When you create an empire on theft, genocide, graft, corruption, exploitation, abuse and all manner of abuse and degradation, is it possible to single out one group of victims for compensation without adding the other ones too? And if the answer is no, as justice demands, will there be anything left in the end? And if no, would it really matter?
Why Whites Won’t Give Reparations
Ted Rall
Ted Rall is a syndicated political cartoonist for Andrews McMeel Syndication, WhoWhatWhy.org and Counterpoint. He is a frequent contributor to The Wall Street Journal, a graphic novelist and author of many books of art and prose, and an occasional war correspondent. He is, recently, the author of the graphic novel "The Stringer."
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To borrow a favorite liberal “argument”:
It’s 2016.
For an atheist, Ted, you’re sure into the idea of original sin.
I’m supposed to believe that if only minorities had reparations for what happened to other people generations ago, they’d be so successful…
It would seem the very term “personal responsibility” has all but disappeared down the memory hole at this point.
“Personal responsibility” is as much bs as “meritocracy”. When the perpetrators of heinous crimes have never been held personally responsible and their ancestors and those who share their racial characteristics have continued to benefit from their rapaciousness, it’s ridiculous to insist that the “other” demonstrate personal responsibility while denying ones own personal privileges.
Ted didn’t say that reparations would solve every problem and criticizes the ‘splaining away of responsibility more than directly advocating for reparations.
Ah, quasimodomouse, you don’t seem to appreciate the delicious irony in «Jack Heart»’s taking us to task with regard to «personal responsibility» ! No doubt s/he reads Invictus</i< every night before retiring, with a great sigh escaping her/him upon coming to those tear-jerking lines :
«I am the master of my fate,
I am the captain of my soul. »
Henri
Jack Subscribes to the GOP version of ‘personal responsibility’ to wit: It’s always some other person’s responsibility…
I e, CrazyH, «OPR» rather than «OPM» (other peoples’ money) which is otherwise their mantra…. 😉
Henri
Well that leaves a question. A lot of white people came to the United States AFTER 1865. So they never owned slaves. Some white people — even during the Slave Era — opposed it. Do those peoples’ descendants get some sort of waiver?
This goes back to my OP: there’s no way to do this. When someone can present a way to do it, fine. Then we can evaluate the plan.
Has anyone presented any plan for how such reparations would be made? I mean from a “here’s how to do it” sense.
Does every black person get counted?
What about blacks whose ancestors owned slaves themselves?
What about blacks whose ancestors didn’t get to this country until after 1865?
What about people whose ancestors ended up here at the start of slavery (1619, Virginia) vs. those who got here at the end?
This would, I assume, all be paid by some sort of taxation. But even if the money just magically shows up, how does the government distribute it? Wouldn’t a race-based payout violate equal treatment under the law?
Also, how black does someone have to be? If blond-haired, blue-eyed John Smith shows up with a gene chart that shows he’s 1/32nd black, does he get a check?
This whole thing seems simply impossible to carry out. Wouldn’t the time and effort be better spent working for something like getting Bernie Sanders elected? I think tuition-free college for every black (and other) student in the U.S. would do a lot more than wasting time arguing for something that can’t be done.
Frankly, it seems like this has come up as a way for Mr. Coates to get press coverage. There will never be reparations, but Mr. Coates will get lots of attention and sell a few more books, get some speaking fees, and so forth.
But if he has a plan, a way to do this that would actually work, I’d be interested in hearing it.
What about people whose ancestors include both slaveowners and abolitionists–or even slaves? Or maybe one slaveowner and the rest non-slaveowners. Or perhaps slaveowners and Union soldiers? We could have them pay reparations as a gesture and then be refunded.
«The only way to be fair to blacks is to be equally unfair to everyone ! (Everyone except rich white guys.)» Actually, Ted, the way to be fair to most blacks, whites, and members of other ethnic groups would be to break the stranglehold that those «rich white guys» – and gals and a few members of other ethnicities – have on US politics. Of the candidates who in your «first past the post», «winner [or the Supreme Court] takes all» electoral system have a chance of becoming US president, only Mr Sanders has such a programme, one, indeed, that he not only has talked about, but actually seems to have pursued during his lengthy political career. Too bad Mr Coates refuses to recognise this fact….
Henri
We can’t fix the past, all we can do is influence the future. If you go back far enough, all of our ancestors were once slaves and once slave owners.
Look around you, and figure out who needs a hand up – society as a whole benefits. (a ‘hand up’ is an altogether different thing than a ‘hand out’)
Helping the disabled and poor is more politically acceptable to many people than simple race calculations, so Crazy H is on the right track. We just need to run enough big money D’s and R’s out power to make real changes. Breaking gerrymandering state by state, big PAC money and fighting voter suppression would be a good start.
Instead of free university and then trying to find a job. How about and a year or two of paid (Wall Street Taxes) public service jobs for students so they can put something on their resumes and we could use their labor to lift up the less fortunate that are not cut out for university. If you don’t show up, or show up drunk ect. then your diploma is put on hold until you pay your full tuition. The rich can pay full tuition if they want to skip out on public service, we need to make it clear we are not forcing labor out people.