Seems that for some reason, I can't post in a thread I started.
The question is asked why am I asking whites to help solve the race problem.
"Why do you keep turning to white people for solutions to America's racial problems?"
How did you avoid these problems and overcome them? Seems as though you took advantage of opportunity? No? He mostly just whined.
www.usmessageboard.com
Whites created the problem and continue perpetuating it. So why do some whites think we are responsible for cleaning up a mess they made?
Reparations have been paid to other groups who have been harmed by government policy so the right wing opposition to reparations is simply based on a distorted racist belief. Whites are responsible for ending racism in the white community. Once that ends or is reduced to irrelevance the barriers and obstacles created by whites who have racist beliefs will be eliminated and groups of color will be able to reach their potential. You don't start a fire in your house the tell your neighbors how they need to put the fire out.
I haven't read the thread but there are some components of the issue I think you left out.
The woke left has long explained to us how those who steal or engage in other illegal activities, are addicted, dropped out of school, got pregnant without benefit of marriage, etc. are victims of their circumstances or actions of others and not responsible for their choices and behavior.
But for some reason those of us who happened to be born more or less white, who never owned or condoned slavery or any form of racism, never discriminated against anybody, who have done our best to respect and be honorable with everybody, are supposed to feel guilty about something called 'white privilege' and we are responsible for every bad thing that happened to anybody in previous generations going all the way back to Columbus.
And who gets the reparations and who is required to pay them? Those descended from slave owners/traffickers? There are some black people who did both. Do their descendants get reparations?
How about black people who descended from the rich and famous, who have never had to endure any harm from discrimination, in fact who have benefitted from who they are. Or those who have been able to rise out of poorer circumstances into fame and fortune. Are these entitled to reparations?
How about those descended from those who went into the jungles to capture people to sell to the slave traders. I can assure you very few of those, if any, were white. Do their descendants get reparations?
And how about those of us who descended from people who worked tirelessly and/or risked and/or gave everything they had to provide justice for the slaves and disadvantaged? We might have benefitted from the fortunes they lost in the process. Are we liable to pay reparations? How about those of us descended from the Chinese or Irish or Italians etc., all who suffered some severe discrimination when they first arrived here via legal means. Are we due reparations? Or are we supposed to pay them?
None of us can say we never sinned, never got it wrong at times, never participated in behavior we are not proud of. Not one of us. We all probably owe something to somebody we'll never be able to repay. But to hold this generation accountable for the beliefs, actions, sins of the previous one/ones is just dumb because there is absolutely no way to be fair, honest, or just in doing so.
Far better to do what we have always done and good people work diligently to correct whatever systemic sins are in place and do away with harmful policies. And there are plenty of those to start with right now. There will always be people, both black and white and every hue in between, who hold grudges and prejudices and irrationally blame others for their circumstances. They will exist. But we don't have to put them in power or act on their demands.
Sorry I made this into a full essay, but it is a topic I feel very strongly about.
