Should the US pay African Americans reparations for slavery

@4meAndyou And? You're saying that Africans would have to defeat the Americans in war before you'd allow them reparations? Seems excessive

@Qwerty14 I'm not saying that at all.

@4meAndyou I'm glad because that would be excessive

@bijouxbroussard
Spike Lee had his production company named “40 acres and a mule” to remember what the government had promised and then didn’t make good on.
What troubles me is how openly racist this president is. I lost my respect for him and refuse to capitalize his last name. He deserves no respect, zero.

@Pfuzylogic I totally agree.

Very well written, I agree completely. @bijouxbroussard

@Picklebobble2 If we make this about every nation that had slavery then Asia and Africa have to answer for it too. Everyone has to pay everyone.

This is actually just about the US finally putting the shit behind them. The idea would be that once this is done you no longer have to feel guilt or upset over the past and move on.

@Qwerty14 Nice try ! YOU don't get to ERASE YOUR history by encouraging the DESCENDANTS to take what's effectively A BRIBE JUST so YOU get to FEEL better about it.

Because NO amount of MONEY would ever be able to cover it.

If you were in their position, would you take it ?

@Picklebobble2 First off it ain't my history. And yeah I would take it. Free money for nothing is an obvious thing. Fact is the people who were owed are long dead. This is just a way to shut up the current people who feel they're owed when they're technically not. It's a compromise

@bijouxbroussard I didn't vote, I would prefer to listen to what the people at the heart of it would want. On the surface I probably agree with @QuixoticSoul that maybe a payment doesn't address justice most effectively; and even then, how would you distribute it? But that doesn't mean it isn't necessarily valid. The ongoing disadvantage is demonstrably real, and categorically denied by the privileged who also deny their privilege, hand on heart. Affirmative action is the response in feminism to entrenched disadvantage - that'd create some kicking and screaming.

I'd like to see America stop despising the poor. Stop enshrining the privileged. Stop hiding behind, "I'm not racist, but..." It was once a refuge for those who dreamed of human dignity for all. Now big capitalist interests rule like kings and lords and democracy is just an abusive bun fight sideline. [i]"Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"[/i] Where the hell did America get so lost?

@Abstraction I’m going to say, that poem was fanciful and only applied to certain people even [b]then[/b].
Langton Hughes’ is more the reality in this instance.
“Let America be America again.
Let it be the dream it used to be.
Let it be the pioneer on the plain Seeking a home where he himself is free.
(America never was America to me.)
Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed — Let it be that great strong land of love
Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme That any man be crushed by one above.
(It never was America to me.)
O, let my land be a land where Liberty Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath, But opportunity is real, and life is free, Equality is in the air we breathe.
(There's never been equality for me, Nor freedom in this "homeland of the free.")
Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark?
And who are you that draws your veil across the stars?
I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart, I am the Negro bearing slavery's scars.
I am the red man driven from the land,
I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek — And finding only the same old stupid plan Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.
I am the young man, full of strength and hope, Tangled in that ancient endless chain
Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land!
Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need! Of work the men! Of take the pay!
Of owning everything for one's own greed!
I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil.
I am the worker sold to the machine.
I am the Negro, servant to you all.
I am the people, humble, hungry, mean — Hungry yet today despite the dream. Beaten yet today--O, Pioneers!
I am the man who never got ahead,
The poorest worker bartered through the years.
Yet I'm the one who dreamt our basic dream In the Old World while still a serf of kings, Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true, That even yet its mighty daring sings
In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned That's made America the land it has become. O, I'm the man who sailed those early seas
In search of what I meant to be my home — For I'm the one who left dark Ireland's shore, And Poland's plain, and England's grassy lea, And torn from Black Africa's strand I came To build a "homeland of the free."
The free?
Who said the free? Not me?
Surely not me? The millions on relief today? The millions shot down when we strike? The millions who have nothing for our pay? For all the dreams we've dreamed
And all the songs we've sung
And all the hopes we've held
And all the flags we've hung,
The millions who have nothing for our pay — Except the dream that's almost dead today.
O, let America be America again —
The land that never has been yet —
And yet must be--the land where every man is free. The land that's mine — the poor man's, Indian's, Negro's, ME —
Who made America,
Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain, Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain, Must bring back our mighty dream again.
Sure, call me any ugly name you choose — The steel of freedom does not stain.
From those who live like leeches on the people's lives, We must take back our land again, America!
O, yes,
I say it plain,
America never was America to me, And yet I swear this oath — America will be!
Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death, The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies, We, the people, must redeem
The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.
The mountains and the endless plain — All, all the stretch of these great green states — And make America again !”

@bijouxbroussard Wow. Reminds me of Cohen, too.

It's coming from the feel
that this ain't exactly real,
or it's real, but it ain't exactly there.
From the wars against disorder,
from the sirens night and day,
from the fires of the homeless,
from the ashes of the gay:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.

@JoeyFoxx we elected a Mulatto POTUS - racism is over.

You are a sad little shadow of a man.

I’m sorry your mommy didn’t love you and that your daddy made fun of you.

@MarmeeMarch

@JoeyFoxx Yeah I agree with you. Only a white supremacist would use the term "mulatto"

@Qwerty14 It will be a gesture without lasting, meaningful results.

@QuixoticSoul Sadly there is no solution that will have lasting meaningful results. Affirmative action is all you can really hope for in that category which still exists whether reparations are paid or not

@QuixoticSoul And they have been - exponentially from the 1950s

@Qwerty14 I know so why do you care how many replies I make - block me then - and your worries will be over.

@MarmeeMarch I don't block people. Censoring the internet is retarded. People should be allowed to voice their opinion. Just you could have voiced your thoughts in one comment but you made like 5-6 which is a tad excessive

@Qwerty14 OK from now on I am done here . Good day.

@MarmeeMarch That's crude.

@FrogManSometimesLooksBothWays Said the guy that constantly shows pictures of guys with their dicks out - asses and balls swinging like there is no tomorrow and you call my response crude ?
Its all I can afford !

@MarmeeMarch If it makes you feel better; I find you both stupid for your comments lol

@SW-UserOh for the indian slaves that picked cotton in the south ?
They have their freebies and casinos now - so they are good

@SW-User I would agree to pay anyone a reparations payment who can prove that his grandfather was a slave. But that's it. Two generations back--nobody else.

@MarmeeMarch there good lol, I wonder how many billions of dollars of gold, silver and other minerals were taken off the land that they were forced from, they wouldn't need anything from the government they would probably be the government.

Jeff Dunham got it right. (Arguing With Myself.)

@PlumBerries That means nothing because they're all dead. You know that too. Preposing that if the slaves were alive you'd pay them comes across like you're saving face for taking a potentially controversial opinion about not paying reparations to the people alive today.

[c=#7700B2]like I said if people who never went through it and only thing they have in common with those who were slaves is their skin colour, they are owed nothing [/c]

I am not arguing your position. But I have seen time and again that when you ask (or demand) something from a government, they’ll give it to you but [u]with conditions![/u] Sure, we’ll give you this. But you have to give up that. We’ll protect you...but you have to sacrifice your freedom, liberty, privacy... (fill in the blank). And oh most importantly we’re gonna have to raise your taxes to achieve this goal. Somehow, some way, they will turn any circumstance into a way of furthering their own goals and agendas. I guess its like the old adage of, “Be careful of what you wish for. You may get it.” @AgapeLove

@bijouxbroussard So those that oppose reparations are racist?

@GunSmoke9 I’m blocking you now, I think. I should have long ago

@Budwick I get you don't feel it but people do. The nation does. You guys needa heal

@Qwerty14 I don't get it but [b]PEOPLE [/b]do?
Num nuts, I AM people!
The nation is fine. There may be some losers looking to score on the suffering of ancestors they never even met. But, the nation is fine.

If you force people that never had slaves to people that never were slaves - Trust me, there WILL a need for healing!

@Budwick If you wanna insult people can you at least spell correctly. Bad grammar is the biggest insult of all haha

@Qwerty14 A simple council? If reparation does ever pass it will be run by the feds. I don't want to give the federal government more power than they all ready have.
Show me where I am judging people by the color of their skin?

@GunSmoke9 [quote]I don't want to give the federal government more power than they already have[/quote]

That says it all really. We can just end this here tbh

@Qwerty14 Fine with me. Our government wasn't built on the idea of a central government controlling all the states. I hate big government.

@FrogManSometimesLooksBothWays First off, no factory worker had a shittier deal than slaves. If they did then they also had the freedom to pick a different job. You see that's the freedom of choice a worker has over a slave and why being a slave is always worse

@Qwerty14 That's true. Factory workers had the freedom to starve. Slaves did not have the freedom to starve.

I have read at least one historical document which suggests that poor Englishmen of the day had it just as bad as the average black American slave.

According to author Anthony Trollope, the slaves in the Americas and the Caribbean were given three meals a day, whereas impoverished Englishmen working in the first factories had no such guarantees.

It is true that black slaves were whipped when they were accused of crimes; they were not given any benefit of the doubt, much less any sort of trial. It is also true that lower-class English were subject to the occasional massacre like Peterloo, which surely had the macabre benefit of keeping them in line.

Entire black villages were apparently sold into slavery; entire white towns in Ireland were subject to the same treatment.

@FrogManSometimesLooksBothWays So you are now looking outside of the US for examples. We gotta keep this in the US. What other nations did is up to them

@Qwerty14 You can't repair the past, dude, not on this scale. There's no amount of money that can bring the dead back to life. If that technology is ever invented, then this conversation will be worth revisiting.

@BlueVeins Better than nothing or would you prefer nothing?

@Qwerty14 Nah, I think we should treat every citizen equally under law and educate our children about our violent past and human rights. That way, we can prevent any attrocity like this from happening on American soil, ever again. That's the best way to move forward from here.

@Pfuzylogic @Allelse Guys can you chill please lol

@Qwerty14 Hey we're getting on better, we're talking about kangaroos.

@Allelse I agree.
@Qwerty14 Appreciate the look out.

@Qwerty14 So you want to keep this in the USA .. how arrogant. Let me remind you some things about USA :the white slave owners were not native Americans they were European immigrants, the black slaves were not native Americans they were Africans so please remind me how this is a "USA only" issue. Oh you mean it's convenient to make it "USA only " now because you feel like it, sure have fun with it.

At least my grandpa looked better in a frock than your momma :)

Are you as naive as to think giving a certain group money won't start the voice of racism yelling "we have less because blacks get free money" every time there will be elections and every day in between them? Oh sure the USA is so magnanimous after all it's a country of immigrants that decided it HATES IMMIGRANTS but hey anything as petty as racism over money issues sounds unrealistic :)) you're honestly hilarious.
Hey why not try a little experiment: get 2 of your friends or employees or whatever you can compare, and give one of them 100 dollars or more for some bullshit reason (bonus if it's to someone who needs it less than the others. Then see how the rest react).
Also you missed the point when I was talking about European slavery and such: slavery was around the whole globe, even the whites that had slaves in USA had slaves somewhere in their family tree if you dig deep enough. Paying someone that lives in modern times with modern opportunities for something they did not suffer makes no sense, that money would help them more if it was invested in increasing the opportunities for education and employment of those people and all people in the country regardless of skin colour.
This "we gotta pay blacks to make them feel better" just shows you are still segregated and think in terms of us Vs them.

@kayoshin You are being overly offensive and racist. If you genuinely want to talk you need to calm down and collect your thoughts in a more rational way so I can respond properly

How exactly am I racist when you actually want to pay people based on the colour of their skin? The irony.

False, affirmative action is for women and ALL minority groups including Asians. Plus, you need to realize the that reason Affirmative Action was created in the first place in the early 1930s was because black people could not get jobs or go to school in certain places because of RACISM. Not because they didn’t have the skills, not because they weren’t competitive, not because they wanted a “free handout.” It was because no one in those places would give them an opprotunity because they were black. @pagandad

@pagandad What is with people crying about reparations? This makes me feel ashamed of being black. I've never heard of Chinese talking about reparations from the Japanese

@pagandad The Civil War wasn't about African Americans. It was about control of the southern states. Slavery was just a big part of that argument. Everyone lost people in that war.

@IstillmissEP Yeah and that's their call. I thought the US wanted to be the greatest nation, not just the same as any other nation

@IstillmissEP Everyone who prospers today in America does so thanks to slavery. Y'all are guilty through association and that's why everyone has to pay. Plus the people don't actually lose anything. Taxes don't go up. You just syphon money out of the inflated defense budget over say 10 years. Problem solved and no tax increase needed

@MarmeeMarch again that was one part of it. They only wanted to free the slaves as to not stop trade with Europe and give less power to the south. They didn't do it because they suddenly liked black people

@Qwerty14 At the end of the war - it was a racial thing. And groups like the KKK sprung up.

@MarmeeMarch The KKK was originally a Christian group against Jews. It wasn't till the 1900s that they shifted to all minorities and moves away from Christianity

@Qwerty14 Which is exactly what I said, and here you are promoting that idea like a good indoctrinated slave.

@SumKindaMunster See that type of language is akin to the Alex Jones types who are considered crazy. If you aren't crazy and don't wanna sound as such, change the wording

@Qwerty14 All free thinkers are considered "crazy" by the indoctrinated masses. You are merely reinforcing my decisions.

@FrogManSometimesLooksBothWays the more I look into it the more I feel the same tbh. Still I offer up the discussion and I'm happy to see so many differing opinions

@Qwerty14 And then, what about all the black people in the U.S. who came from Africa after slavery? More recent immigrants from Africa?

@FrogManSometimesLooksBothWays Sure is, to buy votes.

@DaughterOfTheDust That's far more costly and hard to measure the affect it has. One of payments would be a much easier solution

@nedkelly Again not shocked that the Australians on here oppose this...

@Qwerty14 Tell me why you should pay compensation, my family never got compensated when they were shipped out to Australia in 1836

@nedkelly Yeah but your family were criminals haha

@SW-User They didn't

@SW-User give them 40 acres on Mars

@SW-User Yes it was actually. Probably accurate as well.

@SumKindaMunster I remember Bill Gates being surpassed as richest man in the world by "Tron from Harlem" 😂

@SW-User I remember that sketch. He is so funny!

Executive Order 10925 (the original AA) and Executive Order 11246 (the AA that is in place right now). Research and read for yourself about what the exact doctrine says on the gov website and research your own statisics. I’m not doing your work for you. Once again, you’re trying to skip over the significance of Jim Crow but you cannot because it was system that LIMITED FREEDOM, slavery ended but black people still were not free until 1962. That’s the point here. Also, my intial reply to this post was against the monetary reparations. @MarmeeMarch

@DaughterOfTheDust You are the one stating all these AA recipients and Blacks going to Harvard with high marks. I am not going to do any lookup of anything I am not your maid.

So what black ppl got civil rights in 62 big deal - and ?? so what is your issue -its too short of a time span ? not fast enough for you ? - I am sorry that they are not brought up to par within seconds but thats the way it is. I could care less to be perfectly honest.

If you could care less then this argument is over and we can both stop wasting our time. @MarmeeMarch

@FrogManSometimesLooksBothWays My numbers were based on the census data of Pepe who identify as African American. And yeah it is pretty darn racist that the US still uses race as an identifier but they do so that's how I did the maths.

@DukeOfEarle All descendants of African Americans

Descendants of African American slave owners will be paying reparations too? All around I think the concept is a hot steaming mess. It’s like having a parent who committed murder and you have to serve time too just because you’re his or her descendant. Once this pandoras box is opened, where does it end? Give an inch, they take a mile.

@Qwerty14 We should never have allowed ourselves to get involved with the group as a political body and just stuck with the trade agreements that we originally joined for.

@Quizzical Yeah I think every EU nation has found that out. But none of them are dumb enough to leave

@Qwerty14 Brave enough to leave... lol

The whole thing is a gravy train for EU officials, and we really are being used as a piggy bank with huge fines being imposed for the most ridiculous of little things.

@Greybare Shame on me for even discussing the idea of reparations? You don't believe a discussion can be had?

@Greybare Which part is hate speech? What part is pushing anything?

I asked a question. If a question offends you then that's on you

@SweetMae the over inflated defense budget over a period of say 10 years. The US pay a lot of taxes. They just put the money into stupid things

@Qwerty14 I can't agree with you there. I know how underfunded the US military is first hand. I hope that someday things will be equal and fair in this country and that we can work together as Americans to help each other along the way.

@SweetMae underfunded? Either your military budget is too high or your military is too costly. Either downsize or cut cost. You guys far exceed any nation on budget and power so you have huge room to move. Seriously, I would be gobsmacked if you needed to spend even 1/7th of the amount t you spend

@BlueVeins And the money they would have inherited?

@Qwerty14 6 odd generations later? Even fabulous wealth typically lasts 3 or less, let alone a laborer's salary.

@BlueVeins Well I'm not suggesting we add interest to it, just give the amount due with inflation. So it isnt like it got passed on 6 gens but just skipped 5 gens

@passiond You wanna belong to the US then you pay for the US's past as well as its future. Also no state was safe. Your founding fathers were all slave owners.

@4meAndyou I guess years of Affirmative racism oops I meant affirmative action obviously have done nothing

@MarmeeMarch Well, it's that whole thing about giving a man a fish vs teaching him how to fish. If our forefathers sinned by setting an entire race too far back to recover, the Dems certainly made a well intentioned but disastrous effort to make that entire race "special". But, like special ed, you don't really want to be special in that way.

@4meAndyou Every race was enslaved at one time or another - the desperate to get a government job will pander to colored folk and stir up trouble.

@Footsugar123 Actually the biggest slave port was made by European settlers from Brazil. They set up shop in Nigeria and sold slaves to the Europeans and Americans. None of this matters of course because we aren't talking about Europeans. We are talking about Americans.

Well you can here -

@Qwerty14 anyway you do know it was just a joke right -?

@MarmeeMarch Tough to tell what's a joke without use of lol or haha or kek or whichever acronym you like.