Should the US pay African Americans reparations for slavery

Poll - Total Votes: 56

Yes. That number is worth it

I wanna pay but that's too much money

I don't wanna pay but I do think they deserve something else

No. They don't deserve anything

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You can only vote on one answer.

I just ran some simple numbers.

By the time of slavery's abolition the US had condoned slavery for 88 years (1864-1776).

Around that time the average wage of someone of their occupation was $10/year making the total sum owed in 1864 to be $880.

With inflation that would be worth $22,500 today.

Assuming we literally paid every single African American (which we wouldn't) that means the US would have to give them $945B (based on a population of 42M African Americans).

Given this data, would you accept that $945B is an acceptable sum to pay to finally repay the ancestors of slaves and finally remove the idea of white guilt from US culture?

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Footsugar123 · M

4 million slaves were set free when it was abolished after the Civil War, there are now over 41 million black Americans in the United States which 4 million would you suggest get the money, it wouldn't be right to give every black American money when there were only 4 million slaves, it would cost trillions of dollars to pay every black American in the United States. And from what I've been reading money was never promised it was under consideration but never got passed, I suppose the government done a better job and cheating the native Americans, the just changed the law or the treaty and never gave them actual control of any thing that I could see, there are many oppressed people in the United States and appeasing one culture and not appeasing all of them is crap, that's my other thoughts about it.
It's just a game that Senater or other members of the political parties are playing to look good, open your eyes it's not That hard to see

FrogManSometimesLooksBothWays · M

@Footsugar123 It's crap. I have no idea why that is taken the least bit seriously. It's ridiculous. It's like a bad joke that some people take seriously.

Qwerty14

@Footsugar123 Those slaves had kids, who had kids, who had kids etc. So 42M isn't that many. Also the number I quoted was under a trillion so just stick with that for now

FrogManSometimesLooksBothWays · M

@Footsugar123 I don't mean to diminish how bad slavery was but in some ways being a factory worker in the North was worse. Factory workers were not given housing, clothes and food. And when times were bad factories laid off workers. Slave owners didn't lay off slaves. Maybe descendents of Northern factory owners should get reparations.

Qwerty14

@FrogManSometimesLooksBothWays Stop pretending slaves were treated like servants. They had no freedom, were beaten, raped, treated like animals.

Footsugar123 · M

@Qwerty14 there kids werent slaves, that's my point about that, yeah I'm sure they were treated beyond badly, but giving others compensation for something that they didn't have to endure is crazy, the government will do what ever they want to so I am done explaining my point and my way of seeing this whole matter because it doesn't make a hill of beans what I think, you won't change your mind about yours.
Oh well is what I'm going to say. Just oh well

FrogManSometimesLooksBothWays · M

@Qwerty14 They were treated like property. Like horses. That's better than some factory workers.

Footsugar123 · M

@FrogManSometimesLooksBothWays that could be said about the miners in the Appalachian Mountains and places like that, the orphanages had forced labor to if I'm not mistaken, American isn't perfect for sure and it probably won't ever be, but I live here and have to do my best to get along, Im below poverty level, the American dream was for the well off to start with or there family members if you didn't know someone in a good position you got no where. It's the same in ways in this age, I expect that it is what it is
I don't see it changing

Qwerty14

@Footsugar123 The kids weren't slaves but they were owed the money their parents earned. Now if you wanna say all inheritance isn't allowed that's fine but something tells me you'd have a hard time convincing the super wealthy that is ok.

Qwerty14

@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

FrogManSometimesLooksBothWays · M

@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.

Qwerty14

@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