You don't get reperations in this country... you get rights.

Reperations are not a right. You live in a country that did make mistake of slavery but took unpresidented steps to eradicate it.
Your children might grow up poor and stupid, but they will never be slaves.

Being poor and stupid in this country is a matter of personal choice and personal slavery.

Sloth_DC: 1870 + 40 = 2006?

Have you ever met my friend, Jim? Last name - Crow.

Shenanigans_
Unreal. You are displaying the very ignorance you claim to abhor. You cannot possibly claim what a "majority" of "them" believe.

Uneffing real. That kind of ignorance is more offensive. The smug ignorance that has no meaningful chance of being recognized by the speaker.

well, you may be right; on the other hand, you are chastising HIM on the grounds that he cannot possibly know what a majority of "them" believe, yet you seem to imply that YOU know better.

/just sayin

The two great waves of American immigration occurred after 1880 and then after 1960. What rationale would require Vietnamese boat people, Russian refuseniks, Iranian refugees, and Armenian victims of the Turkish persecution, Jews, Mexicans Greeks, or Polish, Hungarian, Cambodian and Korean victims of Communism, to pay reparations to American blacks?

If you really listen to rap it's about diction, achievement, fairness and social issues that most of us would agree need attention.

You left out "murdering homosexuals."

PlusCestLaMeme is silly
 

"My ancestors came after slavery so I don't owe anything" (Yes, but they chose to come here)
So punish them. Nice. Lets punish recent black african immigrants.

"No one who was affected by slavery is alive anymore so no one is entitled to anything" (The history of slavery is still affecting everyone in this country. How about you: if you could choose to be black, would you?)
If I was guarenteed a huge penis, several hoes and no responsibility... I may bite. I have to say thats a nice steroe type I invoked here.

"My ancestors were indentured servants, just like slaves." (Except there was a time limit on their indentured status, and after their servitude they regained full "white" standing in society, so no, they weren't like slaves at all. No one promised them their freedom and then reneged. Go read "The Confessions of Nat Turner".)
Good book BTW. No reason too be concerned with the health and viability of an indentured servant if his/her time is almost up. Oh and they have little legal capability, sure reneg. I think thats what the poster meant.

"My ancestors went through some tough times in the gulag/concentrationcamps/potatofamine, just like slaves." (Sure they did, and they deserve all my sympathy. But unless you are African-American, your ancestors weren't enslaved.)
Yeah a concentration camp is not slavery. Nor is a gulag. There you are working against your will and often digging your own grave.

"Reparations are OK if we also eliminate affirmative action" (Sure, and let's eliminate racism while we're at it. Any of these ideas have an equal chance of happening, just like a snowball has a chance of surviving hell)
What is your definition of racism? Websters is;

1 : a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race
2 : racial prejudice or discrimination
So, the belief that whites have an inherent advantage because of them not being black is not racist?
Or, #2, too discriminate towards(works both ways btw) blacks and give them money is not racist either?

"Reparations are OK but let's also send 'them' back to Africa" (Sure, OK, and you go back to Germany while we're at it.)
I am not asking for reparations and claiming my lot in life is because of what my irish ancestors faced.


"I'm happy to pay reparations as long as I'm actually allowed to enslave them in return." (I've got a better idea. Let's just forget the reparations. Instead, let's enslave all white people for 250 years. After that time, we can consider the slate wiped clean and everyone will be happy, right?)
Oh pure genius.

Flame on. - Is that what your asking me to do or are you describing yourself? Kinda confused here..

well it comes up yet again. There are arguments on both sides really.

The arguments against it usually go so far as "I wasn't here so why does it matter?" And the primary defense is that indirectly you may have benefited from an unequal system (that remains unequal to this day). Its always trumpted so people get all upset over it. Mostly this money could be funded by companies that profited directly from the slave trade. Which would be fair because while no one person was alive during slavery, Coroporations have lifetimes that are signifigantly longer than those of your average person.

Many of these groups the push for it would like to see the same social conscience that America displays in other countries to be used at home.

That being said I would prefer to see the money not given to random people but rather spent on improving programs and combating the issues at hand. Treating the illness as a country as opposed as throwing money at the problem and hoping it goes away.

FriarTuck very nice.

If you're half black do you just collect $0.50 on the dollar from yourself?

Seriously, who/how decides who pays and who collects?

I wouldn't pay my great, great, great grandfather's parking ticket, either. Group entitlements are always unjust, even if the motivation is benign.

tarrant84

Redlining was much more destructive than landlords refusing to rent to this or that person. During the period from the 30s through the 60s when the American dream of owning one's own home was born, homeownership was systematically and deliberately denied to blacks. It's very well documented and goes all the way to the top - FDR personally signed off on it.

THAT's what people should demand reparations for. It was recent enough that many perpetrators and victims are still around, and the effects are clearly visible today.

Ever wonder why you can be walking through a city and all of a sudden the neighborhood gets really bad from one block to the next? That's where the red line was.

tarrant84: But on the other hand, why do you think they don't want to rent to them? The color of their skin? Or the image of themselves that their clothes and speech are giving off?


So they should what? Have to dress and talk more like..... a white man? Or rather, a white protestant? The fact that someone wears FUBU and has corn-rows doesn't mean a single thing. It's one thing to look dirty and disheveled and another to look different. In our society, we have a problem with both. The former is justified, the latter is not.

zahal: The german goverment gave my grandmother 70 dollars as "reparations" for her being in a concentration camp and having her entier family exterminated. I think she framed the check.

That doesn't sound right. My uncle was getting $70 *per month* from the Krauts right up until he died a couple years ago. The German Post Office administers the payments. I think your grandmother is holding out on you, or there's a shiatload of lost checks in a post office somewhere.

Ok, how about this - we'll settle up as soon as the current slave trade of whites/blacks/christians/children/etc in Africa stops.

Nearly every race in history has enslaved or been a slave to some other race/group/country. Good luck getting paid.

There were a number of free blacks who owned slaves. Are they expected to pay up, too? Are these reparationists digging deep to find out who they are? Will their black decendents be demonized like whitey? Doubt it.

If you're black and "not for" reparations, are we going to see you tearing up your restitution check? Doubt it.

No where in the world is there more opportunity than in America today.

We pay reparations every time a welfare card is swiped, medicaid or discount care is provided, and "black" scholarships are awarded. (yeah, I know that not all blacks are on welfare, not only blacks are on welfare, etc. you know what I mean.)

GodLovesBear
try not to be an idiot.

Tallahassee is one of the most integrated cities in the south. Without trying we all get along and have for a long time. We don't tolerate racism in our gov't, our police force or our schools and this community is better for it. I don't know what kind of urban youth experiences you all have had but my experience here gives me hope.

St. pete? Dead opposite.

Fair enough. But that means I get my land back and whitey takes their smallpox tainted blankets back

/kiddin'
//about 1/4-1/5 Cherokee (eastern)

cheshirecatsmileyface [TotalFark]

this thread is a great. 300+ posts from all sorts of people talking as if they were experts on black culture and all of like 1% of y'all are actually black.

nice.

It's not my fault they're too dumb to use computers.

/runs

The Govt. won't give reparations, because short term influx of cash does not a sustainable revenue stream make. The hookers and blow comments, while snide, are not far off the mark, and we have a recent, verifiable example to prove it.

They won't put it into schools, because they LIKE having farked up schools. Sure, Ivy league and the like are nice, but by and large, most colleges are a joke. Think about your (non-tech) major. How hard was it to get your degree?
Keeping education at a snails pace helps the ruling class stay in power. Wouldn't want people learning exactly HOW they are getting screwed.

Welfare should be capped at six months. If you can't find a job that can support you and yours in six months, it's time to give up those kids, or drive yourself off a cliff, because I'm sick of paying for it.

Defense spending should be capped at 20% of the federal budget. The rest of the surplus can go into schools.

/but seriously, reparations? THPTBTBBBTT!! Please.

I blame the English and French. Never met a black man with a German, Irish or Italian last name. My family is from Germany and I married a Jewish girl! Don't my part already!

infantry: without a doubt. i have noticed that successful black people's attitudes are very different than street trash (black, white, etc). probably because they know the value of working hard and the value of values and money

So you have noticed that educated people have better attitudes than uneductated people? Because that is ultimately what we are talking about here. And I would agree with yout. Nobody seems to want to make it that simple. We have to throw race into it and make it count for more what actually takes place.

I believe that my Norwegian ancestors once enslaved my Irish ancestors. Do I pay reparations to myself?

cheshirecatsmileyface
this thread is a great. 300+ posts from all sorts of people talking as if they were experts on black culture and all of like 1% of y'all are actually black.

I'm black. From the waist down. :D

Shenanigans_

Unreal. You are displaying the very ignorance you claim to abhor. You cannot possibly claim what a "majority" of "them" believe.

Uneffing real. That kind of ignorance is more offensive. The smug ignorance that has no meaningful chance of being recognized by the speaker.

Are you trying to deny that there is a disconnect between black and white culture? Are you trying to deny that blacks are experiencing problems at a higher rate than other sections of the population?

It seems like your natural reaction is to go "OMG!!! He's talking about skin color! It's negative towards that group!! You're RACIST!"

No one is racist. No one feels their race is genetically superior, or hates to be around people of a different skin color. All anyone is doing is pointing out that there are two distinct cultures in this country. Black culture, which does exist, and is racially based, tends to share a different set of stressed values than what you define as "white culture."

That's not racist. It's just fact. The problem is many of those values are not condusive to success in a capitalist society, yet we cannot stand up against these values because "they're culture" and that "makes you racist."

"So that means Bethany is part black?"

My ancestors were slaves of the Roman Empire. When am I gonna see some reparations?

/get over it

Rapmaster2000
It's not my fault they're too dumb to use computers.

Wow.... just WOW, I mean, that was harsh.

Laughing that you had the balls to say that.

2006-07-11 04:01:52 PM SoylentGreen:

That's why we have the estate tax... although not for long the way things are going.

oberones

WarpZone: interesting how people always seem to harp on hip hop like it's the root of all problems for blacks.

Anyone who says that hip-hop is the root of all evil for blacks is an idiot.

I agree, but commercial rap sure as fark doesn't help. Anyone who denies that is denying the power that cultural works can have on changing society. Admittedly Snoop Dog is no Karl Marx, but sometimes ideas (coupled with a receptive environment) can really make a difference, you dig?

Carlton Dissagrees

As far as I am concerned, the US paid for slavery in blood during the civil war.

yet you seem to imply that YOU know better.

No implication intended. I'm not making statements about an entire race or a majority thereof. That would be incredibly ignorant and completely undermine any point I might have.

I'm willing to contribute towards free one-way tickets back to Mother Africa for all who want reparations.

lukelightning: You left out "murdering homosexuals."

That's a WHITE rapper than continually discusses murdering homosexuals. Don't forget that.

oberones

they need to act, speak, and dress more like a decent person in society dresses like. they need to stop acting like children and act like adults

Everyone soth of the Mason-Dixon line geta a 15% increase in taxes for 400 years, simple. Money goes to those displaced and brought over to be used as free or cheap labor.

reparations will never happen. it was too long ago and it would simply be too complex a problem to ever resolve to anyone's sastisfaction. and I think we all know it will never happen.

So stop worrying about it. What is unfortunate though, is that in reading through a lot of the comments in this thread there seems to be no shortage of racist assholes.

Palsy

....how YOU doin?

Leberkase: I blame the English and French.

Actually, it's interesting you say that, because I was just thinking the same thing. If you want reparation payments, you should be asking the crowns of England, Spain, France, Holland, and Portugal. That's where slavery REALLY came from.

No reparations eh?

Fine then, then America (and any associated corporation) should be more than willing to give away all of the profits it gained via Slave labor. Any thing built by slaves should be torn down, any profits gained removed. Figure, since Slaves helped propel this country forward, we should be fair and give back those ill gotten gains.

Nice level playing field for all.

DROxINxTHExWIND: Second, that standard of living that you're referring too was created by Black peoples labor for the masses. The White man didn't GIVE us shiat.

If there was no bloodshed (and there wasn't) nothin was taken. It was GIVEN.

Why is it that every time I apply for a job I have to fill check the box next to the race I am:
African-American
Native-American
Asain
White
Latino or of Latin decent

That urks me a little...

when the paper we toss around begins to ensure human dignity,let me know...