A CASE FOR REPARATIONS!

[TTQ64]

I never said you did, but that is all I keep hearing from others on TV.

I don't think you and I have an argument. I made a couple of points here in your thread that I wanted to make- that's all!

So please, let's not argue for arguing's sake in front of others!

Thanks!

Not arguing at all...….just having an honest discussion, exchanging views..... that's what a discussion board is for.

"but that is all I keep hearing from others on TV" that is to make sure reparations don't happen. The TV isn't very progressive contrary to what the right says.

I am curious to know if you had a problem with Italians, Indians, Japanese and Houlocost survivors getting checks?

And what would your opinion be on back-pay for the decendants of Slaves who built this country for FREE?

[Adolf_Twitler]

Not arguing at all...….just having an honest discussion, exchanging views..... that's what a discussion board is for.

"but that is all I keep hearing from others on TV" that is to make sure reparations don't happen. The TV isn't very progressive contrary to what the right says.

I am curious to know if you had a problem with Italians, Indians, Japanese and Houlocost survivors getting checks?

And what would your opinion be on back-pay for the decendants of Slaves who built this country for FREE?

Yes, thanks, and I appreciate all of your comments and concerns as they match mine!

You and I both realize that colors are not important. And we both understand that what is important is brotherly love, understanding, and equality for all Americans.

My feelings are, there isn't enough money in the world to pay for the hateful ways of the past or the present.

I wish I personally had the money to make things right, but I know I don't have that,nor do I think money would cover it anyway, so I must look for other ways to my personal reparations to people who have been dealt a bad hand.

[TTQ64]

The Case For Reparations: 40 Acres and a Mule Would Cost America at Least $6.4 Trillion Today

If you were to guess how much the United States owes Black people in economic damages for slavery, how much would it be?

In the part of the “I Have A Dream” speech that no one seems to remember, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. declared: “It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked ‘insufficient funds.’”

While some people would conclude that no dollar amount can make up for the centuries that Black people were kidnapped, enslaved and forced to work without pay, the fact remains that our misfortune made America wealthy. Slavery built the system of U.S. capitalism. Moreover, some people have estimated what the nation actually owes Black people.

YES! magazine published a fascinating infographic that illuminates the subject of reparations. It begins with a calculation that King made if America would stand by its promise of 40 acres and a mule, which is $20 a week since the late 1700s for 4 million slaves. The total was $800 billion, which in today’s dollars is $6.4 trillion.

Just to put it in perspective, this year’s federal budget is projected at $3.9 trillion. U.S. gross domestic product in 2014 was $17.4 trillion. So, this sounds like a significant deal of money, except for the fact that this is a conservative estimate. Other calculations are far higher.

For example, as the infographic shows, the National Legal and Policy Center placed reparations at $15 trillion, which would involve paying $500,000 to every slave descendant.

Time magazine columnist Jack White estimated that Blacks are owed $24 trillion, which amounts to unpaid wages denied to 10 million slaves, doubled for pain and suffering with interest.

Further, Dr. Denis G. Rancourt, a former physics professor at the University of Ottawa, determined the minimum amount of reparations is $59.2 trillion. He calculated that value of the stolen labor was $3.7 trillion, or 2 million slaves working 10 hours a day, 365 days a year for 70 years (between 1790 and 1860) at a rate of $7.25 an hour. Applying a 2 percent interest rate compounded annually, he reached the $59.2 trillion figure.

Without question, there is a strong case for reparations. The institution of slavery created the economic basis for modern capitalism and turned the U.S. into the wealthiest nation in the world. New York was built on cotton — the crop that dominated the international markets in the 1800s — as the city collected 40 cents of every dollar earned in the cotton trade, transforming it into a financial center. Moreover, at the start of the Civil War, slaves were worth 48 percent of the wealth of the South, more than all of the banks, factories and railroads in the country combined.

Meanwhile, the government paid reparations to slave owners, but not to Black people themselves. Rather, America maintained a convict lease system that swept up Black men and created a new form of slavery in the Southern prisons. The Black Codes were designed to impede Black progress and keep whites ahead of the game through discriminatory practices. Special fees for Black people discouraged us from owning businesses, and high interest rates hindered the building of Black wealth. In addition, segregation and racist policies have prevented Black people from benefiting from government programs that were made available to whites. As a result, the Black share of national wealth changed very little between 1865 (0.5 percent) and 1990 (1.0 percent), with very little for us to pass down to future generations. In addition, the wealth gap between Blacks and whites has not changed since 1970. Policies have kept Black people underwater and whites afloat and thriving — on purpose.

This is why reparations make so much sense, and this is what white privilege looks like. True racism exists not solely in the offensive remarks and epithets hurled by individual whites at Black people on a daily basis, but more importantly in the systems of oppression that stack the deck and rig the game. Whites mistakenly believe that racism is a thing of the past, and that slavery is something that occurred long ago from which they derive no benefit. However, there is a continuum of racial discrimination that extends from slavery times up until now, with mass incarceration and the war on drugs creating a new form of enslavement for Black people. White folks have inherited the wealth and privilege derived from free Black labor, which they willingly enjoy today. Similarly, Blacks have inherited, and continue to face the effects of this rigged game — which continues into the present day, even as we have struggled and resisted this system and attempted to build for themselves.

Every year since 1989, Rep. Jon Conyers (D-Michigan) has introduced H.R. 40, a bill which calls for a commission to study reparations. In April, the Institute of the Black World 21st Century (IBW), led by Dr. Ron Daniels, held an international conference in New York, with participants from 20 countries and throughout the diaspora discussing global reparations strategies.

As for estimating the price tag, this is one way to continue the discussion and bring home the gravity of the issue.

“They owe us a lot of money,” Dr. King said.

[TTQ64]

Yes, thanks, and I appreciate all of your comments and concerns as they match mine!

You and I both realize that colors are not important. And we both understand that what is important is brotherly love, understanding, and equality for all Americans.

My feelings are, there isn't enough money in the world to pay for the hateful ways of the past or the present.

I wish I personally had the money to make things right, but I know I don't have that,nor do I think money would cover it anyway, so I must look for other ways to my personal reparations to people who have been dealt a bad hand.

I wish I could believe that but this country says otherwise.

[Adolf_Twitler]

I wish I could believe that but this country says otherwise.

We have our work cut out for us.

We have the power of our voice! We have the power of our votes.

I say, let's help recruit everyone we can to vote!

[TTQ64]

We have our work cut out for us.

We have the power of our voice! We have the power of our votes.

I say, let's help recruit everyone we can to vote!

I have been doing that for years...it will take more than that.

[gemini104104]

That makes sense and appears to be a more justifiable form of reparations because reparations in terms of monetary awards would be owed to former slaves and direct descendants of those slaves and their next of kin such as children in particular only. When the last former slave passed away and their next of kin, should have ended a justification for monetary awards because future generations who were and are not slaves have no rights to those monetary damages. This is considering they never suffered the atrocity of slavery. Also ending slavery and passing civil rights law and other protections under the law in terms of a citizens' liberties in itself is a form of reparations. I would not be justified to collect a dime of reparations considering I was never a slave or a direct descendant of slavery.

[TTQ64]

That makes sense and appears to be a more justifiable form of reparations because reparations in terms of monetary awards would be owed to former slaves and direct descendants of those slaves and their next of kin such as children in particular only. When the last former slave passed away and their next of kin, should have ended a justification for monetary awards because future generations who were and are not slaves have no rights to those monetary damages, considering they never suffered to atrocity of slavery. Also ending slavery and passing civil rights law and other protections under the law in terms of a citizens' liberties in itself is a form of reparations. I would not be justified to collect a dime of reparations considering I was never a slave.

I disagree...….the chart proves otherwise. A monetary award is very valid, however, you will never get white American to agree on it.

Decendants SHOULD be compensated for the free labor of their ancestors just like the decendants of Japanese, Indians, Jews and Italians.
Why should Blacks be left out?

Slavery still exists in the country today.

[TOP]

I disagree...….the chart proves otherwise. A monetary award is very valid, however, you will never get white American to agree on it.

Decendants SHOULD be compensated for the free labor of their ancestors just like the decendants of Japanese, Indians, Jews and Italians.
Why should Blacks be left out?

Slavery still exists in the country today.

How much do you think you "deserve"? Who's enslaved today? Which descendants?

[gemini104104]

Even though the idea of white slavery has been generally kept hidden at overshadowing that part of history at elaborating on black slavery, which promotes ignorance and a false sense of dominance and superiority among misguided and marginally educated individuals, would the idea of reparations apply to former white slaves too?:

When Europeans Were Slaves: Research Suggests White Slavery Was Much More Common Than Previously Believed

In a new book, Robert Davis, professor of history at Ohio State University, developed a unique methodology to calculate the number of white Christians who were enslaved along Africa’s Barbary Coast, arriving at much higher slave population estimates than any previous studies had found.
Most other accounts of slavery along the Barbary coast didn’t try to estimate the number of slaves, or only looked at the number of slaves in particular cities, Davis said. Most previously estimated slave counts have thus tended to be in the thousands, or at most in the tens of thousands. Davis, by contrast, has calculated that between 1 million and 1.25 million European Christians were captured and forced to work in North Africa from the 16th to 18th centuries.
Davis’s new estimates appear in the book Christian Slaves, Muslim Masters: White Slavery in the Mediterranean, the Barbary Coast, and Italy, 1500-1800 (Palgrave Macmillan)."

https://news.osu.edu/when-europeans-...usly-believed/

[Cypress]

250 years of slavery. 90 years of Jim Crow. 60 years of separate but equal. 35 years of racist housing policy. Until you all reckon with your compounding moral debts, America will never be whole.

Most Blacks are forgiving people. We aren't looking for a check in the mail...…..that is the racist white man's narrative and excuse not to give reparations.

We will accept reparations in the forms of the following:

Eliminate the for profit prison industrial complex
Eliminate the cash bail system
Eliminate Check the box for housing
Eliminate Redlining in housing
Eliminate Check the box for employment
Eliminate Background checks for employment
Eliminate Bias's in Financial Institutions with low cost, low interest rate loans
Eliminate Voting restriction
Eliminate the Electoral College
Eliminate the Death Penalty
Eliminate Police Unions
Eliminate Racist laws such as sagging pants, loitering, skateboarding etc.
Eliminate Racial segregation laws
Revise and Revamp the ENTIRE LAW ENFORCEMENT SYSTEM hold racist departments, individual kops and the Justice Department accountable.
Revise and Revamp the ENTIRE JUDICIAL SYSTEM Hold racist Judges, DA's, Prosecutors, etc accountable.
Free Healthcare
Free Education
Raise the minimum wage to at lest 25.00 hr.

And if push comes to shove...…..give us our fuckin 40 acres and a mule!

This is for starters...……….I could add to the list.

THIS IS WHAT WE MEAN BY REPERATIONS

I think its worth talking about and your list, from what I can tell, are mostly just tangible manifestations of social and economic justice policies that would not be considered all that radical or extreme in some parts of the progressive community.

[StoneByStone]

Decendants SHOULD be compensated for the free labor of their ancestors just like the decendants of Japanese, Indians, Jews and Italians.
Why should Blacks be left out?

Why?

[Adolf_Twitler]

I have been doing that for years...it will take more than that.

Here, let me give you some encouragement.

First of all, all of the people in America that think exactly like you and I, actually outnumber the haters.

And just look at the gains we made in the last election. We will even need more voters in the next one.

This is the only way we can stop the gerrymandering, voter's suppression, vote out racist politicians, stand up to White Nationalism, defeat White Supremacy, bring back law and order to the White House, make healthcare and healthcare insurance affordable again for every hard working American, increase the minimum wage, and create a more equal opportunity for all, create more affordable education for all, is by voting!

That's all our side has to do- is just get everyone on board to go and vote that is eligible.

Only 58% of Americans, eligible to vote, voted in 2016~ We can do better than that!

[Gonzomin]

Would you support a 'Right of Return' for our African friends?
Basically a One Way Ticket and a renouncement of their Citizenship, plus a sizeable amount of Money?

How simplistic. Do you think the other nation has no say? The idea of shipping people back to a land they have never been in and know nobody, makes sense to you?

[StoneByStone]

How simplistic. Do you think the other nation has no say? The idea of shipping people back to a land they have never been in and know nobody, makes sense to you?

How about instead, we give them reservations like the Indians got, in return for their citizenship?