Excellent attempt to promote rational discussion. What the piece misses is that the public and political debate over this contentious issue is not about developing an actual plan to take money from some Americans and give it to others to compensate for the terrible legacy of slavery. This will never happen in any conceivable way. The whole purpose of the debate is to keep the race pot boiling, to divide Americans into warring tribes, to fuel the political theater that politicians, demagogues, activists, and academics on all sides have perfected playing to their respective audiences, and to feed the maw of media always hungry for clicks. This is not unique to reparations, there are many irresolvable issues that fit this model - all of them contributing to the demise of our broken democracy and the rampage of our deranged media. THAT’S the conversation we should and would be having if the aforementioned forces hadn't set us at each other's throats.
Also left out is the culpability of black African tribal leaders who sold blacks from other tribes who were caught in warfare to white traders. Also how does one address blacks who were also slaveholders of blacks - a number of which have been recorded throughout history?
I have heard Dr. Glenn Loury say that Black Americans are the richest and most influential group of Black people in the world. To arrive at that observation, he has, for example, looked at GDP of certain sub-Saharan African nations.
My point here is that not only white people, but Asians, Hispanics.....and Black people have benefited from slavery. How would the accounting be done for that. Should it also be opened to families descended from immigrants in the 19th century who lived in abysmal conditions and were ruthlessly exploited....other groups in the same situation.
Of course, the argument that people like Kendi are making is that even recent white immigrants are benefiting from structural racism that black people are currently paying for, so they DO owe reparations. I don't buy this argument, but you probably need to address at some point.
Thank you, Mr. Love, for explaining so much, so well. For a couple of years, I've been wanting to read a comprehensive assessment regarding reparations. Now I consider a few gaps in my awareness much better filled.
Reading the argumentative comments below, my head swirls a bit with the charged emotions & lines of thought which start to wander out of my comprehension...but still always try to read these kinds of things with as much objectivity & compassion as possible. It is from each others charged emotions that we can sometimes learn so much. Even if they are not the most effective means of trying to convey what lives in our heads & hearts...
I'm very grateful to you & the team at FBT to continue helping me get a deeper & wider sense of such vital issues in our world.
Wishing you all the best in your work & with your upcoming book release. I'm looking very forward to digging in. ❤
Thomas Sowell has already addressed this issue of reparations. It is, to paraphrase Sowell, foolish and wasteful and will not give Black Americans the self respect that no one else can give them. Also, many Black Americans have been hurt by this from con artists obtaining their information and using it to saddle those Black Americans who gave their personal information thinking they would get reparations, and instead have been saddled with debt. Time to end this foolishness over slave reparations.
I'm from England and I'm interested in the debate, though it's an internal one to the USA so I won't comment too much. But obviously colonial reparations are a potentially massive issue for us in the UK, and the case for it does not suffer as much from most of the difficulties in identifying victims and quantifying compensation that you would have within the USA.
However, I would say that the much more obvious case for reparations from the US govt (as well as the UK and others) is an international one, from the legacy of numerous egregious atrocities committed in recent decades e.g. Vietnam, Cambodia, Iraq, Libya. Estimates of innocent victims of US-led foreign policy interventions in the last 50 years are hard to make but I've seen the figure of 20 million deaths.
Thank you for this. It puts a lot of my own feelings into more eloquent words than I can manage.
What's everyone's thoughts on Evanston, IL's solution? $25k to eligible people, spendable on home repairs or property payments. The first wave is $400k combined, and the total goal is $10mil over 10 years. Qualification is based on being a direct descendent of a black resident in the area between 1919 and 1969, and that resident having suffered from discriminatory polices. Funding comes from a tax on recreational marijuana.
I think its a good start - clear destination, qualification conditions, and funding source - but it could be one of those social programs in disguise.
Excellent attempt to promote rational discussion. What the piece misses is that the public and political debate over this contentious issue is not about developing an actual plan to take money from some Americans and give it to others to compensate for the terrible legacy of slavery. This will never happen in any conceivable way. The whole purpose of the debate is to keep the race pot boiling, to divide Americans into warring tribes, to fuel the political theater that politicians, demagogues, activists, and academics on all sides have perfected playing to their respective audiences, and to feed the maw of media always hungry for clicks. This is not unique to reparations, there are many irresolvable issues that fit this model - all of them contributing to the demise of our broken democracy and the rampage of our deranged media. THAT’S the conversation we should and would be having if the aforementioned forces hadn't set us at each other's throats.
Also left out is the culpability of black African tribal leaders who sold blacks from other tribes who were caught in warfare to white traders. Also how does one address blacks who were also slaveholders of blacks - a number of which have been recorded throughout history?
dd
just now
I have heard Dr. Glenn Loury say that Black Americans are the richest and most influential group of Black people in the world. To arrive at that observation, he has, for example, looked at GDP of certain sub-Saharan African nations.
My point here is that not only white people, but Asians, Hispanics.....and Black people have benefited from slavery. How would the accounting be done for that. Should it also be opened to families descended from immigrants in the 19th century who lived in abysmal conditions and were ruthlessly exploited....other groups in the same situation.
Of course, the argument that people like Kendi are making is that even recent white immigrants are benefiting from structural racism that black people are currently paying for, so they DO owe reparations. I don't buy this argument, but you probably need to address at some point.
Thank you, Mr. Love, for explaining so much, so well. For a couple of years, I've been wanting to read a comprehensive assessment regarding reparations. Now I consider a few gaps in my awareness much better filled.
Reading the argumentative comments below, my head swirls a bit with the charged emotions & lines of thought which start to wander out of my comprehension...but still always try to read these kinds of things with as much objectivity & compassion as possible. It is from each others charged emotions that we can sometimes learn so much. Even if they are not the most effective means of trying to convey what lives in our heads & hearts...
I'm very grateful to you & the team at FBT to continue helping me get a deeper & wider sense of such vital issues in our world.
Wishing you all the best in your work & with your upcoming book release. I'm looking very forward to digging in. ❤
So thoughtful. Thank you for your leadership!
Thomas Sowell has already addressed this issue of reparations. It is, to paraphrase Sowell, foolish and wasteful and will not give Black Americans the self respect that no one else can give them. Also, many Black Americans have been hurt by this from con artists obtaining their information and using it to saddle those Black Americans who gave their personal information thinking they would get reparations, and instead have been saddled with debt. Time to end this foolishness over slave reparations.
I'm from England and I'm interested in the debate, though it's an internal one to the USA so I won't comment too much. But obviously colonial reparations are a potentially massive issue for us in the UK, and the case for it does not suffer as much from most of the difficulties in identifying victims and quantifying compensation that you would have within the USA.
However, I would say that the much more obvious case for reparations from the US govt (as well as the UK and others) is an international one, from the legacy of numerous egregious atrocities committed in recent decades e.g. Vietnam, Cambodia, Iraq, Libya. Estimates of innocent victims of US-led foreign policy interventions in the last 50 years are hard to make but I've seen the figure of 20 million deaths.
Thank you for this. It puts a lot of my own feelings into more eloquent words than I can manage.
What's everyone's thoughts on Evanston, IL's solution? $25k to eligible people, spendable on home repairs or property payments. The first wave is $400k combined, and the total goal is $10mil over 10 years. Qualification is based on being a direct descendent of a black resident in the area between 1919 and 1969, and that resident having suffered from discriminatory polices. Funding comes from a tax on recreational marijuana.
I think its a good start - clear destination, qualification conditions, and funding source - but it could be one of those social programs in disguise.
TY (thank You) M. Love. :)
www.theaasrt.org