Slave Reparations

Lisa

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First of all, it’s not $500 billion in ‘financial assistance.’ It’s $500 billion dollars — $200 to $500 billion dollars — payment of a debt that is owed. That is what reparations is. We need some deep truth-telling when it comes. We don’t need another commission to look at evidence, I appreciate what Congressman O’Rourke has said. It is time for us to simply realize that this country will not heal. All that a country is is a collection of people. People heal when there is some deep truth-telling. We need to recognize when it comes to the economic gap between blacks and whites in America. It does come from a great injustice that has never been dealt with. That great injustice has had to deal with the fact that there were 250 years of slavery followed by another 100 years of domestic terrorism.

What makes me qualified to say $200 to $500 billion dollars? I’ll tell you what makes me qualified. If you did the math of the 40 acres and a mule given that there were four to five million slaves at the end of the Civil War and they were all promised 40 acres and a mule for every family of four. If you did the math today it would be trillions of dollars. And I believe anything less than $100 billion dollars is an insult and I believe that $200 to $500 billion is politically feasible today because so many Americans realize there is an injustice that continues to form a toxicity underneath the surface and an emotional turbulence that only reparations will heal.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/07/31/marianne-williamson-makes-case-reparations-her-breakout-debate-moment/?noredirect=on

 

rainerann

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I support reparations. What this person is saying doesn’t sound like much of a plan, but I would support a reasonable plan for reparations.
 

justjess

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Honestly I don’t.. my family wasn’t even in this country when there were slaves and during the time there was segregation my own family faces their own segregation due to Italians being considered black as well. I don’t see why my tax dollars need to pay for something I have nothing to do with.

I support economic programs to lift up all who are economically struggling but I don’t support this.
 

Lisa

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I support reparations. What this person is saying doesn’t sound like much of a plan, but I would support a reasonable plan for reparations.
What would your reasonable plan be?
 

rainerann

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I really don’t think discrimination towards Italian immigrants who chose to come here is the same thing as the promise to make reparations towards people who were forced to come here as slaves.

This is why I don’t really think the period of segregation that is mentioned in the article counts as well and why I don’t think this article sounds like much of a plan at all.

But reparations is a legitimate debt of our nation and if you immigrated and became a citizen of this country that has not paid this debt yet, then you are essentially agreeing to take on this responsibility whether your family was here at the time or not.

Plus this would be tax dollars circulating in our communities, so we don’t lose money overseas like we do a lot of the time. Although, i don’t entirely know whether I support a cash equivalent or whether it would be better for reparations to be restored with a different form of wealth. I don’t know what this would be and am open to suggestions on an equivalent form of payment.
 

rainerann

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What would your reasonable plan be?
I don’t know but I think I do agree that it would be a beneficial discussion for our country to have and I support politicians who recognize that this needs to be discussed.
 

justjess

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I really don’t think discrimination towards Italian immigrants who chose to come here is the same thing as the promise to make reparations towards people who were forced to come here as slaves.

This is why I don’t really think the period of segregation that is mentioned in the article counts as well and why I don’t think this article sounds like much of a plan at all.

But reparations is a legitimate debt of our nation and if you immigrated and became a citizen of this country that has not paid this debt yet, then you are essentially agreeing to take on this responsibility whether your family was here at the time or not.

Plus this would be tax dollars circulating in our communities, so we don’t lose money overseas like we do a lot of the time. Although, i don’t entirely know whether I support a cash equivalent or whether it would be better for reparations to be restored with a different form of wealth. I don’t know what this would be and am open to suggestions on an equivalent form of payment.
They should have paid reparations at the point in time when they were promised. Asking people generations removed from the issue to shoulder the cost is wrong. And direct payments to people who weren’t actually slaves themselves seems senseless. If they put in general economic programs for people with low incomes and worked on those issues instead it would be sensible and still accomplish the same goal - without further exploiting a racial divide in this country on the verge of blowing up.
 

rainerann

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They should have paid reparations at the point in time when they were promised. Asking people generations removed from the issue to shoulder the cost is wrong. And direct payments to people who weren’t actually slaves themselves seems senseless. If they put in general economic programs for people with low incomes and worked on those issues instead it would be sensible and still accomplish the same goal - without further exploiting a racial divide in this country on the verge of blowing up.
I actually agree that some of what your saying should be considered as boundaries for a discussion on this, which is another reason the article in this thread is sensationalized.

They should have been paid to begin with. However, not paying them has incurred a loss that exceeds what discrimination creates. There should be boundaries for this but there should also be a way to finalize this offer that was made even if it was made a long time before I was born or my family even came to America.
 

Lisa

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I don’t know but I think I do agree that it would be a beneficial discussion for our country to have and I support politicians who recognize that this needs to be discussed.
Do you think that by paying reparations, that it might heal the country? Or would it divide the country more, since to pay them, it will come from taxes?

And do people who weren’t living during slavery have any obligation to pay people who also weren’t living during slavery?
 

rainerann

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I guess I would start with a boundary that could reasonably prove that your family suffered a loss because of slavery too. There has been a lot of immigration from Africa in the last hundred years too.

I had honestly thought of something like a scholarship fund would be a good equivalent, but it seems like whoever wrote this article in the op would disagree with me.

A scholarship fund would still need boundaries because at some point this offer should come to an end. Reparations is not permanent financial aid for all future generations.
 

justjess

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I actually agree that some of what your saying should be considered as boundaries for a discussion on this, which is another reason the article in this thread is sensationalized.

They should have been paid to begin with. However, not paying them has incurred a loss that exceeds what discrimination creates. There should be boundaries for this but there should also be a way to finalize this offer that was made even if it was made a long time before I was born or my family even came to America.
focusing in on black people who were hurt economically intergenerationally at this point is going to create a lot of problems and social tension. There are white families and Hispanic families and Asian and native families etc etc who were also hurt in a similar manner. Had this been done at the time I would have supported it but we are now way too far removed to go there.

Either general economic programs or idk the government owns a ton of vacant land and buildings they can just start giving out to poor people but we see the rise in race related crimes recently and the tension in our streets and I don’t think adding fuel to that fire right now is wise. Our government needs to make reparations, if we are being honest, to a whole ton of people - not even a small fraction of whom are actually descendents of slaves.
 
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rainerann

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Do you think that by paying reparations, that it might heal the country? Or would it divide the country more, since to pay them, it will come from taxes?

And do people who weren’t living during slavery have any obligation to pay people who also weren’t living during slavery?
Yes I do think it would bring some healing and relief. It is always healing to let your yes mean yes and your no mean no and this is about doing what our country said it was going to do.

Yes I do think if you are an American citizen, you have some responsibility to close this offer for reparations that our country has made.
 

justjess

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I guess I would start with a boundary that could reasonably prove that your family suffered a loss because of slavery too. There has been a lot of immigration from Africa in the last hundred years too.

I had honestly thought of something like a scholarship fund would be a good equivalent, but it seems like whoever wrote this article in the op would disagree with me.

A scholarship fund would still need boundaries because at some point this offer should come to an end. Reparations is not permanent financial aid for all future generations.
That was Marianne Williamson’s speech at the democratic debates
 

rainerann

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By focusing in on black people who were hurt economically intergenerationally at this point is going to create a lot of problems and social tension. There are white families and Hispanic families and Asian and native families etc etc who were also hurt in a similar manner. Had this been done at the time I would have supported it be we are now way too far removed to go there.

Either general economic programs or idk the government owns a ton of vacant land and buildings they can just start giving out to poor people but we see the rise in race related crimes recently and the tension in our streets and I don’t think adding fuel to that fire right now is wise. Our government needs to make reparations, if we are being honest, to a whole ton of people - not even a small fraction of who are actually descendents of slaves.
No one else was ever offered reparations and had this offer neglected. We are under no obligation to pay reparations to those who may have suffered discrimination after coming to this country by choice.

Reparations are in response to Africans coming to this country by force and being forced to work as slaves.
 

justjess

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No one else was ever offered reparations and had this offer neglected. We are under no obligation to pay reparations to those who may have suffered discrimination after coming to this country by choice.

Reparations are in response to Africans coming to this country by force and being forced to work as slaves.
Native Americans? We stole their land, forced them into “reservations” and treated them like shit from day one and every day since.

I get that no one else was promised this. But the fact is the people who broke the promise and were required to fulfill that promise have been dead hundreds of years.

We have families starving and homeless working full time and to ask them to put some of their tax dollars to this when the programs that are supposed to help them keep disappearing by the minute is cruel and unusual.

Pay for it with a wealth tax on billionaires and international corporations, fine. But I hope that if that’s the proposal we are also using that wealth tax to help the hundreds of millions of struggling Americans in this country who don’t happen to be descendants of slaves. I just think this is a very narrow and explosive approach to a situation when our entire economy is under water.
 

Lisa

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Yes I do think it would bring some healing and relief. It is always healing to let your yes mean yes and your no mean no and this is about doing what our country said it was going to do.

Yes I do think if you are an American citizen, you have some responsibility to close this offer for reparations that our country has made.
I think it’s just gonna make people mad that their taxes are going for something that’s being manipulated to win an election.
 

justjess

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I think it’s just gonna make people mad that their taxes are going for something that’s being manipulated to win an election.
None of the front runners on the Democratic ticket support reparations so how exactly is that going to win an election?
 

Lisa

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None of the front runners on the Democratic ticket support reparations so how exactly is that going to win an election?
It won’t hurt to get the votes of people who want those reparations or those who feel that people are owed them.
 

justjess

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It won’t hurt to get the votes of people who want those reparations or those who feel that people are owed them.
The only person who supported this is Marianne Williamson who is polling at less then 1% and will likely drop out entirely before the next debate. You make no sense.
 
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