The Slavery Shakedown

[Bonnie]

Jeff Jacoby

June 10, 2005

As soon as he learned the ugly truth, the chairman of financial-services giant Wachovia Corp. issued a remorseful nostra culpa.
"We are deeply saddened by these findings," Ken Thompson said last week. "I apologize to all Americans, and especially to African-Americans." Wachovia acknowledged that it "cannot change the past or atone for the harm that was done." But it promised to make amends by subsidizing the work of organizations involved in "furthering awareness and education of African-American history."

Clearly Wachovia committed some shameful racial crime. What could it have been? Did the nation's fourth-largest bank holding company rob its black depositors of their savings? Charge exorbitant interest rates on loans to black customers? Segregate its branches?

Worse: It owned slaves.

Well, not exactly. The 13th Amendment abolished slavery in 1865, and Wachovia wasn't founded until 1879. The slaves for which Thompson was so apologetic were owned decades before the Civil War, when slavery was still lawful throughout the South. They were owned not by Wachovia but by the Bank of Charleston and the Georgia Railroad and Banking Co. -- two of the approximately 400 financial institutions dating back to 1781 that over the centuries merged with or were acquired by other institutions that eventually became part of the conglomerate known today as Wachovia.

In other words, Thompson's apology was for something Wachovia didn't do, in an era when it didn't exist, under laws it didn't break. And as an act of contrition for this wrong it never committed, it can now expect to pay millions of dollars to activists for a wrong they never suffered.

What is going on here?

Underlying Wachovia's conduct is a Chicago ordinance passed in 2002, which requires every company doing business with the city to investigate and disclose any historical ties it may have had to slavery. (Detroit, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia have enacted similar ordinances.) Wachovia was obliged to compile such a report because it is involved in a project with Chicago's Housing Authority.

Ordinances like Chicago's are the cutting edge of the slavery-reparations movement, which insists that black Americans today are owed billions of dollars in compensation for the slavery of centuries past.
"It will help demonstrate how much of the nation's wealth was created by the sweat and blood of slavery," Chicago's Mayor Richard Daley said when the ordinance was adopted. "We're paying everybody around the world. Why can't we pay our own citizens?"

For a host of reasons, reparations are a terrible idea -- unjust, illogical, and dangerous. Living white Americans bear no culpability for slavery, and living black Americans never suffered from it. It would be unthinkable to make individuals responsible for the wrongdoing of their distant ancestors, or to require them to enrich the great-great-great grandchildren of the victims. The overwhelming majority of nonblack Americans have no family connection to slavery in any case -- most of us are descended from the millions of immigrants who came to this country after the Civil War.

But reparations advocates aren't interested in abstract arguments about justice and history; they are interested in extracting money from deep-pocketed corporations. Forcing firms to unearth ancient connections to slavery is one means to that end. Filing embarrassing lawsuits -- and then inviting settlement offers -- is another.

"Forcing Wachovia to ransack old records for links to slavery is nothing but a prelude to a shakedown," warns Peter Flaherty, president of the National Legal and Policy Center, which has published a detailed critique of the reparations campaign. "By trying to appease these hustlers, Wachovia only encourages greater demands."

If Thompson thought he would put the slavery issue to rest by apologizing abjectly and promising to put even more money into "diversity"
and "organizations that support African-Americans," he was mistaken. No sooner had he issued his statement than it was dismissed as insufficient.
"Wachovia can and must do more," declared the head of one advocacy group in the Raleigh News & Observer. "It . . . must reinvest in the communities and the people who have been wronged." Harvard law professor Charles Ogletree, a key reparations strategist, warned Wachovia that if it doesn't "provide comfort to the descendants of slaves," this issue "will haunt them for a long time."

America long ago paid the price for slavery: a horrific Civil War that killed 620,000 soldiers, more than half of them from the North. It is as vile to insist that white Americans today owe a debt for slavery as it would be to insist that black Americans owe a debt for freedom. What the reparations extremists are demanding would make a mockery of historical truth and inflame racial strife. Their cynicism is toxic, and corporate America had better find the courage to say so.


©2005 Boston Globe

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/jeffjacoby/printjj20050610.shtml

 

[KarlMarx]

Was anyone listening to Rush Limbaugh yesterday (Friday June 10).... Drs Walter E Williams and Thomas Sowell were both on and they just coincidentally discussed slavery.... here are some points that they made

1. The word "slave" is derived from the word "Slav" as in "Slavic Country"... because that group of people were enslaved by the Romans for over 700 years.

2. While it is true that slavery was practiced by White folks here in America for about 250 years.... it has been practiced on every continent since the beginning of recorded history

3. During his administration, President Jefferson dispatched the American Navy/Marines to rescue Americans (white americans) that had been enslaved by North African pirates

4. The one group that participated in the slave trade longer than any other? Arabs. Not only during Biblical times, but all the way up until the very recent past.

5. In some areas of Africa, slavery is still being practiced.

6. Part of the reason that slavery no longer exists in many parts of the world is because of British imperialism. The British abolished slavery wherever they colonized.... much to the resentment of some of the natives. (BTW.... the British also ended other practices such as bride burnings, human sacrifice and honor killings wherever they colonized, too).

Now, my second point.... if anyone should be exempt from paying reparations, it should be me. My parents and ancestors did not set foot on American soil until 1955, 90 years after the end of the Civil War.

In fact many of us should be exempt because most of our ancestors did not own slaves.....

And if the truth be told, my ancestors may have been enslaved by black people.... after all the Carthaginians invaded Rome during the Punic Wars and may have made off with some slaves..... so perhaps I'm entitled to reparations....

Of course, if you're Jewish, the country of Egypt also should be paying you reparations for enslaving your ancestors.

If you're Greek, you may need to pay reparations to the Slavs and other nearby peoples.

need I say more?

 

[OCA]

You guys make the mistake of mixing reparations(which I vehemently disagree with any payments in that area) with simply acknowledging that yeah America has fucked over many minorities in its tarnished history in this area. Think i'm wrong? Lets get away from Blacks and ask Indians, what will they say?

I think its funny that we think the emotional debt has been paid, this country is still to this day dealing with repercussions from its violent racist past. Heck we try to cover it up and say we are "tolerant" now, bullshit. Look around, listen to everyday conversations, we are a racist country and that goes for both sides of the coin, White and Black.

Hell all the policies that conservatives argue against now we're instituted by the White man, affirmative action, quotas, federal housing etc. etc. etc., why did we institute this crap in the first place?

 

[rtwngAvngr]

You guys make the mistake of mixing reparations(which I vehemently disagree with any payments in that area) with simply acknowledging that yeah America has fucked over many minorities in its tarnished history in this area. Think i'm wrong? Lets get away from Blacks and ask Indians, what will they say?

I think its funny that we think the emotional debt has been paid, this country is still to this day dealing with repercussions from its violent racist past. Heck we try to cover it up and say we are "tolerant" now, bullshit. Look around, listen to everyday conversations, we are a racist country and that goes for both sides of the coin, White and Black.

Hell all the policies that conservatives argue against now we're instituted by the White man, affirmative action, quotas, federal housing etc. etc. etc., why did we institute this crap in the first place?

I don't see any mistakes. the point is that reparations are only discussed in the limited context of payments to black for American slavery, even though slavery is a world wide phenomenon practiced all over the world by all races.

There was a time when blacks were overtly discriminated against legally and otherwise, maybe some of these measures seemed reasonable at the time. Now it's obvious that quotas are racist against whites.

 

[OCA]

I don't see any mistakes. the point is that reparations are only discussed in the limited context of payments to black for American slavery, even though slavery is a world wide phenomenon practiced all over the world by all races.

There was a time when blacks were overtly discriminated against legally and otherwise, maybe some of these measures seemed reasonable at the time. Now it's obvious that quotas are racist against whites.

Wanna know whats laughable? Nothing is ever gonna be done, affirmative action is gonna be on the books forever because the Repubs are as liberal if not more liberal than the Demos now.

 

[rtwngAvngr]

Wanna know whats laughable? Nothing is ever gonna be done, affirmative action is gonna be on the books forever because the Repubs are as liberal if not more liberal than the Demos now.

Frankly I don't see it, but thanks for the uplifting sentiment.

 

[OCA]

Frankly I don't see it, but thanks for the uplifting sentiment.

Teri Schiavo, caving on the Nuclear Option LMFAO!

 

[rtwngAvngr]

And now for something completely different...

Teri Schiavo, caving on the Nuclear Option LMFAO!

 

[Bonnie]

Karl as you pointed out Mr Sowell also stated that every race at one time in history were slaves to another, so in order to give reparations every race would be entitled to them.

 

[OCA]

Karl as you pointed out Mr Sowell also stated that every race at one time in history were slaves to another, so in order to give reparations every race would be entitled to them.

Nobody is going to pay anybody reparations, don't get worked up over it.

 

[OCA]

And now for something completely different...

Whenever cornered RWA comes up with something stupid like this, its a pattern.

 

[Bonnie]

Nobody is going to pay anybody reparations, don't get worked up over it.

You mean I can relax and enjoy my day??? LOL

Seriously I think the cruxt of the article is simply the stupidity behind this kind of thinking.

 

[Bonnie]

Whenever cornered RWA comes up with something stupid like this, its a pattern.

Jason just has a unique sense of humor :funnyface

 

[rtwngAvngr]

Whenever cornered RWA comes up with something stupid like this, its a pattern.

Here. I'll splain it to ya. It's serves two functions. It introduces your quote as something irrelevant, which it is, AND it's from monty python's flying circus. It's doubleplusgood, ya prole.

 

[Bonnie]

Here. I'll splain it to ya. It's serves two functions. It introduces your quote as something irrelevant, which it is, AND it's from monty python's flying circus. It's doubleplusgood, ya prole.

"No one expects the Spanish Inquisition"

 

[rtwngAvngr]

"No one expects the Spanish Inquisition"

Spam spam eggs and spam, ham and spam and spam.

 

[Bonnie]

Spam spam eggs and spam, ham and spam and spam.

I have tickets to see "Spamalot" on Broadway.. It's supposed to be very funny....It features a new song entitled "Im not dead yet"

 

[rtwngAvngr]

I have tickets to see "Spamalot" on Broadway.. It's supposed to be very funny....It features a new song entitled "Im not dead yet"

That sounds cool. Those guys were nutty weren't they? So very white. That is some white ass honky humor.

"spam? spam? what's so funny about spam, all these white people laughing at people saying spam, and saying ridiculous non sequitur and creating awful paper animation. These were empire builders?"

 

[Markainion]

You guys make the mistake of mixing reparations(which I vehemently disagree with any payments in that area) with simply acknowledging that yeah America has fucked over many minorities in its tarnished history in this area.

OCA your wrong if you don’t think money is involved. All I had to do was look up one article based on this subject by an Internet search and the money involved is up to 1.4 trillion for unpaid Slave Labor. Read this article.

http://archives.cnn.com/2002/LAW/03/26/slavery.reparations

This as been a series issue since 2002, but I have never heard of any company losing a lawsuit over it.

As for Minorities being owed some emotion debt. The answers are as followed:

African Americans: Yes, for a few more decades, but the white children being born right now should be spared this, and only the older generation should pay this price.

Native Americans: Yes, similar to African Americans but maybe a few more decades attached.

Hispanic or Latin Americans: No and definitely No after all how many are decedents from those that came to the US after 1965. How many are decedents of illegal immigrant. I don’t think we owe this group anything.

Asian American: For the most part they are like White American, and most have come since the civil right movements of the 1960’s. They really don’t need any special help or deserve it. So just leave this group alone.

 

[Annie]

At some point, I would suggest at least 20 years ago, someone must say, "Enough." Enough apologies, enough excuses. Everyone, on your mark, get set, go....