Comments on: Should African Americans Receive Reparations

By: Marie

Marie — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 00:21:03 +0000

I don\’t know why we keeeeeep talking about this ish. We can argue all day but the bottom line (despite all eloquents) is that white people are too damn hateful and selfish to do right by anyone safe themselves. Look at how the \”indian\” reservation dwendled in size over the years. If they could totally revoke that they would just as reparations for blacks were revoked after Lincolns death and a \”new\” government made up of the same \”good old boys\” was formed making possible the \”It wasn\’t me!\” excuse still being used by their descendants \’til this day. It\’s obvious that Whites and their descendants greatly benefited and are still benefiting from all the years of slavery and years of opression which was still slave labor that followed just as Afro-Americans are still cripled by it. The fact that a few have risen does not eliminate the obvious truth. We are still at the bottom and they are still at the top because we are trying to obtain and if successful, then maintain what they have long since (thanks to slavery) had and mastered to the point that things run like \”well oiled machines\” for them. As for jail, how could the majority of a minority be in prisons in a country who once enslaved them and no one sees anything wrong with that? No one White that is……….Hmmmm. This reparation thing will never happen not because it isn\’t waranted but because we are dealing with the same old hateful azz selfish white people. I know that young White people say they didn\’t have slaves but the truth is that they aren\’t giving up their life style even though they know damn well it came at the expense of blacks. That false apology form the government in \’08 is all blacks will get. Accept it and the next time you get a chance to get paid, take it. Stop getting up saying \”I\’m fine only later to have back pain. Stay your azz down, call 911 for documentation and later call a good lawyer\”. Get educated and learn to manipulate things like white people do by second nature. Most importantly, be sure to act like the truth is totally unfounded and outrageous if anyone (namely the person who\’s neck you\’ve had your foot on for decades) every makes a point complaining. If all else fails blame the dead and just say \”Oh, I\’m sorry for what happened to you.\” (all the while never accepting any responsibilty or mentioning how you profited from it) \”It was a dreadful thing which we asure you will NEVER happen again\” (all the while smiling within because it doesn\’t need to happen again on such a grand scale because you have gotten all you\’ll ever need from the first happening). Look dreadfully sorry to drive home your \”remorse\” about the whole thing. Suggest how we can work at mending old wounds for the sake of future generations and the country.

By: it must be nice to always be right...no it's awful

it must be nice to always be right...no it's awful — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 19:31:22 +0000

martreenia chablika can you even compose a literate sentence try reading thrugh its’ ignorant babble don’t you realize you’ve already been gettihg reparations through welfare section 8 free money for college and all the other gibs me dat that… which you squander on tacky clothes flashy rims and illicit drugs get off your fat butt and get a job!

By: Correan Francis Edwards

Correan Francis Edwards — Sun, 14 Nov 2010 02:42:20 +0000

how can America pay reparation for the native Americans, Jews, Vietnamese, and the Japanese in WWII and fill they should not pay African Americans for reparation is wrong when we have been right here and here all along is not right to feel that way!

By: Kandace

Kandace — Sat, 11 Sep 2010 23:38:05 +0000

I think black people should get some type of reperation, but i also think if they are given money…it should be given in small amounts. Some white people are afraid that if black people are given reperations, they will lose power. I believe it is dumb of them to think that because it doesnt matter how much money you give some people, they will not know how to manage it. That money will go straight back to the government. When Katrina victims were given money and they spent it on Gucci. I am black,portuguese,and east indian, so i am not biast. But I am not afriad to say that most black people wont spend their money on anything good. So black people can get reperations, but for most people, that money wont be spent on anything good. Also, if african americans are going to recieve reperations, Chinese,Japanese,and Mexican Americans should get them as well. Some people believe that if black people get reperations, racism will be solved (theres a difference between racism and prejudice,mind you). However, that is not the case, black people will NEVER have as much power as white people. And the ones that do will be very few. If any at all. Also, it will take a lot of research to find out exactly which people have ancestors that were slaves. A lot of people will be trying to cheat the government to get some money. There are also white people that have ancestory who were slaves. Black people are the number one consumers in this country, if they decide to somehow invest their money in other countries, or go back to Africa (which would never happen), America’s economy would be ruined. But that wont happen because most black people deny their African heritage anyway.

By: akelleysr

akelleysr — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 11:35:27 +0000

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..

By: akelleysr

akelleysr — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 11:33:54 +0000

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.

By: Thomas Montgomery

Thomas Montgomery — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 00:46:27 +0000

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.

By: martrenia montgomery

martrenia montgomery — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 20:11:13 +0000

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

By: anthony russ

anthony russ — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 02:40:33 +0000

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,.

By: Melanee Murray-Hunt

Melanee Murray-Hunt — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 00:01:39 +0000

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.