The Case for Reparations

The Case for Reparations

Two hundred fifty years of slavery. Ninety years of Jim Crow. Sixty years of separate but equal. Thirty-five years of racist housing policy. Until we reckon with our compounding moral debts, America will never be whole.

www.theatlantic.com

Locked out of the greatest mass-based opportunity for wealth accumulation in American history, African Americans who desired and were able to afford home ownership found themselves consigned to central-city communities where their investments were affected by the “self-fulfilling prophecies” of the FHA appraisers: cut off from sources of new investment[,] their homes and communities deteriorated and lost value in comparison to those homes and communities that FHA appraisers deemed desirable.

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5fish said:

Here is a long article for the case for reparations... It basically points out how Blacks have been lockout of home ownership and other wealth opportunities. He does not even go into some of the great Federal programs that lockout blacks...

The Case for Reparations

Two hundred fifty years of slavery. Ninety years of Jim Crow. Sixty years of separate but equal. Thirty-five years of racist housing policy. Until we reckon with our compounding moral debts, America will never be whole.

www.theatlantic.com

snip...

The state’s regime partnered robbery of the franchise with robbery of the purse. Many of Mississippi’s black farmers lived in debt peonage, under the sway of cotton kings who were at once their landlords, their employers, and their primary merchants. Tools and necessities were advanced against the return on the crop, which was determined by the employer. When farmers were deemed to be in debt—and they often were—the negative balance was then carried over to the next season. A man or woman who protested this arrangement did so at the risk of grave injury or death. Refusing to work meant arrest under vagrancy laws and forced labor under the state’s penal system.

snip...


In Chicago and across the country, whites looking to achieve the American dream could rely on a legitimate credit system backed by the government. Blacks were herded into the sights of unscrupulous lenders who took them for money and for sport. “It was like people who like to go out and shoot lions in Africa. It was the same thrill,” a housing attorney told the historian Beryl Satter in her 2009 book, Family Properties. “The thrill of the chase and the kill.”

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diane said:

Ummm.... Reparations. Well, good luck! I would refer you to the Cobell and Pigford cases. Both were lumped together in a 4.2 billion settlement. I forget what the Pigford amount was but ours was estimated to be 43 billion. Most of the money was tied up in scholarships - even though tribes are already getting money for education. Both us and the farmers got a poke in the eye but at least the stick wasn't sharp. So, I got a check for less than what everybody in the US got for the Covid stimulus.

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diane said:

We still had our stuff in 1826! (1856 there were two families left and a pile of hard tack nobody could eat.)

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diane said:

When California gave us payments for all the stolen land in California, that's the year they used. Something like a dime an acre. Then they deducted the bullets the state supplied the militias and vigilantes who exterminated us. (We thought the bounties on the scalps should have evened that up.) Reparations for slavery - they'll probably deduct the cost of the slave owners having to feed and clothe them as well as the iron used in the chains.

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diane said:

Cobell and Pigford cases.

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5fish said:

Cases...

Cobell v. Salazar - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Snip...

Pigford v. Glickman - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

There were claims of fraud once the checks went out to black farmers...

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Jim Klag said:

Reparations are more than just complicated. How do you put a price tag on it? Who pays? Who gets the money? My ancestors moved to this country in the 1850s so that 99% of the history of slavery took place before they got here. Many American families only got here after slavery was gone. There were 4-5 million blacks in the country at the time of the 13th Amendment and now there are 40 million. How many of that 40 million are actually descended from slaves? As far as reparations to Native Americans go, @diane has explained ths nightmare pretty well. I don't believe money is the answer. I don't think we white folk can undo the harm we did with reparations.

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diane said:

I believe the reparations issue is mere political gear. It's trotted out every election, after all, and nothing is done. Who indeed pays - descendants of slave owners only? Who gets the pay? Descendants of slaves only? Look at Indian Country - there are full bloods who get nothing and people less Indian than Elizabeth Warren who get everything. Some tribes say half for membership, others say 1/240. Still others say your ancestor needs to be on a federal roll. A lot of ancestors didn't sign up because they didn't want to go to Oklahoma or some other reservation far away from home. Will you need to show your ancestor's bill of sale before you can collect reparations for slavery? What if you are descended from black slave owners? Do you pay reparations or collect them? I'm a full blood but my tribe didn't have a treaty - then another tribe adopted my mother's band. That Shasta band gets all the goodies and benefits of federal recognition, but the rest of the tribe does not - there's eight other bands left out in the cold.

As I've mentioned about 'reparations' in California, there were a lot of deductions, a huge use of the Way-Back Machine to pay 19th century property value rather than what the property IS worth now, and a huge swelling in the number of Native Californians! Wow, there were thousands and thousands and they came from every state in the Union plus a few foreign countries. (There's a tribe of Pomos in Russia, for instance.) The state just accepted anybody's claim of California Indian without too much question. The gist of the deal? To make themselves feel good with 'paying for California' and to make sure the remaining Indians of California did not benefit from the 'payment'. This is why I don't believe reparations for slavery will happen, and if they do they will be nowhere near what your poor ancestor was sold for even! You just can't write a check for justice, that's all there is to it.

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Jim Klag said:

Unfortunately there are many black folks who just want some money. Also unfortunately there is no way to tell who are the actual descendants of slaves. That means my liberal cohorts will give money to everybody just to make sure all the descendants of slaves get some even though that means non-descendants will get paid too.

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5fish said:

Were your upset when the Japanese got reparations for being thrown in camps in the 1940's.

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Jim Klag said:

The problem is 7-8 generations have passed by since slavery was abolished. Very few of the 40 million blacks alive today can positively trace there ancestry all the way back to 1865. I say go to the 15 states that had slavery up until 1865 and have them pony up a fund. Apportion the fund by the percentage of the state's slave population. Decide on individual payment amounts and upon proof that a person was a direct descendant of slaves take it out of the fund.

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5fish said:

You have completely ignore the injustices from the civil war today so its was okay to cheat black soldiers thier G I Bill benefits, it was okay to red line black communities, it was okay to build highways that destroyed black communities, so we just ignore these document acts of overt racism that cost black families millions in generational wealth...

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Kirk's Raider's said:

Doesn't look like we have to worry about the issue of Reperations for a good four years.

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