Reply to It's (finally) time for reparations. It's time for the US to pay its debt.

Forum Index » Political Discussion

Reply to "It's (finally) time for reparations. It's time for the US to pay its debt. "

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I'm all for paying higher taxes to provide healthcare for all, better schools, and free college for lower-income kids.

I worked in development for 10 years and huge cash transfers aren't the way to go. Teach a man to fish and all that.[/quote]

How about other forms of reparations?

Do you support the principle but not just handing out cash? 
[/quote]
NP here.  The principle is abhorrent.  My parents and grandparents recieved Holocaust reparations from the German government.  That was for their suffering.  I would not accept reparations for me.  I did not suffer anything close to what they went through.

On the other hand, I do believe society has an obligation to assist people who are poor today.   Present conditions that keep them in poverty should be fixed.  They are entitled to a decent life and opportunities.  Cash is okay, but jobs at living wages is better.

Otherwise, we will be saying Oprah deserves "reparations," but a poor white who grew up in poverty deserves nothing.  [/quote]

What if your parents had never been paid? What if Israel wasn't formed? What if extensive systemic antisemitism was still happening today?

Did you know that the US government still pays (this year $5 million) to support Holocaust survivors living in America? And $3.8B in military aid to Israel in 2019.

Even, some slave owners were compensated: 
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/16/opinion/when-slaveowners-got-reparations.html

How much has the US ever paid to survivors of slavery and other forms of black oppression? 
[/quote]
My mother's family was compensated.  Due to the vagaries of history, my father's family was not.  That's how it goes.  I would not accept money for him.

Military aid to Israel is not reparations.  It's a military alliance.  Formation of Israel was perhaps reparations, but that benefited actual refugees, and unfortunately created other refugees who are still suffering.

What about Indians?  We took 100 per cent of their land.  Do we give it back?

What about Chinese railroad builders?  They weren't paid very well and faced years of discrimination.  Do they get back compensation for what they should have been paid?

What about women for the last 5,000 years?  So many were slaves to their husbands.  Do today's men owe women payment for our grandfathers beating our grandmothers?

The point is, history is history.  The winners and the losers all end up dead.  Their joys and sufferings are over.   We can't fix what happened to the dead, not even in theory.

[b]We can however make the world better for those who suffer today.  That's what we should be talking about.[/b]  [/quote]

Thoughts on how to bridge the wealth gap without reparations? 
[/quote]
Focus on systemic racism issues that exist today.  It's really that simple.  It's disgusting to demand anything called "reparations" for something that happened 400 years ago.

[/quote]

400 years ago? The Civil Rights Act was only passed 56 years ago. At that point, discrimination became illegal, but nothing was done to correct existing injustices and black people still do face discrimination today. Brown v. Board of Education was decided 66 years ago, but our schools remain segregated today. All moving us in the right direction, but the harm of 400 years of slavery and oppression was never corrected and nothing lost was restored.

I agree we should work on systemic racism, but without also addressing the wealth gap we are limited in our ability to transform our country. We can't achieve racial equality until we achieve economic equality.

[/quote]
The harm of 400 years of slavery CANNOT be corrected.  That's the point.

I didn't say anything about the wealth gap and I won't until you understand  that your small bank account is a CURRENT problem, not an historical one.  YOU did not lose anything.  Your ancestors did.  Nothing can be "restored," to dead people.

We can't resolve current problems by appealing to past injustices.  [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics