I had nothing to do with slavery, neither did my father, my grandfather, or any ancestors. So why in gods name should I have to pay for Other peoples errors, made 200 years ago?
Infact my family lost members fighting for the North in the Civil war, and as far as I know were always against Slavery.
I agree, but it doesn't matter if your ancestors owned them or not. My ancestors did, and my ancestors fought for the Confederacy. I have never owned slaves, nor has my family owned them since 1865. I have never kicked a black off of a bus, or discriminated against a black man, and I have never condoned the enslavement of African Americans. I was raise not to judge people by the color of their skin.
Using the logic used in this thread, everyone presently should be punished for a family ancestor that may have been a criminal. Or I should recieve repartions from Europeans for the enslavement of my ancestors during the Roman Emprical Era.
I see no reason why millions of Americans, who have never owned slaves, should pay millions of dollars to millions of other Americans who have never been slaves. The logic here is retarded. I sympathize with historical events, but that's exactly what they are, historic events--tragic at that. But if we want to start giving reparations, then the list of reparations could be endless. Billions of people have been given raw deals, black, white, hispanic, indian, asian, etc... we'll be passing around reparations for the rest of the world's existence. Eventually, we'll be back to paying reparations to those who were force to pay reparataions for something their ancestors did....