I Support Reparations to All Decedents of Slaves

[westwall]

There were no nations back then. Only tribes.

Who are now nations. If you don't think we can, the the African continent paying is fine too.

No. The chieftains sold their tribe counties in exchange for worthless ice to the colonial powers. The countries that emerged from the former colonies are not responsible for the slave trade. Also buying a slave is not better then selling a slave. They were sold in America, anyway, not Europe.

They were sold to Europeans engaged in the sugar plantations in the Caribbean however, so you're not telling the whole truth now are you.

 

[Cossack1483]

I guess we pretty much have the full story now. I wasn't here. My folk were not either. Nothing to do with colored folk. I'm sure it would have ended better if y'all picked your own cotton though. Just sayin.

 

[monkrules]

I never owned a slave, and have never known a slave. But I'll kick in a quarter if it'll shut these whiners up.

Anyone who can prove he was a slave may deserve something for his service. Otherwise, **** off with the reparations bullshit, already.

 

[Cossack1483]

I thought that's what the gubmint jobs were for? Negro admission policies to surgical school? Really? What's next? Afronauts?

 

[Bleipriester]

There were no nations back then. Only tribes.

Who are now nations. If you don't think we can, the the African continent paying is fine too.

No. The chieftains sold their tribe counties in exchange for worthless ice to the colonial powers. The countries that emerged from the former colonies are not responsible for the slave trade. Also buying a slave is not better then selling a slave. They were sold in America, anyway, not Europe.

They were sold to Europeans engaged in the sugar plantations in the Caribbean however, so you're not telling the whole truth now are you.

At this time they all were Europeans, if you don´t mind. Where´s the line between European and American is not up to me to decide and not up to you or anyone, by the way. I love the British Moonshine Company, real globalization!

 

[westwall]

There were no nations back then. Only tribes.

Who are now nations. If you don't think we can, the the African continent paying is fine too.

No. The chieftains sold their tribe counties in exchange for worthless ice to the colonial powers. The countries that emerged from the former colonies are not responsible for the slave trade. Also buying a slave is not better then selling a slave. They were sold in America, anyway, not Europe.

They were sold to Europeans engaged in the sugar plantations in the Caribbean however, so you're not telling the whole truth now are you.

At this time they all were Europeans, if you don´t mind. Where´s the line between European and American is not up to me to decide and not up to you or anyone, by the way. I love the British Moonshine Company, real globalization!

You claimed that the slaves all came to the US. That is patently untrue. The British have used slaves all over the world. They stopped in the UK fairly early, but their colonies continued to use them for a long time after.

 

[Bleipriester]

There were no nations back then. Only tribes.

Who are now nations. If you don't think we can, the the African continent paying is fine too.

No. The chieftains sold their tribe counties in exchange for worthless ice to the colonial powers. The countries that emerged from the former colonies are not responsible for the slave trade. Also buying a slave is not better then selling a slave. They were sold in America, anyway, not Europe.

They were sold to Europeans engaged in the sugar plantations in the Caribbean however, so you're not telling the whole truth now are you.

At this time they all were Europeans, if you don´t mind. Where´s the line between European and American is not up to me to decide and not up to you or anyone, by the way. I love the British Moonshine Company, real globalization!

You claimed that the slaves all came to the US. That is patently untrue. The British have used slaves all over the world. They stopped in the UK fairly early, but their colonies continued to use them for a long time after.

Many did. Today, our stuff is made by "slaves of the circumstances". As for the slaves, the were not purchased and sold but detailed by the Brits. Not much better but certainly far better than sold to a racist owner.

 

[RodISHI]

Actually, I think the British had the right idea, and it is consistent with the United States Constitution.

You see, the slaves were "property," in every sense of the word. They had economic value, could be purchased, sold, damaged, destroyed, and so on. Under the Fifth Amendment, property cannot be taken without due process of law, and as in the case of eminent domain, the owner must be compensated when the State takes property, or as in this case, renders the property worthless.

Perversely, passing a law or a Constitutional Amendment (or for your joker's a Presidential "Proclamation") does not constitute due process of law under the Fifth Amendment. If it did, then Congress could pass a law to confiscate anyone's property or wealth, and the aggrieved property owner would have no recourse.

So the proper reparations for slavery would be to compensate the former slave owners for the value of the property that was rendered worthless by the 13th Amendment. (As we know, the Emancipation Proclamation had no effect on anything, and was merely posturing).

As for the slaves themselves, they SHOULD have received a grubstake of some sort - 40 acres and a mule, or whatever - but at this late date there is no way to pay that compensation, and one might argue that the descendants of slaves have already been compensated by the welfare state, to an extent far greater than the aforesaid property and livestock. Indeed the "reparations" are paid out continuously to this date, and will continue forever, apparently.

There was a Land Act that pretty much did what you suggested for slaves that wanted to farm their own land. It was designed to provide free 160-acre farms to freed slaves in five states of the Southwest. What Congress could not do was regulate bigotry or the attempts at sabotage of the programs by unethical people at the time. They tried several times to amend these homestead acts in those years because of the greed of a few that most generally affected poorer people in general not just blacks but anyone who was not well connected or had plenty of cash and property to begin with. Some of the Railroads were also very unscrupulous that is how the bank robber generation got a toe hold.

Transforming California

 

[LuckyDuck]

Every African nation that captured their ancestors, enslaved them and sold them off to Europeans should pay a hefty price.

I always find it interesting when someone comes along and starts ranting about "reparations for slavery." Pull out a large paper map of the world, pin it to a wall, blindfold yourself and throw several darts in the map's direction. No matter where the darts strike (excluding water areas, Antarctica and the North Polar Ice Cap), you will have struck a region where slavery existed at some point in history. There have been white slaves, black slaves, Indigenous peoples slaves and Asian slaves. Ignoring the white slaves, Indigenous peoples slaves and Asian slaves, let us focus on the blacks. They are, after all, currently the "only" loudly vocal population on the issue of their heritage. 95% of the black slaves who crossed the Atlantic went to Central and South America, forced to work for the Portuguese and the Spanish and 5% went to North America. All told, about 11 million slaves made the trip across the Atlantic. On the other hand, about 180 million black slaves were forcibly taken to Muslim areas. The Muslims (because their Koran encourages slavery) took slaves, but castrated most males and killed black newborn males. Saudi Arabia and Yemen only ended slavery in 1962 and Mauritania officially ended it in 1980.
Although, there is believed to still be some slavery (we're still talking blacks, although other races are enslaved and in existence in some Arab/Muslim areas).
The guilt of slavery goes across the spectrum. All regions had slavery at some point in their history. No race, even blacks, are exempt from the guilt.
In my family's case, I'm sure that at some point, based upon the areas my ancestors DNA crops up, some ancestors of mine were probably slaves of the Romans. Descendants of the Romans still reside in Italy. Does my family deserve some measure of reparations from Italy for past likely wrongs? Of course not. The other side of my family came over from Ireland during the "potato famine" which England could have helped those in need of food from, but deliberately ignored. Does England owe my family for basically allowing my ancestors to be starved out of the country so that their "Protestant" sympathizers could take the land on which they live? No. No one alive today was involved in it, even if someone alive today may be living on land that was owned by my ancestors who were starved out.
Just because some ancestor suffered wrongs in the distant past, doesn't mean anyone alive today, owes their descendants something. History is just that, history.
Look at it this way, if a great-great grandfather of yours, murdered say, my great-great grandfather, should you in someway, be held responsible for his act? We all know the answer to that is, no. However, if you really believe that the wrongful acts of those in the past history mean that those in the present must pay for those acts, then, well....let's have a look at your ancestors and see if any committed any felony crimes for which we can hold you responsible for.
Today, despite what you hear from racist blacks, there is no oppression of blacks. There are black lawyers, black heads of business, black nurses, black doctors, black policemen, black military officers, black mayors, black congressmen, black senators and we've had a black president. Those individuals achieved their goals because they focused on their goal, studied hard, worked hard and through those actions, achieved their goals. There was "no" oppression.

 

[Pete7469]

Italy owes my family $110B