Americans 2009 just as I did, then read the comment by our fellow Americans. I face racism on a daily bases. Racism, hatred, and bigotry meets me at work every day just to remind me. I could write a book on my personal experiences with racism.
No, I am not racist, or prejudice in the least, and I know that all whites aren’t either, but there is still enough out there in positions that effects the livelihood of African Americans in a negative way. I read a comment by someone who mention a White American they know, or heard of who applied for a job and was told them they didn’t get it because they were white. Well, I and every African American I know including my twenty year old daughter can tell you personal experiences of jobs we didn‘t get because we‘re black, not what we heard happened to somebody else.
Affirmative Action keeps coming up any time this subject is brought up. I don’t personally no of any blacks who benefited from Affirmative Actions. Affirmative Actions was a scam to make the world think America was doing something to level the playing fields, but no one enforced it. So, it was business as usual. White just had to say you were over qualified, under qualified, didn’t have enough experience in that area, or they just threw your’ résumé in the trash, or draw, then hired the white person they were going to hire anyway.
When I came home from the Army in 1992 after the Desert Storm, I was a forty percent disabled veteran. The Army sent me to school for four years to retrain me for a new career. All I did for four years was study, and go to school, promising my wife and children that I had to so we could have a better future. My wife asked me,” what if after all this no one will hire you?” I told my wife that with veterans preference, Affirmative Action, Disability, and my grades they couldn’t deny me a job. Boy was I wrong.
I graduated at the top of my class. I was the only computer programmer who graduated from that college that day. I graduated with honors. I was on the dean’s list, or the presidents list every semester. I was in Whose Who Among Students in America’s Junior Colleges. I was placed in the College’s Hall of Fame. I was quite proud of my achievement, but when I applied for jobs none of that mattered. The only thing that mattered to the white human resources director was the color of my skin, which disqualified me every where I went. I had six agencies helping me in my search for a job. ARC, State Voc Rehab, The College, VA, The Employment Office, and a Job Placement Company, but when ever they sent me to an interview the job would for some reason disappear.
Blacks across this country and around the world struggle with racism on a daily bases. Someone even commented that we should be glad we were brought to America as slaves, otherwise we would be living in the slums, and poverty of Africa. If the countries around the world hadn’t raped the continent of it’s wealth and natural resources, as well destroy entire tribes Africa wouldn’t be in the state that it’s in today. Their land offered them everything they needed to survive, but greedy Europeans decided they deserved those diamonds, jungle animals, trees, oil, and everything else that Africa had more than the African People. So, they came from all over the world, and took it by force, and leaving the African People who was once great warriors to survive on the scraps they left behind. Africa hasn’t yet healed today, and African Americans haven’t healed, because you put dirty little bandages on the wound, but didn’t treat the wound with the proper medication.
A few people tried to compare the plight of African Americans to that of Jews, the Irish, the Italians, and other European immigrants. There is one fact that make their situation completely different from that of African Americans. You can change you names, you can lose your accent, and dress the way the rest of the Americans dress and no one could tell the difference. If I did all those things I stated above, you would still know that I was a black man before I’d gotten within a quarter of a mile of you.
There was a comment that the Irish were slave and were brought to America as indentured servants. Ok, that sound good. Well, my parents were share croppers in Alabama in the 1950’s. No matter how much they planted and harvested they always ended up owing the land owner. They couldn’t quit because the police would have brought them back when caught. They had to leave Alabama in the darkest of the night to get away. What is that other than slavery. So, if the Irish indentured servants were slaves, then my parents were slaves in the 1950’s. That makes slavery ending about fifty years ago.
You and your ancestors have reaped the harvest of all this country has to offer. Yes, it was harvested on the sweat, blood, tears, fears, and the backs for so many of blacks. Most of you, even those that immigrated here since the Civil War feel that it’s your birth right to be treated as though you’re superior to African Americans. You feel that if an African American gets the job that you applied for, it’s Affirmative Action., if a African American gets accepted to a college and you weren’t, their standards were lowered so the African American could get in. That attitude in itself is racist. You all should be ashamed of yourselves. God has a special place for all you racist, bigots, and those of you that hate us. I pray that
God change your hateful hearts before you have to stand before him to be judged..
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