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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]^^^ Nobody is going to give you a dime. Even if they did, nothing would change and you would still have a million excuses. Maybe you could learn something from immigrants who came from far more challenging circumstances.[/quote]

Far more challenging?  I'm reading a book called "White Rage" by Carol Anderson, a professor at Emory.  She tells a story of a black man who worked for a brutal plantation owner in the 1920s in Valdosta, GA.  He beat the men who worked for him.  One day, a man fought back and killed him.  In retaliation, the white people lynched 20 random black people.  Including a man and his wife.  The wife was 8 months pregnant.  Her name was Mary Tyler.  They tied her up and burned her while she was alive.  They cut the baby from her and then when it fell to the ground, it cried.  A white man talked over and stomped its head.

None of the white mob got tried or went to jail.  Learn some history before you come on her talking about circumstances.  You don't know sh!t.

Whether you like it not, black people built this country for free.  Did immigrants do that?  You clearly don't know your history and sound ignorant.  It's sad really.[/quote]

Why don’t you read about something that happened in 2020 instead of 1920? Like blacks murdering blacks and black kids by the thousands every year? It sounds as if you are searching for an excuse for a failed life- reading books about things that happened in 1920 don’t excuse you from being a failure today. [/quote]

Why don’t you want to accept the fact that the horrible events of 1920 AND 2020 are both the results of four hundred years of slavery, oppression, racism and outright discrimination?

Reparations will help our people get in a better place, and then the process of healing may begin.[/quote]

DP here.  First, that story, if portrayed accurately, is absolutely tragic. I think stories like that deserve to be told and retold.

But you seem to oversimplify history. Slavery was not a government institution from which the American public at large benefited. It was a heinous practice by a fraction of the population, largely rich plantation owners in the South. It was morally reprehensible that US governments turned a blind eye to it, but as history proved it was almost untenable, it took one of the bloodiest civil wars to abolish it.

Today America is largely made up of the descendants of non-slave owning working farmers and waves of slave-wage immigrants. They don’t feel shame and they don’t feel guilt. They feel a lot of sympathy, but they will not write you a blank check.

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We should. We (the US) need to atone for atrocities.
- descendant of working farmer 
[/quote]

Two things. One, the vast majority of Americans don’t share your sentiment (per polls). Two, should we atone to sweatshop workers in Asia and how much are you willing to pay for it? In this case you directly have benefited from it.[/quote]

Doing the right thing isn't always popular.

Of course, we should all be thoughtful in our roles as consumers. I'd be open to discussing that if you want to start a thread.

But, here in the US, the government created and enforced racist policies that directly hurt black Americans. The US government - and its people - need to atone for those atrocities.

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