Slave Reparations

I seriously doubt that anyone living today was a slave...

PERIOD. The End.

Therefore, the idea of "reparations" is insane...

Does anybody think that some punk kid, born 20 years ago, should be entitled to money from the government for what his great, great, great grandfather went through? I seriously doubt it. There are numerous programs that provide such "reparations" in the form of affirmative action, etc. which promote the advancement of one minority (any minority) even when a "white" candidate is more qualified, or has higher grades, etc. While I didn't have to pay too much for college, due to grades and scholarships...had I been a minority, it would have been a totally free ride. That would have saved a few thousand bucks, and serves as adequate "reparations" I think....

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for EQUAL (and there's the key word) rights, but SPECIAL rights will simply further discrimination, as it is, in essence discrimination...

I'm honored that you agree with me, for once, Saphie!

War and enslavement is nothing new to Africa. That continent suffered from it back then, it suffers from it now and will continue to suffer from it until the Second Coming. A shame, to. Beautiful people, a beautiful land, plagued by horror.

I hate Rap, IT is the vulgarity, Hip-Hop is not as vulgar, and it can be considered more of an art form. The fact that so many poor peoples, especially the poor blacks, is why they are so poor off.

Your idea of hip hop is foolish...Hip hop only serves to degrade the morality of society.

make up your mind

Originally posted by Saphronia
Mirrorspardise: Have you ever heard of Jim Crow? Reparations for Jim Crow covers a huge portion of african americans alive today ( including my parents and grandparents) who were discriminated against by the laws of the United States government on the basis of their skin color--this is a simple law suit people it's not that hard to figure out. Is the government of the United States liable for the laws that were racially discriminatory against black people? Prolly not cause you guys can't even face what happened and some of you are old enough to have been a part of it.

yeah, well *I* had nothing to do with this and neither did my family, or any of my ancestors for that matter.
And where do you think the government is going to get the money to pay for this lawasuit huh?? think they will just pull the money out of the air?? No. they will get it from taxpayers, etc, which would include me and other people who had nothing to do with what happened. *you* should not get money for what happened to people before you. The people living *now* did not enslave your relatives, because well, in case you havent noticed slavery is illegal these days. So, by asking for money that is not rightfully yours.. you are doing something that is immoral.its just wrong. I can understand that what they went through was horrible, but it was the past and you cant punish people of the present for what people of the past did, understand? it is WRONG.

If *I* were you, I would not feel right to take what is not mine from someone that does not owe it to me, who has never caused me any harm. Because I am white, it is harder for me to get into a particular college than a minority because *i* have to score higher on a test thatn a minor to be admitted. *that* is not equality, that is putting yourself above others just because of m isfortune that happened in the *past* .. How on earth can you justify this?

[Edited on 16-3-2003 by mirrorsparadise]

MP: are you under the assumption that black people don't pay taxes? because if you are i'm here to tell you we aren't tax exempt. we pay taxes and the money you are so quick to covet as your own is just as much ours.

this isn't about affirmative action--it's about reparations. and while i don't agree with the suit i believe the government of the United States is liable for the laws it subjected black people to until the passage of the civil rights act of 1964.

but, it's useless to argue this point with you. you are so obviously trying to make this personal (hopefully, you prepared yourself for higher education and won't have to worry about passing a test to get into your college of choice).

and you didn't answer the question. have you ever heard of Jim Crow? it's sad what they don't teach in highschool american history. when you get to college most of the history professors try to make up for that.

yes ive heard of jim crow, i did take history. do you think im an idiot?

and i know we all pay taxes. and even though you are tax exempt you are getting money back for unjust reasons. so who cares if you pay taxes as well? you are stills tealing from thsoe who did nothing to you. actually even if your ancestors were enslaved, you arent so why do peopel owe you money? why does *any* race owe you money even that of your own????

Fact of the matter is everyone born in the U.S. has the ability to make a go of it or blow it, no matter what your race, color, creed or religion is. As a matter of fact, if you are anything other than a white male, you are given extra merit points. Public education at the tax payers expense, books and all, are afforded everyone, and for those of us who aren't the brightest, student loans are offered for colloege education (I paid mine off, you can, too).

Now, once you've gone to college, received your brainwashing (which some of you obviously haven't shaken off, yet) you can get a crappy job like all us stupid white tax-paying boys and work for the system until the day you die.

Now, shut up and go to bed, you sniveling maggots! Tired slaves are not productive slaves!

Good night.
TC

N0_hope will you stop being so childish and IGNORANT

What you quoted is NOT a contradiciton, but a realization of terms.

Rap is mislabeled as "hip-hop" because YES hip-hop actually is an artform unto itself.

RAP is crap and is damaging, hip-hop is not, your second quote of me (which I'm not even sure where I said that) would be before I decided to distinguish between actual "hip-hop" and "rap".

Why don't you find someone else to pester, I'm too smart for you, I'll just keep shovling your dung back in your face.

You have to realize that this whole 'Slave Reparations' thing is a CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT. Who is the class of people that will receive the reparations- ALL blacks, even ones who didn't have a single family member in the US during the times of slavery? How would we handle the 60 or so BLACK FAMILIES who owned slaves that are represented in the 1860 census? Distributing the reparations would be unfair- you know very well people would be exploiting it.

The insurance companies that insured the slaves are all out of business.

Why should we, in today's society, be forced to pay this ridiculous amount of money for someone's plight at a time in our country where it was LEGAL to have slaves? This is quite different than the alleged Nazi holocaust... it was LEGAL to have slaves. Basically, they are trying to get reparations on a moral issue through legal channels. I'm sorry, but our legal system just doesn't work that way.

The other issue here is something called 'Transgenerational Guilt', which is not a justified legal concept. If my father kills your father, you have absolutely no recourse on me. None. Its the same with slavery- they want US citizens to pay their own money even though a majority of us didn't even have family in the country back then who owned slaves or even owned land.

This is a pathetic attempt to get something for nothing, clearly very little planning or logic went into it. They should take all of this energy they have begging for a handout and maybe try to clean up the damned schools.

MP: don't sterotype me...my people don't now and never have lived off the system. my mother is a registered nurse--my father is a retired boxer (step-pops is a cop). i grew in a suburb, and i am a college graduate. i don't agree with reparations. but, one would be foolish to think that the government isn't liable for laws (such as Jim Crow) that were discriminatory. still, you don't have to worry it isn't like our government will be handing out any checks to black folk any time soon.

on your first question...i do kinda think you are an idiot...but, not because of the Jim Crow thing. it's because you seem racist and that's just a personal observation it may not be true. still some of the things you said in your last post "you people living off the government" and "you people getting stuff for free"...i have worked very hard for what i have and i resent anyone saying otherwise because of the color of my skin. the truth is this lawsuit was brought on by a small group of black folk on behalf of the black community and i know few black folk that agree with it; most don't. so to assume that we are sitting around on our collective a*ses waiting on a hand-out is racist to me. do you know any black folk personally?

TC: this is getting scary...i agree, again. i'm a little jealous though cause my loans aren't paid off...but, you got a couple of years on me.

yeah, my whole family is racist, i mean since we haveblack people in our family all... i mean im totally racist against them..yep..i hate my favorite cousin because shes half black you bet i do.. yeah. im far from racist. if there were white poeple wanting o get reparations for things that happened not to them but to other people i would think that was ridiculous as well.

THIS IS NOT A RACE ISSUE..dont be ridiculous..

Some people alredy paid. My great great great great uncle fought for the Union. He died in the war.
While not main goal to free slaves, but in result of US winning they were freed. My family already paid.

Besides, I think 5xGreat gramps was black, so do I get money? But also white, and Indian, so do I take
money from right pocket, put it in left to pay off black part, then into back pocket to pay off Indian part?

How does one decide? Does Micheal Jordan get money? Does a crack addict get money? Does a half black get
money? Does someone who's family wasn't even over here then have to pay? Does someone who just came here
three weeks ago have to pay? What about the blacks who's families owned slaves? Do they get money? Or ones
not even over here then get money? How do you decide who gets what and who pays who?