Emanuel wants reparations for blacks: time to say enough is enough

[Flagwavrusa]

At a mayoral debate in Chicago last night, Emanuel says he favors reparations to descendants of slaves. Despite decades of preferential treatment in academia, affirmative action in the work place, welfare payments, housing subsidies, and numerous other interventions to uplift blacks socially and economically, liberals want to provide, and many blacks are demanding, a giant wealth transfer based upon skin color.

Obviously, most blacks will never be satisfied and their desire for special treatment will never abate. At some point the spigot has to be turned off and blacks must be told enough is enough. This would best be accomplished by a constitutional amendment to ban any government policy intended to favor groups based upon race, something long overdue and something good for the country.

Mayoral candidates go after Rahm Emanuel on taxes, slave reparations - chicagotribune.com

 

[Tank]

Liberals have spoiled their black children

 

[Ernie S.]

Just who is going to pay these reparations? My family didn't own slaves but family ships did transport them. The 1790 census lists 4 non-whites in my 7 times great grandfather's household, but no slaves.

 

[William Joyce]

The Onion put it best:

"Reparations? Why don't we just let them keep all the shit they stole and call it even?"

 

[usa86]

At a mayoral debate in Chicago last night, Emanuel says he favors reparations to descendants of slaves. Despite decades of preferential treatment in academia, affirmative action in the work place, welfare payments, housing subsidies, and numerous other interventions to uplift blacks socially and economically, liberals want to provide, and many blacks are demanding, a giant wealth transfer based upon skin color.

Obviously, most blacks will never be satisfied and their desire for special treatment will never abate. At some point the spigot has to be turned off and blacks must be told enough is enough. This would best be accomplished by a constitutional amendment to ban any government policy intended to favor groups based upon race, something long overdue and something good for the country.

This is beyond ridiculous. There is not one person alive today who is still trying to overcome any physical, mental, or emotional damages that resulted from slavery. First of all, it is unjust to make people pay a "fine" or "damages" for something that no one in their blood line was involved with. There is a large number of white people whose ancestors were not even in this country in during slavery.

But lets take it a step further. This is a total political move. This is the same thing that Obama did in his campaign for president. He made blacks feel that they were going to get more entitlements, that their government handouts were secure, and that he was looking out for them. All you have to do is make blacks think they are getting something for free and they will support any candidate. Most are not educated enough to understand where their entitlements come from. We have all heard about "Obama money." The black vote is crucial to a victory and he needs an edge especially since there are black candidates in the race.

From an economic perspective this is an even worse idea. The state of Illinois is nearly bankrupt and already has one of the highest tax rates. So paying reparations would be a complete misappropriation of already limited funds. He would take extreme criticism for that which means raising taxes.

Taxes are placed on all individuals which includes blacks, whites, asians, etc. You can't have a "race specific" tax such as only taxing whites to pay these reparations. That would be unconstitutional and would not survive in court. In a nutshell blacks will be paying more taxes only to pay themselves their "hard earned reparations." So instead of keeping more of their income or paying lower sales tax they blindly follow the "free money" and view it as such because it is a check from the state for reparations.

 

[syrenn]

At a mayoral debate in Chicago last night, Emanuel says he favors reparations to descendants of slaves. Despite decades of preferential treatment in academia, affirmative action in the work place, welfare payments, housing subsidies, and numerous other interventions to uplift blacks socially and economically, liberals want to provide, and many blacks are demanding, a giant wealth transfer based upon skin color.

Obviously, most blacks will never be satisfied and their desire for special treatment will never abate. At some point the spigot has to be turned off and blacks must be told enough is enough. This would best be accomplished by a constitutional amendment to ban any government policy intended to favor groups based upon race, something long overdue and something good for the country.

Mayoral candidates go after Rahm Emanuel on taxes, slave reparations - chicagotribune.com

Cool, taking back their citizenship and shipping them back to aferica. Win win for everyone. How is that for reparations?

I agree, enough is enough. Time to get on with their lives. Not their great great great great great granparents lives.

 

[auditor0007]

All I want to know is who the idiots were that brought these slaves over here in the first place. Too bad we can't go back and smack those idiots upside the head.

 

[Lonestar_logic]

At a mayoral debate in Chicago last night, Emanuel says he favors reparations to descendants of slaves. Despite decades of preferential treatment in academia, affirmative action in the work place, welfare payments, housing subsidies, and numerous other interventions to uplift blacks socially and economically, liberals want to provide, and many blacks are demanding, a giant wealth transfer based upon skin color.

Obviously, most blacks will never be satisfied and their desire for special treatment will never abate. At some point the spigot has to be turned off and blacks must be told enough is enough. This would best be accomplished by a constitutional amendment to ban any government policy intended to favor groups based upon race, something long overdue and something good for the country.

Mayoral candidates go after Rahm Emanuel on taxes, slave reparations - chicagotribune.com

How many blacks can prove they are descendants of slaves? I'd argue most don't even know who their Daddy is.

 

[strollingbones]

i love how quickly the bigotry comes out .....

i want reparations for women being treated as 2nd class citizens for so long....

hell reparations for everybody....as someone else once said

 

[California Girl]

Here's what I think. I think it's about time our politicians stopped using minorities as a voting block. I think it's a disgraceful tactic. Rahm is a scumbag, playing the race card to win votes.

 

[Ravi]

I think your thread title is a *ahem* lie.

From your article:

Emanuel agreed with most candidates in supporting reparations for descendants of slavery, but said that all citizens need to keep in mind that the city has a significant budget deficit to tackle.

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Watkins, a community activist and one of three African-American candidates, said she was offended by Emanuel's comments because the nation was built "on the backs" of slaves.

 

[Ravi]

Here's what I think. I think it's about time our politicians stopped using minorities as a voting block. I think it's a disgraceful tactic. Rahm is a scumbag, playing the race card to win votes.

Answering a question isn't playing the race card.

 

[California Girl]

Here's what I think. I think it's about time our politicians stopped using minorities as a voting block. I think it's a disgraceful tactic. Rahm is a scumbag, playing the race card to win votes.

Answering a question isn't playing the race card.

Pretending that he gives a shit about reparations for blacks is. As is giving blacks the impression that he'd fight for reparations.

 

[Ravi]

Here's what I think. I think it's about time our politicians stopped using minorities as a voting block. I think it's a disgraceful tactic. Rahm is a scumbag, playing the race card to win votes.

Answering a question isn't playing the race card.

Pretending that he gives a shit about reparations for blacks is. As is giving blacks the impression that he'd fight for reparations.

His answer to the debate question actually did not give that impression.

 

[High_Gravity]

Reparations would have been a great idea right after slavery ended, now its been too long and plus alot of the Blacks who live here now have no links to slavery in the US, like the ones originally from Jamaica, Haiti, etc. proving slave roots can be a hard thing to do.

 

[Ravi]

Reparations would have been a great idea right after slavery ended, now its been too long and plus alot of the Blacks who live here now have no links to slavery in the US, like the ones originally from Jamaica, Haiti, etc. proving slave roots can be a hard thing to do.

Yep...but we still let Native Americans be excused from paying income tax and that genocide happened in the same era as slavery.

 

[High_Gravity]

Reparations would have been a great idea right after slavery ended, now its been too long and plus alot of the Blacks who live here now have no links to slavery in the US, like the ones originally from Jamaica, Haiti, etc. proving slave roots can be a hard thing to do.

Yep...but we still let Native Americans be excused from paying income tax and that genocide happened in the same era as slavery.

Good point.

 

[California Girl]

Reparations would have been a great idea right after slavery ended, now its been too long and plus alot of the Blacks who live here now have no links to slavery in the US, like the ones originally from Jamaica, Haiti, etc. proving slave roots can be a hard thing to do.

Yep...but we still let Native Americans be excused from paying income tax and that genocide happened in the same era as slavery.

Yea, but... they can evidence their heritage and the reparation is fair. Are we supposed to pay out to every black American? Most of them have no connection to the slave trade. And, as has been mentioned, we could offer to pay their fare 'home'. Reparations for blacks is a cheap gimmick, to win votes.... I think it's insulting to think blacks are that dumb that they'd fall for this shit.

 

[The Gadfly]

Reparations would have been a great idea right after slavery ended, now its been too long and plus alot of the Blacks who live here now have no links to slavery in the US, like the ones originally from Jamaica, Haiti, etc. proving slave roots can be a hard thing to do.

That's certainly one problem; I'm afraid it might not be the only one. Like the "Forty Acres and a Mule" thing, it might be yet another promise that simply can't be fulfilled. Where's the funding going to come from? How do we determine who gets how much? Those responsible for the original injustice are long dead, so who's to be accountable? Their descendants? Would that be too much like a "bill of attainder" to be constitutional? What of the Whites whose ancestors first arrived in America AFTER the WBTS (that's a majority of them, by the way)? Are they responsible too? This whole idea has the potential to open so many cans of worms on so many levels, I hate to think about the mess that would result

We've had an unfortunate tendency in America to try to right wrongs, without regard to whether or not we do another wrong in the process. Our society's heart is often in the right place, but sometimes we do more harm than good. As just one example, look at the way we implemented welfare back in the late sixties; we ended up hurting the very people we were trying to help. Sometimes I think we're too eager to "do something" rather than take the time and effort to do the right thing. I don't want us to repeat the mistake of, as MLK put it, giving Black America another bad check. Better not to make promises at all, than make promises America can't (or won't) keep.

Sadly, we've had so many historical wrongs committed in our history, that if we even attempted to apologize to everyone whose ancestors have been unjustly wronged at one time or another, somebody would be apologizing to somebody else 24/7, 365. Sometimes, we just can't fix the past; all we can do, is make sure we do better in the present and the future.