It's great to see this being discussed around the country. A federal study on this topic is a no-brainer IMHO. Houston City Council won't back push for slave reparations By KRISTEN MACK Houston City Council voted today not to back a national bill exploring the possibility of reparations for slaves' descendants. Today's 8-7 vote defeated a resolution by Mayor Lee Brown even though throngs of people, one with a painted face, others with American and African flags, filled council chambers at Tuesday's public session to express support for the measure. A number of cities, including Dallas, Atlanta, Baltimore and New York City, have already passed or considered similar resolutions. But some council members say it doesn't make sense to support something they ultimately have no say in. "I wish it wasn't on the agenda. It's not healthy for the city government to get involved in national politics when it can become unconstructive," said Councilman Bert Keller. The resolution supported a House bill that would establish a commission to examine slavery and recommend remedies, including the possibility of reparations. "For politicians to start putting price tags on human error is dangerous," Keller said. Councilwoman Ada Edwards said the resolution on the council agenda was appropriate, because the city is the first rung in the political process. "People are scared of it," Edwards said. "The time is now to stop skirting the issue, but stand up to the table and say this happened and it was inhumane. We need to deal with it and move forward." Brown said he believes a national debate and examination on slavery would be productive. "African-Americans have a unique history and slavery and race have been a very contentious and divisive issue in our country," he said. "Reparations won't end the division." Since 1989, U.S. Rep. John Conyers Jr., D-Mich., has offered a bill that would study slavery reparations. Conyers encourages cities to pass resolutions supporting the bill, even though the momentum goes up and down. Dallas passed its resolution supporting passage of the House resolution in 1999. But it also reads, "Nothing in this resolution shall be construed to place financial obligations or commitments on the City of Dallas." No dollar amount is attached to Conyers' bill. "Different people have different visions of what they think reparations should be. Some people want money, some education," said Conyers' spokeswoman Kriston Alford. "Conyers has never said what his vision is. There's not a general consensus." Support for reparations -- in several forms -- has become increasingly popular and a march for reparations is set for Aug. 17 in Washington, D.C. "It is obvious that a national debate on the subject of reparations is in order," said U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Houston, a co-sponsor of the House bill. Activist Quannel X used a noose to illustrate his support at Tuesday's session. "If you forgot, remember this," he said as he held up the rope. "We don't want individual checks, we want to build an infrastructure in this nation." Michael Bell, a member of the Tarrant County Local Organizing Committee, said the history of Africans in America has been brutal. "We are still experiencing the aftershocks and backlash of a system hell-bent on subjugating and denigrating our race. This country owes us for the ongoing emotional assault on our people," Bell said.
I'm Russian, Polish, and Irish. Don't even start with me. Everyone owes me, from Stalin to Notre Dame to the guy who wrote that book of Polish jokes (boo hoo)
Guys, it's nice to know what race you are, and the bad things that may have happened to your ancestors... But when upwards of 50 million (and that's a very safe estimate) of your brethren are taken away and thrown into slavery, then maybe you'll have an argument. Here we go again, Timing
Just to clarify, are you saying that the United States took at least 50 million people from Africa and made them slaves?
I am fairly neutral on this subject. But, weren't some of the slaves sold into slavery by their own tribes? Why do the descendants of slaves get the reperations? They were never done injustice? Is this an attempt to elevate the race since they have always been struggling to recover from their hardships? Not every US citizen had slaves, so why should all of the citizens (including black people) be made to pay for it? I think that some of the companies that profited from slavery should be made to pay. I would favor some sort of educational assistance or low interest home loans instead of actual cash reperations. The US Govt would go broke if they had to repay all of the people that they have done injustice to.
I am actually not sure how I feel about carrying out reparations -- it's a logistical nightmare, and it is going to be very tricky, because you will open up all sorts of other issues along with it. In a perfect world, I think it should be done, but if it were a perfect world, we wouldn't be having this discussion. Sonny -- that is a common perception about Africans selling their own people into slavery, but people generalize it too much. Generalization of Africans selling Africans is the only way to support their argument, because it makes some people believe that Africans were just a bunch of misguided savages killing each other and that sort of thing. In fact, there were a good deal of Africans, mainly from the coast, that went inland to round up Africans of other ethnic groups to sell them off, and it made a lot of them wealthy. But, these weren't entire ethnic groups selling others into slavery -- they were individual traders with some form of military backing, sometimes from Europeans. Another important thing to remember is that the typical system of slavery between African groups was very different than the European system, especially in the East in the Swahili city-states. Yeah, I know, you might say slavery is slavery, but the kind of treatment slaves received in the European/American system is much more brutal. Bobrek -- obviously I am not saying the US itself took them -- it's not as if Florida snuck up on Ghana one day and swept a bunch of africans into the ocean and carried them back to the states I could be wrong, but I think the 50 million represents an estimate of people that were taken from Africa -- this includes those that went to the Caribbean and Latin America, in addition to the colonies. Bottom line here -- african americans are still at a disadvantage in this country. And while I know those against reparations will be the first to make the argument about, "I never owned a slave," please remember, reparations shouldn't be about who is to BLAME for what happened -- it happened a long time ago and no one person living today can be held accountable for slavery. But we can be accountable when it comes to social responsibility, and to do that, you just have to realize that white people are priviliged, and to just sit back and hope that things will balance themselves out naturally is selfish IMO.
If anyone is owed reparations it's the American Indian. Affirmative Action is a form of reparations in my opinion. That is my 2 cents. I have nothing more to add to the discussion. You all try and love one another, or at least try not to Hate.
I really have 2 points to make here: 1) When slavery was in effect in the US, my family was in Germany. How in the HELL do I owe anybody anything? But yet my tax dollars will pay for it. It is simply a case of people looking for more free money. It's sickening. 2) All that being said, I would gladly be the first to send in my reparations check to be distributed on ONE condition. The condition is that the recipients IRREVOCABLY waive their Federal entitlements and money from wellfare and/or HUD housing subsidies forever, for any and all purposes. To allow them to get both would be double dipping.
Yeah, I thought affirmative action was a form of reparations... We can't even make a simple and efficient tax agency, how are we gonna figure this out. Make more boxes in the next census? The government still owns around 70% of the land in the US. Just entitle the plaintiffs to 40 acres to some desertland in Nevada. It sounds glib in light of the horrors the slaves had to endure, but who is actually grieved here in a 150 year old crime?
Originally posted by Refman I really have 2 points to make here: 1) When slavery was in effect in the US, my family was in Germany. How in the HELL do I owe anybody anything? But yet my tax dollars will pay for it. It is simply a case of people looking for more free money. It's sickening. Free money? How about free labor? Hello... I wasn't even born when Japanese were interned yet my tax dollars were used for reparations to them. Boo hoo. 2) All that being said, I would gladly be the first to send in my reparations check to be distributed on ONE condition. The condition is that the recipients IRREVOCABLY waive their Federal entitlements and money from wellfare and/or HUD housing subsidies forever, for any and all purposes. To allow them to get both would be double dipping. Slavery and racism aren't the same thing. If Federal entitlements and money from welfare were given to the descendants of slavery only then maybe you'd have a point.
Crimes are crimes and reparations are the same. I don't see how you can hold slaves and their descendants accountable for not being able to convince a largely racist country a hundred years ago to give them reparations. Talk about double dipping. Yes we committed this crime against your people... but too late no soup for you!
Looks like you are. More like 10-28 million, with at least 12 million making the trip to the Americas, and about 80% surviving it. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/1523100.stm
Its too late for them because those who were wronged are long dead. Descendants have no claim unless they have been wronged also. We hashed all of this out fairly recently, but I guess we'll be going through it again. My ancestors certainly have some serious grievances, dating back to Egypt and more recently Russia. I'm not looking for reparations, I live my own life.
Crimes are crimes and reparations are the same. I don't understand this logic. If your parents commit a crime, you are not in any way held responsible here in the U.S. Why should it be any different for reparations? If my great-grandparents killed someone, should their great grandkid be able to sue me for wrongful death?
