Comments on: Hello again, reparations

By: Arne

Arne — Fri, 01 Mar 2019 23:45:46 +0000

Ezekiel 18:20: A child shall not suffer for the iniquity of a parent, nor a parent suffer for the iniquity of a child; the righteousness of the righteous shall be his own, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be his own.

By: Carol Stuckey

Carol Stuckey — Tue, 26 Feb 2019 21:01:45 +0000

Question: Has any state or local government ever had a case brought for reparations by someone “legally” victimized by a Jim Crow law? Eg. Someone jailed for drinking from the wrong fountain, which was illegal at the time, but later that law was changed or repealed.. When a law, itself, is determined to be unjust and subsequently repealed, what is then the legal status of someone victimized by that law? Would such a person (or their descendants) have a case for reparation or some kind of compensation? In the legal word, how does this work?

By: cecil

cecil — Tue, 26 Feb 2019 17:32:11 +0000

How about all former slaves be compensated by their former owners? No inheiritance, no passing the buck to “future” generations. Only those who actually suffered paid by those who actually oppressed…
And northerners fought on the side of the confederacy just like southerners fought on the side of the union. At least in some cases. That is part of the origin of the brother against brother designation of the civil war… Not to mention some northerners paid some immigrants to go take their place fighting in the union army… So it’s simpler to have actual slave owners compensate actual slaves.

By: Wfjag

Wfjag — Mon, 25 Feb 2019 23:50:00 +0000

Walter, I thought you’d have figured out by now that the opportunity to buy votes never goes out of style.

By: Josh

Josh — Mon, 25 Feb 2019 18:40:57 +0000

It’s completely insane. Aside from the legal and philosophical arguments, there are impossible problems of accounting almost too numerous even to catalog.

By: John Rohan

John Rohan — Mon, 25 Feb 2019 16:28:51 +0000

There are so many practical problems that I don’t see this ever happening.

1. What about Black Americans like Obama who have no slave ancestry? They get nothing?
2. What about people who are biracial? Do they get half?
3. What about people from northern states who lost family members in the Civil War, what do they get?
4. If we did this, shouldn’t that mean that the slate is now clean and so affirmative action policies, minority scholarships, etc are now obsolete?

The truth is, the nation already paid a horrendous cost in the form of the bloodiest war in our nation’s history. I think that settled it.

By: Jason K.

Jason K. — Sun, 24 Feb 2019 20:45:01 +0000

It ought to be a dead issue. That doesn’t prevent candidates in a primary from using it to try to whip up support from certain segments of the population.

Pretty much every group has both enslaved and been enslaved at one time or another. The only thing that stands out for the U.S. is that the U.S. was one of the last major countries to engage in the practice.

It is important to keep in mind that the modern call for ‘reparations’ is not about righting some historic wrong. It is about materialism, envy, and vengeance. If reparations ever gets enacted, I can all but guarantee violence won’t be far behind.

By: Bob Lipton

Bob Lipton — Sun, 24 Feb 2019 10:55:41 +0000

I’m Jewish, therefore I’m entitled to reparations from Egypt.

Bob

By: cc

cc — Sat, 23 Feb 2019 22:33:31 +0000

The idea that you can compensate for historic injustices is pernicious and impossible. No one is still alive who owned slaves nor are any former slaves alive today. How many generations does this go? Who owes? Do you have to prove a family owned slaves to tax them? What if 1 of my 16 greatgreatgrandparents owned slaves, do I owe 1/16 reparations? Do people who immigrated after the civil war owe?
Since 1 person died in the war for every 6 slaves freed, can we count that? What about the land given to former slaves? How about affirmative action?
It is insane.