God. This is great. It's like all these anti-reparations people actually believe that next Friday your boss is going to hand you your paycheck and say "Oh by the way its short $800 because of reparations".

/The overreaction is phenomenal. We all know it will never happen. Even if the request was reduced to a cold glass of lemonade.

proportionately, blacks take up the majority of the welfare rolls.

Once again, I feel compelled to point out that despite your proclamations of superior intellect, 40% is never a majority.

Never. Ever.

You might consider the historical factors that contribute to a disproportionate representation of black folks on welfare rolls, but that would require critical analysis and strong reading comprehension, not to mention a little humility.

Here's the deal, if your ancestors helped make America what it is today you get to stay here and enjoy the fruits of their labors. If you want to go back to Africa you can have a one way ticket to the hell hole of your choice after you pay rent to the Indians on whose land your miserable fat ass has been sitting your entire freaking life. Any questions?

Let EXXON foot the bill

Actually, reparations were made about 140+ years ago. Payment was not in cash, but about 350,000 men paid a pretty steep price.

So, if we give African-Americans a check then how will it improve their quality of life? Seriously, will a one-time infusion of a relatively small some of money permanantly change the quality of life of the average African-American? If the answer is no then how long after the checks are mailed before people start biatching again about reparations? If the answer is yes, then what is that sum? My guess is that it would be so high that there would be no way that there would be any political support for it. This is never going to happen.

How do you define decent? What is indecent about having corn-rows and speaking in an African American dialect?

...I will say this. It's HARD to understand African-American dialects and when they're working in the service industry, its a serious problem.

But it's that recognition that slavery was utterly inhumane that drives the emotion behind all of this, and that's a good thing, IMO.

No, its greed.

Okay, maybe not, but seriously, how many dollars is 'inhumane' worth? That's like saying "Well, sir, we killed your relatives and raped your women...here's how much its worth to us. There, all better."

Plus, like everyone keeps saying, it happened a long time ago. Time to let go, forgive but not forget and move on.

Yup, there are some black people on this thread. 22 and black, and conservative republican evangelical Christian. So basically, all farkers WANT to hate me, but white guilt makes you feel bad for hating me cuz i'm black. Take that!

No reparations. End of story. There are no living slaves, and the argument that black people are still poor because of it is ridiculous. My parentd were poor to start and through hard work and student loans made something of themselves. Personal responsibility people, get with it.

BlindMan: If not, what are you saying, really?

If you're going to jump in, at least follow the conversation. The point is that we have the SAME core values, we just have different acceptable means of persuing those values. I have said nothing about the legality or "rightness" of anyone's values.

Shenanigans_

Ok, I guess you're not a math guy. Proportions.

If you have one guy eating 40% of a pie, and then 10 other guys eating the other 60% of that pie, the 1 guy alone is eating the largest amount.

DROxINxTHExWIND

"Here's a deal, anyone who can get the immediate presumption of innocence from the police and the general public based on skin color should have to kick in to the reperations fund. And any White person who was not born in a manger should partially credit the free labor of Black slaves for creating an early economy that could sustain their ancestors who produced nothing."

Well if we must get technical here, really it was MY ancestors who had something to do with the manger guy, and they weren't 'white people' per se.

Secondly my ancestors might be surprised to learn that their sorry sharecropper plot of land where my dad was still chopping cotton as a kid produced nothing... as he seems to think it produced cotton and some potatoes and chickens too.

I thought welfare was reparations

OscarTamerz: Any questions?

Yes, why did you feel the need to yell at us? Posting in larger letters does not increase the power of your argument.

Hargoni,

...Perhaps a better overall structure would be to put reparation money toward community programs that force people of different colours and cultures to work together on mutually beneficial projects.

Wow, you solution sounds just like the very definition of slavery... good one.

Why should I have to contribute to reparations? My grandparents couldn't have had anything to do with slavery, they were busy killing Jews in Germany.

/seriously

oberones

"i dont think"

well then i believe my white society has better values according to your logic. we arent going to see eye to eye, but thank you for keeping the discussion civil

Slavery was legal, and therefore ordering reparations would be comparable to writing an ex post facto law, which is prohibited by our Constitution.
Sorry. Thanks for playing.

Lusiphur: . If you can't see that, you're bliding yourself in an atempt to appear as unracist as possible, which reeks of denial and insincerity(sp?). There is a whole seperate set of priorities and values for the two cultures.

Much of which can be fixed through education. You read way too much into what I said. I never said that poor whites and blacks were the same. I just said if you provide a good education you can help them both.

DROxINxTHExWIND :

Why, YES.

People need to get off their asses and work. If your job doesn't pay enough, get two jobs. Hell, get three. Just do something for yourself that doesn't involve a systematic handout.

You've got the right and freedom to pursure life, liberty, and happiness. None of us are entitled to wealth, healthcare, or an eduacation. We should work for those things and work harder when the rewards aren't satisfactory.

[not referring to "you", necessarily. i think you know what i mean. :-0]

SoylentGreen

Look at today's wealthy, successfull white men. They all come from families of money and connections, some that last generations.

I have a rich uncle. He came from a poor rural family with dirt floors. So, no they don't all come from rich families. And his story is not unusual.

The black people have no "old money", no "homeland" that sends over money or support, and no family history of connections.

Neither do most white people.

Just look at the Bush family, the Kennedy's, Gates, Trump, etc. Sure, slavery was outlawed a long time ago, but that doesn't mean that blacks were allowed to run willy-nilly and get educations and start business. That sort of thing only started 30-40 years ago!

Nonsense. Black literacy was higher at the turn of the 20th century then it is now. And blacks who understood that nothing was holding them back have owned successful businesses for generations.

And why? Slavery!

Slavery has left scars, but you have drastically overstated the case, and demonstrated your own prejudices while you were at it. I am not saying that African-Americans need to "just get over it." I am just suggesting to you that the field is more level than you think.

I also recognize that it is easy for me to say that. But I watched my father get passed up for promotions in the 1970's because he was white, thanks to affirmative action (two wrongs making a right).

So yes, I believe black people are entitled to reparations.

Reparations were paid in blood during the civil war. African-Americans are holding themselves back now by believing what they hear from Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson on cable news. Their most pressing problems are not for white people to solve, but white people should help where we can. Mentoring and small business counseling are good first steps if you have those gifts.

Yes, slavery was bad. We abolished slavery. Ta da! We can talk about slavery, read about slavery, write erect monuments and pass laws regarding slavery, yet people still say we're not addressing it enough? WTF?!

"Spiritual healing" begins inside, not outside. Why is it my responsibility to heal someone spiritually? I have my own spirituality to worry about.

Besides, there is still very real slavery in the world, and even sexual slavery in the US right now. But African Americans don't care about all that reality. They only care about what they haven't experienced and thankfully will never have to experience because slavery was abolished.

ABOLISHED!

Lusiphur: I disagree. I think that for the most part, you're reading too much into the music. It might have been true at one point, and still is for some artists, but for the majority of rappers, a pimp is someone who made it by any means necessary. In fact, the easier the progress up, the more respect they get. Look at the difference between Colin Powell and Puff Daddy...diddy...didum, whatever the fark he's called now. Which one gets more respect in the black community?

Which one looks and acts more like your average black person? What do you think when you see a cracker wearing FUBU? Probably just like me, you assume he's an idiot. It's much easier to relate to someone who looks like you.

oberones

The point is that we have the SAME core values, we just have different acceptable means of persuing those values. I have said nothing about the legality or "rightness" of anyone's values.

Oh I understood that part quite clearly, and that's the very essence of the problem with your statements.

cheshirecatsmileyface
Almost as absurd as asking for reparations isn't it?
Racists!

tarrant84

i was just about to clear that math problem up. you beat me to it. i was kind of wondering about that one....

Oh here are your reperations, oh and here is a bill for the boat ride also. It is 175 years past due and late fees are a biatch. So we deducted it from your reparations. Black people now owe $10 Million a head, but we are fair and willing to work with you. How about this, we will drop your debt if you just STFU about reparations, will that work for you?

HEY dave1y.... great post!

By the way, no one has brought up a very interesting issue that is just coming to light for sociologists. Black culture is finally being accepted by the mainstream, especially the youth, so that assimilation within the next couple of generations is almost guranteed. Basically, this is one problem where if you ignore it long enough, it WILL eventually resolve itself. The only question is, are we assimilating the best or worst parts of black culture? Just like when the last and current generation of sucessful blacks began to assimilate parts of white culture, did they get the best or worst parts? It's an interesting question.

bboy: Wow, every black person in the US wants reparations? That's pretty amazing, submitter!


Um, I think his sentence is correct. He said black people want reparations, NOT 'ALL' black people...

So us whities have a better shot at having money than a black person, mainly because history gave us the advantage. How do we not owe something to the disadvantaged (assuming they're not there by their own fault)?

cheshirecatsmileyface
Guess what, nothings going to change.
Get use to it, get over it, learn to deal with it....

Or kill everyone you even suspect of not digging on you cause your not like them.

tarrant84: Ask rappers who dress like that and say

"I been drinkin and smokin holdin shiat cause a brother can't focus
I gotta get to home 'fore the po po's scope this big ol Excursion swerving all up in the curve man
nubian been sippin on that Hennessey and the gin again is in again we in the wind
Doin a hundred while I puff on the blunt
And rollin another one up, we livin like we ain't givin a fark
I got a revolver in my right hand, 40 oz on my lap freezing my balls
Roll a nubian tree, green leaves and all"

Whitey didn't create this stereotype. Rather, blacks created the stereotype, and then get pissed off when whites follow it.


You haven't answered my question. I asked what is indecent about corn rows and speaking with an African American dialect, and you responded by quoting some rap song.

You really don't want to get in a battle of lyrics with me. For every negative hip-hop song you can quote, I can quote a positive one. People have an image of what hip-hop is, based on what they hear on the radio and see on MTV. But that's like watching CNN and figuring that you understand the world.

Would that we could afford such a thing... Would that we could...

Alas, we can offer little more than our apologies, and our promises that we are a more enlightened people then once we were...

At least MOST of us are.

Shenanigans_: And there it is - the ubiquitous "I have black friends so my gross overgeneralizing statements about race aren't racist." Nothing if not consistent.


ONe of the many thread winners right there. I love how people say "I have a black (insert adjective here)" and somehow think their derogatory comments are okay.

Dancin_In_Anson: I figure the fact that he was at Gettysburg is worth a little more too.

Not if he was Union. Except for little round top, that was a turkey shoot. Probably the easiest your relatives ever had it.

How about we just send them a nice card. Does Hallmark have a Reparations section?

I think I should get some too because I am ½ Irish. ( they had it pretty rough)

Hey, who asked them to come over here anyway, they were free to go back if they didn't like it. G'dam Irish, they ruined Notre Dame!

Aerial_Jesus: So, if we give African-Americans a check then how will it improve their quality of life? Seriously, will a one-time infusion of a relatively small some of money permanantly change the quality of life of the average African-American? If the answer is no then how long after the checks are mailed before people start biatching again about reparations? If the answer is yes, then what is that sum? My guess is that it would be so high that there would be no way that there would be any political support for it. This is never going to happen.

Even if reparations were given...in a geneartion, if things don't improve much, then many will claim that that is clear evidence that the reparations weren't great enough...and want more.

oberones: You really don't want to get in a battle of lyrics with me. For every negative hip-hop song you can quote, I can quote a positive one.


Forgot my quote (can't pass up the opportunity to prove a point.)

"Hey there young man why degrade your only sista?
And call them biatches and hoes?
What if one day someone feels the same way
About that daughter of yours?"

ok, so first we have to pay the native americans and mexican indians who were here first - seeing as how we took their lands, and did all those horrible things to them. Obviously all black people who were enslaved (sorry if you came here afterwards, no monies for you), don't forget the japanese that we tossed into camps "just in case". Oh, then we need to start looking at all the races that were discriminated against - and don't think that there aren't any more that suffered at the hands of the majority.

Next, we need to exclude anyone who came here years later that had no say or any action involved in the whole mess. If my ancestors only came over in the last 2 generations, why do I need to pay for someone else? Not to mention those of us who never owned a slave, took stolen land, or any of that? Will you then give to those families who lost their homes and relatives (sons, uncles, cousins, and so on) to free people who shouldn't have been enslaved?

By the time we figure out who was when, where, and did what, we might as well cut the majority of ALL folks a check.

In the creation of any nation there is unjust and unrest, what makes a nation strong is the ability to correct those wrongs and move beyond it. Why must we still beat the drum of retribution? I am more inclined to someone stating we should take 100 million and creating a museum or monument of the perservance (sp?) of these groups of people, than to hand out checks blindly based on skin color.

oberones

I already told you-- nothing is intrinsically "indecent" about it.

What is indecent is the image you are trying to portray. Why don't you wear a t-shirt and jeans to a job interview? Because you want to give the interviewer the impression that you're a professional!

If you want to give off the image that you a thug and a deala, fine, but don't be surprised when it bites you in the ass.

1. Disband the teachers unions
2. Drastically increase average teacher pay to lure intelligent collegiates
3. Profit

Harry Balsagna for the win

GodLovesBear
So...are you always this much of a jerk or do you save it for Fark?

Attention Black America:

Reperations have already been paid.

To collect your share please send a self-adressed stamped envelope to the NBA, the NFL, Death Row Records and Harpo Productions.

They have your money and are waiting to hear from you.

Don't delay or else your families share could be spent on "Bling."

newtekie1: Oh here are your reperations, oh and here is a bill for the boat ride also. It is 175 years past due and late fees are a biatch. So we deducted it from your reparations. Black people now owe $10 Million a head, but we are fair and willing to work with you. How about this, we will drop your debt if you just STFU about reparations, will that work for you?

This statement blows my farking mind. It assumes that black slaves wanted the boat ride in the first place. Then it assumes that those same slaves didn't produce enough in slave labor to have covered the boat ride 400 years ago.

Mr. newtekie1:, what you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this thread is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.