I dislike politics like cancer... It all comes down to childish name calling, we are reducing D&D to politcal idiocy. Why not redo this thread to a poll and a discussion of slave reparations period. Does it really matter what President Obama thinks? Really? His supporters are going to excuse him if he is supporting reparations or they are going to support reparations. His detractors are going to blast him if he supports or pushes reparations. And if he doesn't then the debate is over. Why is it bad if he supports slave reparations, many public leaders do support it. The debate should be over the ideas. Nobody on this board can predict what a politician will do once in office. The United Nations is working on global reparations programs to the tune of trillions of dollars. All we need is a president that will support that program and we will have reparations. So debate the issue. I don't think anyone can know what a politician is going to do once elected. OK- who's for it and who's against it?
Since when did the words deed and reparation become interchangeable? If he's for setting up something in the form of deeds (other than just giving every former slave family a million dollar check) that tries to make up for our nation's past then great. Could be like community centers, a museum, job training, better educational training, etc. Deeds is very vauge, and does not equate to reparations. This website should help you out--> www.dictionary.com
Man, how did I miss this thread the first time around? I had a summer job in Chicago during college changing lightbulbs (insert how many students does it take to screw in a lightbulb joke here) at the university. We worked in pairs, and my partner was a screwed-up Korean guy. We'd talk about politics and religion a lot while we worked. One day, he was asserting that slaves built this country and that we (white people) owed reparations. And, he told me to ask any black person and I'd see (a dumb argument). So, we get into an elevator and a black woman, a secretary in some university back office, gets in and he asks her if she thought her fortunes were still impacted by slavery, if America owed her reparations, etc. -- to which she said no. A half-hour later, he gets called in by the boss because this secretary came in crying about harassment. My partner almost lost his job over it (and again later for throwing away bulbs meant for recycling, and again for using a company vehicle for private use -- I don't know how a guy could get into so much trouble in a 3-month job).
This is about as silly as any of the other George/basso threads on Obama. Does anybody seriously think a presidential candidate can be ambiguous about an issue this sensitive? If there was any chance whatever that Obama supported reparations, it would be not only on Fox every day but on MSNBC too. It would also be in every McCain ad and on the banner of Drudge. If this was even slightly more than nothing at all, reporters would be hammering away at him on it daily until they had total clarity. For the record, he was asked about this at the conference of minority reporters last Sunday and said he didn't think reparations were the best way to combat inequity and that what we needed to do instead was improve the public education system, provide affordable health care and an affordable path to college for all. He further said he though affirmative action needed to be amended such that minorities born with advantages (such as his daughters) wouldn't displace disadvantaged whites. And he said both of those things to a room full of minorities. George and the rest can lie all they want to try to paint Obama as a radical. The fact is he isn't one. He's left of center sure (so is majority of the country), but he's anything but a radical.
Batman, sorry to interrupt your hopey-makey-changey hallucination, but these are Obama's words, straight from his mouth. He said reparations must take the form of deeds, not words. Straight from his mouth. Take up your disagreement with him -- he said it. Second, Obama is left of center. As in, looks to his right to see Jimmy Carter. Looks to his right to see John Forbes Kerry. Looks to his right to see Nancy Pelosi. He's a radical who is the most liberal politician in the US Senate and has attended a black separatist church for 20 years. He wants to raise taxes during these economic times, increase our dependence on foreign oil by not drilling our own resources, and wants to hand Iraq over to Iran and Al Qaeda. That's a radical, son.
Poor George. "He said it?" What? He said he supports reparations? No. Of course he didn't. He has never said that ever. You are a liar. Again.
As much as you wish it was true... Obama is not a militant black radical. Obama is not a secret Muslim radical. Obama is not a gay crackhead. Obama is the next president of the United States. Eat it.
what dude, obama is a half black liberal christian muslim who who's attracted to gay guys. get it straight
I say that the first deed that future president-to-be-and-you-can't-stop-it-from-happening Obama should be is to confiscate T_J's vast holdings of wealth and redistribute them to black America. Reparations complete. RESOLVED
at the risk of bumping this thread Obama opposes reparations for slavery By CHRISTOPHER WILLS Associated Press Writer © 2008 The Associated Press Aug. 2, 2008, 2:02PM Comments Recommend Mike Carlson AP Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill. speaks, Friday, Aug. 1, 2008, during a town hall meeting in St. Petersburg, Fla. (AP Photo/Mike Carlson) BuzzSPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama opposes offering reparations to the descendants of slaves, putting him at odds with some black groups and leaders. The man with a serious chance to become the nation's first black president argues that government should instead combat the legacy of slavery by improving schools, health care and the economy for all. "I have said in the past — and I'll repeat again — that the best reparations we can provide are good schools in the inner city and jobs for people who are unemployed," the Illinois Democrat said recently. Some two dozen members of Congress are co-sponsors of legislation to create a commission that would study reparations — that is, payments and programs to make up for the damage done by slavery. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People supports the legislation, too. Cities around the country, including Obama's home of Chicago, have endorsed the idea, and so has a major union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. Obama has worked to be seen as someone who will bring people together, not divide them into various interest groups with checklists of demands. Supporting reparations could undermine that image and make him appear to be pandering to black voters. "Let's not be naive. Sen. Obama is running for president of the United States, and so he is in a constant battle to save his political life," said Kibibi Tyehimba, co-chair of the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America. "In light of the demographics of this country, I don't think it's realistic to expect him to do anything other than what he's done." But this is not a position Obama adopted just for the presidential campaign. He voiced the same concerns about reparations during his successful run for the Senate in 2004. There's enough flexibility in the term "reparations" that Obama can oppose them and still have plenty of common ground with supporters. The NAACP says reparations could take the form of government programs to help struggling people of all races. Efforts to improve schools in the inner city could also aid students in the mountains of West Virginia, said Hilary Shelton, director of the NAACP's Washington bureau. "The solution could be broad and sweeping," Shelton said. The National Urban League — a group Obama addressed Saturday without mentioning the issue in his speech — avoids the word "reparations" as too vague and highly charged. But the group advocates government action to close the gaps between white America and black America. Urban League President Marc Morial said he expects his members to press Obama on how he intends to close those gaps and what action he would take in the first 100 days of his presidency. "What steps should we take as a nation to alleviate the effects of racial exclusion and racial discrimination?" Morial asked. The House voted this week to apologize for slavery. The resolution, which was approved on a voice vote, does not mention reparations, but past opponents have argued that an apology would increase pressure for concrete action. Obama says an apology would be appropriate but not particularly helpful in improving the lives of black Americans. Reparations could also be a distraction, he said. In a 2004 questionnaire, he told the NAACP, "I fear that reparations would be an excuse for some to say, 'We've paid our debt,' and to avoid the much harder work." Taking questions Sunday at a conference of minority journalists, Obama said he would be willing to talk to American Indian leaders about an apology for the nation's treatment of their people. Pressed for his position on apologizing to blacks or offering reparations, Obama said he was more interested in taking action to help people struggling to get by. Because many of them are minorities, he said, that would help the same people who would stand to benefit from reparations. "If we have a program, for example, of universal health care, that will disproportionately affect people of color, because they're disproportionately uninsured," Obama said. "If we've got an agenda that says every child in America should get — should be able to go to college, regardless of income, that will disproportionately affect people of color, because it's oftentimes our children who can't afford to go to college." One reparations advocate, Vernellia Randall, a law professor at the University of Dayton, bluntly responded: "I think he's dead wrong." She said aid to the poor in general won't close the gaps — poor blacks would still trail poor whites, and middle-class blacks would still lag behind middle-class whites. Instead, assistance must be aimed directly at the people facing the after-effects of slavery and Jim Crow laws, she said. "People say he can't run and get elected if he says those kinds of things," Randall said. "I'm like, well does that mean we're really not ready for a black president?"
Against. Besides, who'd take the money under the condition of giving up citizenship and leaving the country? That is the only way reparations would be remotely fair.
