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Reparations

I already posted the first step.

I'm going to assume this is a good faith statement because you seem to be a good guy. Feel free to prove me differently in your response.

There are three dictionary definitions of "reparation" according to Merriam-Webster:

Definition of reparation

1a : a repairing or keeping in repair
b reparations plural : repairs

2a : the act of making amends, offering expiation, or giving satisfaction for a wrong or injury
b : something done or given as amends or satisfaction

3 : the payment of damages : indemnification specifically : compensation in money or materials payable by a defeated nation for damages to or expenditures sustained by another nation as a result of hostilities with the defeated nation —usually used in plural



For the most part, scholars and activists are talking about #1. How do we repair the legacy of slavery? #2 and #3 are methods of accomplishing it. #3 is a common method because it's easy. Just pay people. In this conversation, conservatives love to talk about #3 because they want you to think that government is going to take money from your pocket and give it to some lazy, shiftless Negro who doesn't deserve it simply based on something that happened a long time ago. Most importantly, this perspective doesn't require anything to actually change. Cut a check and don't change the system.

So aside from the voting thing, tell me how reparations isn't going to be either a direct transfer payment or a huge social program that takes money from one group and hands it to another.
 
And that would be nice, but that's really more of a matter of following the law. And if minorities voted at just a little bit higher rate they'd be able to largely put an end to theier systematice disenfranchisement.

You serious, Clark?
 
You serious, Clark?

If you consider African Americans as a monolithic Democratic voting block, yeah. For starters, Donald Trump wouldn't be president, appointing judges who hear the current gerrymandering cases and giving cover to state legislatures to pass restrictive voting laws.
 
You must be lost. This isn’t the white supremacy thread. I guess it’s hard to see with the hood and all, but do try to keep up.

So if you think reparations are a silly solution that opens up a pandora's box for a variety of unquantifiable past discriminations, then that makes you a white supremacist?

That's about the 3rd most ridiculous thing you have posted today.
 
So if you think reparations are a silly solution that opens up a pandora's box for a variety of unquantifiable past discriminations, then that makes you a white supremacist?

That's about the 3rd most ridiculous thing you have posted today.

If you think “OMG! Gubment’s gonna take my hard earned money and give it to the blacks,” yeah maybe.

We just gave reparations to farmers for bad trade policy. Let’s not act like reparations are some crazy thing. The crazy part for you all is addressing institutional discrimination over hundreds of years.
 
I'm going to assume this is a good faith statement because you seem to be a good guy. Feel free to prove me differently in your response.

There are three dictionary definitions of "reparation" according to Merriam-Webster:

Definition of reparation

1a : a repairing or keeping in repair
b reparations plural : repairs

2a : the act of making amends, offering expiation, or giving satisfaction for a wrong or injury
b : something done or given as amends or satisfaction

3 : the payment of damages : indemnification specifically : compensation in money or materials payable by a defeated nation for damages to or expenditures sustained by another nation as a result of hostilities with the defeated nation —usually used in plural



For the most part, scholars and activists are talking about #1. How do we repair the legacy of slavery? #2 and #3 are methods of accomplishing it. #3 is a common method because it's easy. Just pay people. In this conversation, conservatives love to talk about #3 because they want you to think that government is going to take money from your pocket and give it to some lazy, shiftless Negro who doesn't deserve it simply based on something that happened a long time ago. Most importantly, this perspective doesn't require anything to actually change. Cut a check and don't change the system.

Thank you. I have always only heard the conversation framed as #3.
 
If you think “OMG! Gubment’s gonna take my hard earned money and give it to the blacks,” yeah maybe.

We just gave reparations to farmers for bad trade policy. Let’s not act like reparations are some crazy thing. The crazy part for you all is addressing institutional discrimination over hundreds of years.

Those payments to the farmers were highly discriminatory also. There are tons of people whose livelihood is impacted by governmental and regulatory decisions. What makes those farmers so special?
 
Those payments to the farmers were highly discriminatory also. There are tons of people whose livelihood is impacted by governmental and regulatory decisions. What makes those farmers so special?

They voted strongly for Trump in 2016 and continue to support him by landslide numbers, in spite of his trade wars being disastrous for them. And they live in rural America, which is Trump Country.
 
My solution to what?

Wow. Tells me what I need to know.

So what's your argument in favor of slavery, Jim Crow, redlining, etc?
 
He doesn't think they're a problem. I'm curious why.
 
Wow. Tells me what I need to know.

So what's your argument in favor of slavery, Jim Crow, redlining, etc?

Who is arguing in favor of these historical events/times/tragedies? And I started this thread to discuss the issue moving forward.
 
We are talking about social policies that address the remnants of these evils in our society. Your take on slavery is ahistorical at best in a society in which inherited wealth is key to success.
 
This is where your party is headed.

I don’t think slavery is a problem that needs to be solved. It was abolished by the 13th amendment in the 1860s. We are generations removed from that. She can’t hurt you.

If we could go back in time and award reparations to emancipated slaves, I would be in favor of that. But those people are all long dead. Their children are all long dead. There are many reasons, in the legal world, why claims die with the person who has them. Those reasons are particularly applicable in this setting, now that we are generations removed.

There is obvious racial disparity in this country. There are many, many laws designed to address that problem. Some work, some don’t. But those need to be addressed in the context of social policy looking forward, not through the lens of a reparation looking backward.

Easily, your best post ever...the threshold is admittedly pretty low. ;)
 
We are talking about social policies that address the remnants of these evils in our society. Your take on slavery is ahistorical at best in a society in which inherited wealth is key to success.

Again, throw out some possible solutions/improvements/plan heading forward.
 
I'm not sure why you all would prefer to build something on a poor foundation before fixing what is broken.
 
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