Friday, May 23, 2014

A change of heart about reparations.

Before I post the thought provoking and excellent post from Ta-Nehisi Coates, let me tell you what the racism apologist and trolls will say after reading it.


"My ancestors came over from Ireland and Italy and they were treated like second class citizens themselves."


"My ancestors never owned slaves, why should I be blamed for what happened to them?"


"Haven't we done enough for blacks in this country?"


"I am offended that I would be asked to give anything to blacks when my ancestors spilled their blood in the civil war."


"There are no slaves living today,"


Did I leave anything out?


Anyway, here is the article:


"The best thing about writing a blog is the presence of a live and dynamic journal of one's own thinking. Some portion of the reporter's notebook is out there for you to scrutinize and think about as the longer article develops. For me, this current article—an argument in support of reparations—began four years ago when I opposed reparationsA lot has happened since then. I've read a lot, talked to a lot of people, and spent a lot of time in Chicago where the history, somehow, feels especially present. I think I owe you a walk-through on how my thinking evolved. 


When I wrote opposing reparations I was about halfway through my deep-dive into the Civil War. I roughly understood then that the Civil Warthe most lethal conflict in American historyboiled down to the right to raise an empire based on slaveholding and white supremacy. What had not yet clicked for me was precisely how essential enslavement was to America, that its foundational nature explained the Civil War's body count.  The sheer value of enslaved African-Americans is just astounding. And looking at this recent piece by Chris Hayes, I'm wondering if my numbers are short (emphasis added):
In order to get a true sense of how much wealth the South held in bondage, it makes far more sense to look at slavery in terms of the percentage of total economic value it represented at the time. And by that metric, it was colossal. In 1860, slaves represented about 16 percent of the total household assets—that is, all the wealth—in the entire country, which in today’s terms is a stunning $10 trillion.
 
Ten trillion dollars is already a number much too large to comprehend, but remember that wealth was intensely geographically focused. According to calculations made by economic historian Gavin Wright, slaves represented nearly half the total wealth of the South on the eve of secession. “In 1860, slaves as property were worth more than all the banks, factories and railroads in the country put together,” civil war historian Eric Foner tells me. “Think what would happen if you liquidated the banks, factories and railroads with no compensation.”
As with any economic institution of that size, enslavement grew from simply a question of money to a question of societal, even theological, importance.
I got that in 2011, from Jim McPherson (emphasis again added):
"The conflict between slavery and non-slavery is a conflict for life and death," a South Carolina commissioner told Virginians in February 1861. "The South cannot exist without African slavery." Mississippi's commissioner to Maryland insisted that "slavery was ordained by God and sanctioned by humanity." If slave states remained in a Union ruled by Lincoln and his party, "the safety of the rights of the South will be entirely gone."
If these warnings were not sufficient to frighten hesitating Southerners into secession, commissioners played the race card. A Mississippi commissioner told Georgians that Republicans intended not only to abolish slavery but also to "substitute in its stead their new theory of the universal equality of the black and white races." 
Georgia's commissioner to Virginia dutifully assured his listeners that if Southern states stayed in the Union, "we will have black governors, black legislatures, black juries, black everything." 
An Alabamian born in Kentucky tried to persuade his native state to secede by portraying Lincoln's election as "nothing less than an open declaration of war" by Yankee fanatics who intended to force the "sons and daughters" of the South to associate "with free negroes upon terms of political and social equality," thus "consigning her [the South's] citizens to assassinations and her wives and daughters to pollution and violation to gratify the lust of half-civilized Africans..."
This argument appealed as powerfully to nonslaveholders as to slaveholders. Whites of both classes considered the bondage of blacks to be the basis of liberty for whites. Slavery, they declared, elevated all whites to an equality of status by confining menial labor and caste subordination to blacks. "If slaves are freed," maintained proslavery spokesmen, whites "will become menials. We will lose every right and liberty which belongs to the name of freemen." 
Enslavement is kind of a big deal—so much so that it is impossible to imagine America without it. At the time I was reading this I was thinking about an essay (which I eventually wrote) arguing against the idea of the Civil War as tragedy. My argument was that the Civil War was basically the spectacular end of a much longer war extending back into the 17th century—a war against black people, their families, institutions and their labor. We call the war "slavery." John Locke helped me with that.


This was all swirling in my head about the time I saw this article in the Times:
On Saturday, more than 15,000 students are expected to file into classrooms to take a grueling 95-question test for admission to New York City’s elite public high schools. (The exam on Sunday, for about 14,000 students, was postponed until Nov. 18 because of Hurricane Sandy.) 
No one will be surprised if Asian students, who make up 14 percent of the city’s public school students, once again win most of the seats, and if black and Hispanic students win few. Last school year, of the 14,415 students enrolled in the eight specialized high schools that require a test for admissions, 8,549 were Asian.  
Because of the disparity, some have begun calling for an end to the policy of using the test as the sole basis of admission to the schools, and last month, civil rights groups filed a complaint with the federal government, contending that the policy discriminated against students, many of whom are black or Hispanic, who cannot afford the score-raising tutoring that other students can. The Shis, like other Asian families who spoke about the exam in interviews in the past month, did not deny engaging in extensive test preparation. To the contrary, they seemed to discuss their efforts with pride.
I was sort of horrified by this piece, because what the complaint seemed to be basically arguing for was punishing a group of people (Asian immigrants) who were working their asses off. It struck me that these were exactly the kind of people you want if you're building a country. Even though I am arguing for reparations, I actually believe in a playing field—a level playing field, no doubt—but one with actual competition. It struck me as wrong to punish people for working really hard to succeed in that competition.

This paragraph, in particular, got me:
Others take issue with the exam on philosophical grounds. “You shouldn’t have to prep Sunday to Sunday, to get into a good high school,” said Melissa Santana, a legal secretary whose daughter Dejanellie Falette has been prepping this fall for the exam. “That’s extreme.”
I was stewing reading this. It offended some of my latent nationalism—the basic sense that you want everyone on your "team" to go out there and fight. But as I thought about it I felt that there was something underneath the mother's point. In fact there are people who don't "have to prep Sunday to Sunday, to get into a good high school." But they tend to live in neighborhoods that have historically excluded children with names like Dejanellie. Why is that? Housing policy. What are the roots of our housing policy? White supremacy. What are the roots of white supremacy in America? Justification for enslavement.
 
A few days later I sent the following rambling memo to my editor, Scott Stossel:
> Hey Scott. I have an essay that's starting to brew in me that I've been thinking a lot about. Are you at all interested in a piece that makes the case for reparations? This is totally pie in the sky, but it's my take on the Atlantic as a journal of "Big Ideas." There's this great piece in the Times a few weeks back about selective schools in New York and how Asian immigrants are dominating the process. I found myself really compelled by a lot of the stories and actually in more sympathy with the Asians (now Asian-Americans) than with the blacks who were protesting. A lot of what they were saying reminded me of the sort of stuff my own parents said.
>
> And then something occurred to me. The reason why a lot of these black parents are upset is because the schools are basically credentialing machines for the corridors of power. By not going to a Stuyvesant you miss out on that corridor, so the thinking goes. And moreso the feeling is (though never explicitly said) that black people deserve special consideration, given our history in this country. The result is that you have black parents basically lobbying for Asian-American kids to be punished because the country at large has never given much remedy for what it did to black people.
>
> I've thought the same before in reference to gentrification. The notion that DC should remain "black" has always struck me as really bizarre. Very little in America ever stays anything. Change is the nature of things. It only makes sense if you buy that black people are "owed" something. I.E. Since we never got anything for slavery, Jim Crow, red-lining, block-busting, segregation, housing and job discrimination, we at least deserve the stability of neighborhoods and cities we can call home.
>
> I'm thinking about it with the Supreme Court set to dismantle Affirmative Action. Isn't the "diversity" argument actually kind of weak? Isn't the recompensation argument actually much more compelling? Except this was outlawed with Bakke. What I am thinking is right now, at this moment, American institutions (especially its schools) are being asked to answer for the fact that country lacked the courage to do the right thing. In the wake of the Supreme Court's decision coming down, in the wake of (what looks like) a second Obama term, we could make a really strong case that now is the time renew a serious discussion about Reparations.
>
> And we could move it beyond "Check in hand" discussion to something more sophisticated. Does this interest you? I actually could see us arguing that Obama has nothing to lose, and should explicitly support such a policy. He ain't gonna do it. But we might--might--be able to make a good faith argument for it.
>
> Any interest?
All of this did not stick. (I don't, for instance, think it would be a good idea for Obama to support reparations. That would actually be a horrible idea.) But by then I had it fully established in my head that we are asking other institutions to answer for something major in our history and culture.


The final piece of this was the uptick in cultural pathology critiques extending from the White House on down. There is massive, overwhelming evidence for the proposition that white supremacy is the only thing wrong with black people.


There is significantly less evidence for the proposition that culture is a major part of what's wrong with black people. But we don't really talk about white supremacy. We talk about inequality, vestigial racism, and culture. Our conversation omits a major portion of the evidence.


The final thing that happened was I became convinced that an unfortunate swath of  popular writers/pundits/intellectuals are deeply ignorant of American history. For the past two years, I've been lucky enough to directly interact with a number of historians, anthropologists, economists, and sociologists in the academy. The debates I've encountered at Brandeis, Virginia Commonwealth, Yale, Northwestern, Rhodes, and Duke have been some of the most challenging and enlightening since I left Howard University. The difference in tenor between those conversations and the ones I have in the broader world, are disturbing. What is considered to be a "blue period" on this blog, is considered to be a survey course among academics. Which is not to say everyone, or even mostly everyone, agrees with me in the academy. It is to say that I've yet to engage a historian or sociologist who's requested that I not be such a downer. 


This process was not as linear as I'm making it out to be. But it all combined to make me feel that mainstream liberal discourse was getting it wrong. The relentless focus on explanations which are hard to quantify, while ignoring those which are not, the subsequent need to believe that America triumphs in the end, led me to believe that we were hiding something, that there was something about ourselves which were loath to say out in public. Perhaps the answer was somewhere else, out there on the ostensibly radical fringes, something dismissed by people who should know better.


People like me. " [Source]


*Pic from The Atlantic


             




 


74 comments:

Whitey's Conspiracy said...

I'm with Larry Wilmore on this one.

Anonymous said...

The article makes a better case for re-instituting slavery than it does for reparations.

Anonymous said...

“In 1860, slaves as property were worth more than all the banks, factories and railroads in the country put together,” civil war historian Eric Foner tells me. “Think what would happen if you liquidated the banks, factories and railroads with no compensation.”

That value wasn't liquidated, it was transferred, to the slaves themselves.

Whatever wealth was represented by "all the banks, factories and railroads in the country put together" would still exist if the only thing that changed was the ownership.

Is the argument that the South deserves $10 trillion in reparations for the North freeing their slaves?

Anonymous said...

If the South had so much wealth, how did they lose the war?

Whitey's Conspiracy said...

Your HNOTD wasn't even very good at his profession. He was in loco parentis of those kids who he made torture those POWs. That was a complete abrogation of his duty as an officer & gentleman and should have rendered him permanently ineligible for honorable office in the United States.

Whitey's Conspiracy said...

If the South had so much wealth, how did they lose the war?
-----
Good question.

Ultimately, the south lost because they were fighting for so repugnant a cause that even an entire continent of eager for advantage degenerate colonial powers couldn't recognize the south's purported government & finance their fight like France had the US revolution and the English banks did for the US in the rebellian arkypt.

Anonymous said...

@ Whitey:

Nope. Try again.

Gunny said...

Allen West is a hero.

Whitey isn't worthy to shine his boots.

no_slappz said...

Despite writing a lengthy story about reparations imbued with a firm and confident tone meant to convey Coates' understanding of the subject, he doesn't.

His weak grasp is especially evident when he tumbles into the financial area and displays a total lack of knowledge about the workings of the credit markets and why redlining was an obvious result.

He shows more of the same cluelessness when he reaches the pivotal point in mortgage lending -- about 1977 -- when the basis for redlining was eliminated. And there wasn't a word about the Community Reinvestment Act of 1978.

Coates also showed his lack of familiarity with the NY Public school system and the test for entry into the best high schools.

In fact, free tutoring is available for ALL students who plan to take the test.

It's true that Asians account for 14 percent of students in the system. Whites also make up 14 percent. Blacks are 30 percent and Hispanics are 40 percent.

But blacks and Hispanics rarely score high enough on the test to gain admission to the top schools. The top schools focus more on math and science, which is easy to test when a kid is in 8th grade, as are the kids taking the high school entrance exam.

Meanwhile, he fell for the fantasy story about the black "Wall Street" that was purportedly destroyed during a 1921 race riot. There was no black "Wall Street."

There may well have been a business district in which blacks engaged in conventional banking and there may well have been offices where blacks were buying and selling stocks. But that's not "Wall Street". Wall Street is means Investment Banking, where the securities are created, and that function simply did not exist anywhere in the black community. It still doesn't.

Black Sage said...

Anon @8:06 said: "If the South had so much wealth, how did they lose the war?"

The south lost the war because they were overwhelmingly incompetent. Wealth doesn't win wars, ... wars are won by strategic deception!

GrannyStandingforTruth said...

http://amirhbahati.wordpress.com/2013/02/11/black-history-month-the-burning-and-collapse-of-black-wall-street/

http://blackmoneymagazine.blogspot.com/2007/09/black-wall-street.html

http://www.ipoaa.com/tulsa_race_riot_story3.htm

Yellow Magi said...

Black Sage said...
The south lost the war because they were overwhelmingly incompetent. Wealth doesn't win wars, ... wars are won by strategic deception!
----

You are wrong my dark brown friend. If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle

White People said...

So Granny, what's it going to take to settle this reparations deal? Name your price.

GrannyStandingforTruth said...

White People,
Give me time to think about it.

GrannyStandingforTruth said...

http://www.policymic.com/articles/89653/7-actual-facts-that-prove-white-privilege-exists-in-america?utm_source=fbpartners

StillaPanther2 said...

Reparations have been used for as long as man had governments. Unfortunately for the African Americans- I know-, the US government has never been on board with reparation as demonstrated by a lack of will to make a plan that all citizens can agree on. The message must be that it is a DEBT that is long overdue for reasons that all sane people know.

America has never truly apologized for slavery so the younger generations feel that it is somehow THEY giving the apology as well as DEBT payment.

Citizens that are against the US paying their debts to one race and neglecting another should write their SEN/CON to ask the Asian community to return their reparations. Also ask the Vietnamese to return all the funds relating to debt created when we destroyed their property.

Reparations should be tired in to the abuse one race has endured for hundreds of years. I challenge any immigrant of present day America to give an example of the US mistreating any body to the magnitude to the suffering we have endured.

Save the negative comments because I have lived under the boot of the majority race.

If the number one means of wealth that is passed from one generation to another is real estate (house, land), I was alive to witness the day when John F. Kennedy spoke about allowing Blacks to obtain loans for homes. A glorious time because my family could finally move into a BRAND NEW home in 1962. Yes we still own that historical house (for my family) in the beautiful area of Aberdeen in Hampton, VA. So this is to say that we as a race was restricted from upward mobility. And yes, I was present during the 50s when my grands had to scramble money to pay bogus taxes. REMEMBER... we were not allowed to have certain jobs, so the majority race was always cheating and stealing from us. Maybe that why Karma has created such a selfish and non- responsible leaders present.

I do know that with each passing generation the debt of reparations will be met with such vitriol that just the mention of "rep" we go to our corners.

focusedpurpose said...

Yahudah!

Shabbath Shalom;)

all tribes...Galatians 3:28-29 style;)

___________________

i just want to give a little reminder.

not in the spirit of finger pointing or guilt laying. who would i be? please know i speak across..

never down.

it is what it is though.

the fact that i don't think it fair (Momma said...life wasn't, so the convo mind boggles, really. i get stuck in my head with it;) + ;(

i was saying, it is not fair that Adam and Eve messed it up for everybody. IF we must mitigate the original sin...

WHY in the world do folk think that stuff their great great great granddaddies did won't be addressed? what's up with the feeling convos when folk can read and see for themselves what is written in the Law.

for the Blessed Blacks, we should be more focused on as Black is Beautiful would say:

Black first.

i would only add Blessed;)

the Bible/Scriptures is a history book.

ours no less.

who we were BEFORE that 400 years folk like to beat U.S. in the head with. but then even THAT is written. what is meant to destroy gets turned for our Good;) so we would do well to remember the time...

___________________


http://focusedpurpose.blogspot.com/2008/02/do-we-careto-remember-time.html

i don't think there will be any reparations. it is in direct violation of Him/His Word. it won't stand.

you know, THAT will be the one Law folk will refuse to break to the bitter end. lol.

the nasty Edomites and other Psalm 83'ers need to stop already though. seriously.

there WILL be a shift in things. that's what's written. that full circle, the lease is up. so let' GO! flow;)

seems like a Good spot to throw out to the Universe a quick come with me.

if that meant anything to anybody. if not, that is all Good, too;) He's with me + got my back...
______________________

UNIVERSAL LAW

Genesis 15:13-14

13 And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years;

14 And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance.

_____________________

then there's this:

Deuteronomy 28:68- And the Sovereign will bring thee into Egypt again with ships, by the way whereof I spake unto thee, Thou shalt see it no more again: and there ye shall be sold unto your enemies for bondmen and bondwomen, and no man shall buy you.

__________________

seems pretty clear to me.

this is why i keep asking what in the world a semite is. those Laws address the Shemites.

focusedpurpose said...

Still a Panther-

your comment had me laughing out loud.

thank you.

+ tell it!

The Purple Cow said...

Oh look everybody, No Slappz is back.

For those of you who haven;t been here long, or are suffering from hysterical amnesia on the subject, No Slappz is kind of dumb even by our normal execrable wing nut standards.

Matty Boy, talking on No Slappz very own blog some it up best.

"His failure as a critical thinker is easily summed up in a single sentence. “It is true because I want it to be true.” All evidence to the contrary is to be ignored when no_slappz has already made up his mind. There is no man made component to climate change because no_slappz does not want there to be a man made component. Deregulation is always good because no_slappz’ world would be meaningless if this religious tenet was taken away. Never mind that the high priest of deregulation, Alan Greenspan, has had to admit this cult’s abysmal failure in public. No_slappz is like some poor sap of a Japanese soldier, still stuck on some tiny island in 1950, unaware that the war is over and his side has surrendered."

Some of the stuff No Slappz has said:

Native Americans were not uprooted from their homelands.

Success is not affected by how one looks – unless you are a model.

Philip Roth was wrong when he said his book “The Human Stain” was not about Anatole Broyard.

Asian Americans do not experience racism – because they are good at mathematics.

Muslims and blacks are incapable of coming up with great inventions.

Low black reading and math scores in the New York City public schools has nothing to do with racism.

**

This is the quality of wing nuts we are getting here these days, just when you think it can't get any lower - it does.

focusedpurpose said...

UNIVERSAL LAW:

Obadiah 1:1-19,21

1 The vision of Obadiah. Thus saith the Sovereign Almighty concerning Edom; We have heard a rumour from the Sovereign, and an ambassador is sent among the heathen, Arise ye, and let us rise up against her in battle.

2 Behold, I have made thee small among the heathen: thou art greatly despised.

3 The pride of thine heart hath deceived thee, thou that dwellest in the clefts o the rock, whose habitation is high; that saith in his heart, Who shall bring me down to the ground?

4 Though thou exalt thyself as the eagle, and though thou set thy nest among the stars, thence will I bring thee down, saith the Sovereign.

5 If thieves came to thee, if robbers by night, (how art thou cut off!) would they not have stolen till they had enough? if the grapegatherers came to thee, would they not leave some grapes?

6 How are the things of Esau searched out! how are his hidden things sought up!

7 All the men of thy confederacy have brought thee even to the border; the men that were at peace with thee have deceived thee, and prevailed against thee; they that eat thy bread have laid a wound under thee: there is none understanding in him.

8 Shall I not in that day, saith the Sovereign, even destroy the wise men out of Edom, and understanding out of the mount of Esau?

9 And thy mighty men, O Teman, shall be dismayed, to the end that every one of the mount of Esau may be cut off by slaughter.

10 For thy violence against thy brother Yacob shame shall cover thee, and thou shalt be cut off for ever

11 In the day that thou stoodest on the other side, in the day that the strangers carried away captive his forces, and foreigners entered into his gates, and cast lots upon Yerusalem, even thou wast as one of them.

12 But thou shouldest not have looked on the day of thy brother in the day that he became a stranger; neither shouldest thou have rejoiced over the children of Yahudah in the day of their destruction; neither shouldest thou have spoken proudly in the day of distress.

13 Thou shouldest not have enerered into the gate of my people in the day of their calalmity yea, thou shouldest not have looked on their affliction in the day of their calamity, or have laid hands on their substance in the day of their calamity.

14 Neither shouldest thou have stood in the crossway, to cut off those of his that did escape; neither shouldest thou have delivered up those of his that did remain in the day of distress.

15 For the day of the Sovereign is near upon all the heathen: as thou hast done, it shall be done unto thee: thy reward shall return upon thine own head.

16 For as ye have drunk upon my set apart mountain, so shall all the heathen drink continually , yea, they shall drink, and they shall swallow down, and they shall be as though they had not been.

17 But upon mount Zion shall be deliverance and there shall be set apartness; and the house of Yacob shall possess their possessions.

18 Ad te house of Yacob shall be a fire, and the house of Yoseph a flame, and the house of Esau for stubble, and they shall kindle in them, and devour them and there shall not be any remaining of the house of Esau; for the Sovereign hath spoken it.

19 And they of the south shall possess the mount of Esau...

21 And the saviours shall come up on mount Zion to judge the mount of Esau; and the kingdom shall be the Sovereigns.

Anonymous said...


In the Book of Exodus (Chapters 2 through 15) God’s judgment(s) of the richest nation on the earth, Egypt, for the enslavement of His people is revealed. Ten plagues of judgment destroyed the oasis of Egypt before Pharaoh got the message, and was willing to obey. In Exodus 12:36, God also judged the money of Egypt.

Katrina, Greensburg,Kansas, the foreclosure crisis, the trillion dollars in Wall Street bailouts, insurance company bailouts, and the U.S. auto industry, the cost of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq,which exceeded $200,000,000 each day, and $10 billion each month that made it obvious that they were directly connected with the continuing financial judgments of James 5.

The corporate CEO of Wall Street investment firm Lehman Bros owned personal shares in the company in the range of 700 million dollars. Before the end of the month Lehman Bros. failed and the value of his stock was zero...Bible prophecy coming to pass before our very eyes. LOL!


focusedpurpose said...

and lest the Edomite women think they will always play the blame their men game...

i would check out Lamentations 4:16-22.

would type it out. afraid there will be typos galore though.

good night and blessings all!


BBF said...

I would settle for the 40 acres and a mule! Ever wonder what happened to that promise?
And what happened to this astonishingly visionary program, which would have fundamentally altered the course of American race relations? Andrew Johnson, Lincoln's successor and a sympathizer with the South, overturned the Order in the fall of 1865, and, as Barton Myers sadly concludes, "returned the land along the South Carolina, Georgia and Florida coasts to the planters who had originally owned it" -- to the very people who had declared war on the United States of America.  

As always, you can find more "Amazing Facts About the Negro" on The Root, and check back each week as we count to 100.

Show me the money said...

Reparations for something that happened to long-dead people centuries ago may be a ludicrous concept, however the ongoing (and ever growing) cost of negro grievances is bleeding this country to death - especially now that every other possible grouping of people from every corner of the globe is getting in on whitey's action.

So let's make a deal. One last deal.

Every black citizen as of some prior date receives a large cash payout. In exchange, affirmative action is outlawed along with the concepts of disparate impact and “protected classes.” Most importantly the civil rights act is modified in the legislation to explicitly enshrine freedom of association protections.

I would pay a lot for that.

An average acre of farmland in the US goes for about $2,500. 40 acres with a mule thrown in would be about $100,000. There are 40 million black people.

Four trillion pays $100,000 to every man, woman, and child. That's a big hit, and may knock us down for a bit, but long term it gets the government racial grievance apparatus off the economy's back and we'll be able to work our way out of this hole we're in.

What do you say?

Anonymous said...

There are not going to be any reparations for black people in America. Where would the money come from at this point? Most white people (middle/working class people) are struggling themselves. Talk about riots. White people would riot in the streets over reparations for black people. The FN has already listed most of the reasons why white people would go ballistic if they even thought that black people were going to get reparations.

And how would you define who is black? What percentage of black ancestry do you have to have to be eligible for reparations?

And do black Africans owe any percentage of those reparations?After, the black Africans were the ones who captured/sold (for pennies) our ancestors to the whites. What part do the Africans owe?

Should dark skinned black people get more of the reparations than certain light skinned black people? Should black women get more than black men? And on and on.

Show me the money said...

"There are not going to be any reparations for black people in America. Where would the money come from at this point? Most white people (middle/working class people) are struggling themselves."
----

Yes, but why are they struggling? Our society has become completely dysfunctional as it disntegrates into a heap of gibbering, obsessive racialist nonsense. America is being strangled by an insatiable racial spoils industry that has been harnessed to serve the aims of a hostile political elite.

Consider the so-called American civil rights movement. It was sold to a 90% white society as an end to racial antipathy and a beginning of a colorblind harmonious society. And while extraordinarily foolish even at face, Americans were intoxicated by a virtue purchased with their posterity’s blood.

They bought the goods.

It was a top-to-bottom lie.

They thought they had purchased anti-racism. They received anti-whiteness. They thought they were getting a colorblind society. They received a country of hyper racial awareness and hostility. No used car salesman has ever gulled a dupe so badly.

This time, let's get it in writing.

Four trillion is a lot of money, but the alternative is what's left of the country goes down the toilet. It's either pay up now or just hit that flush handle and take the long ride down.

Dr. Nuwang said...

Great comments by a few folks on this topic!

no_slappz said...

show me the money says:

An average acre of farmland in the US goes for about $2,500. 40 acres with a mule thrown in would be about $100,000. There are 40 million black people.

Four trillion pays $100,000 to every man, woman, and child.


Okay, and if the $4 trillion were forked over, you can be sure that within 20 years, almost all the money would find its way back to those who were forced to part with it.

no_slappz said...

granny,

The Greenwood business district may have been called the "Black Wall Street", but, as your links explain, it wasn't.

The business district in Greenwood included banks, insurance companies, and probably other financial businesses. But NONE were involved in the business that defines Wall Street, which is the business of Originating the stocks and bonds that are sold everywhere else.

None of the core functions of "Wall Street" were practiced in Greenwood or in any other black community. Not then. Not now.

Show me the money said...

"Okay, and if the $4 trillion were forked over, you can be sure that within 20 years, almost all the money would find its way back to those who were forced to part with it."
---

Actually, most of it will be spent by next Friday, but that's beside the point, which is that this is an opportunity to get something for our money, before it is all gone.

Everybody wins in that the imminent collapse of this travesty of a nation has a chance of being postponed. Black people get paid, and white people get their lives back.

It's make a deal now or let it burn. There is not much time.

The Purple Cow said...

"In exchange, affirmative action is outlawed along with the concepts of disparate impact and “protected classes.”

That would be bad news for white people.

White women have been the primary beneficiaries of affirmative action programs.

Show me the money said...

"That would be bad news for white people."

It's all part of the package.

Deal or no deal?

The Purple Cow said...

"None of the core functions of "Wall Street" were practiced in Greenwood or in any other black community. Not then. Not now."

In other words the businesses of Greenwood did not bring capitalism almost to it's knees in a sea of greed and hubris. Causing untold damage and misery to the ordinary citizens of the USA.

Neither did Greenwood sell products to it's customers that it knew would fail.

Neither did Greenwood bet against products it had sold to its customers.

Greenwood did not award itself massive bonuses for running its institutions into the ground.

In short Greenwood = good.

Wall Street = evil.

field negro said...

Amen PC, they would fight hardest against any laws banning it.

To: Show me the money"

I will take your 40 acress as long as every acre has a view of the ocean. You can keep the mule.

Deal?

And what do you mean "white people get their lives back"? Where did it go?

Maybe something is wrong with the way you are living your life.

The Purple Cow said...

"It's all part of the package.

Deal or no deal?"


Not being an African American I don't give a shit. I'm just saying' affirmative action principally benefits white people.

Show me the money said...

You're just saying a bunch of bullshit.

If Affirmative Action principally benefited white people, why are blacks not calling for its abolition? Are they just that concerned about the welfare of white people?

The Purple Cow said...

"Yes, but why are they struggling? Our society has become completely dysfunctional as it disntegrates into a heap of gibbering, obsessive racialist nonsense. America is being strangled by an insatiable racial spoils industry that has been harnessed to serve the aims of a hostile political elite."

Your country is being strangled by capitalists who have destroyed the American dream.

From 1945 to 1980 there was a thing called 'The American Dream'. This meant that if you studied hard and worked hard you got on in life. Now the gap between the rich and the rest is growing exponentially. Americas's Gini coefficient is now 93rd in the world, behind Iran and Russia (!) So now people work hard and study hard and it's just the rich that get richer.

Those billionaire capitalists depend on useful idiots like you to give a wholly false narrative of what Americans' problems are. White America's problems are not black people, they are other white people whose greed and avarice is limitless.

**

"Consider the so-called American civil rights movement. It was sold to a 90% white society as an end to racial antipathy and a beginning of a colorblind harmonious society. And while extraordinarily foolish even at face, Americans were intoxicated by a virtue purchased with their posterity’s blood."

I've read some unmitigated bollocks on the internet in my time, but this shit really takes the biscuit.

He is seriously suggesting that it's black folks fault that racial antipathy did not end.

In a strong field of cunts, 'Show Me The Money' appears to be head and shoulders a bigger cunt than the other cunts.

Show me the money said...

"I will take your 40 acress as long as every acre has a view of the ocean. You can keep the mule.

Deal?

And what do you mean "white people get their lives back"? Where did it go?"
------

Getting our lives back means we can invest in our property without fear the government will destroy what we built by forced integration. We could live in our cities again, secure that our children's neighborhood schools would not be overrun with outside students who would drag them down to their level. We would no longer forced to hire unqualified people for jobs or waste tuition on students who are better off somewhere else.

And here's a picture of your 40 acres:

http://www.photolib.noaa.gov/700s/theb0276.jpg

Just sign the dotted line and it's all yours.

The Purple Cow said...

"You're just saying a bunch of bullshit."

Blah blah fucking blah.

Don't they have Google where you live?


http://ideas.time.com/2013/06/17/affirmative-action-has-helped-white-women-more-than-anyone/

http://www.timwise.org/1998/09/is-sisterhood-conditional-white-women-and-the-rollback-of-affirmative-action/

While people of color, individually and as groups, have been helped by affirmative action in the subsequent years, data and studies suggest women — white women in particular — have benefited disproportionately. According to one study, in 1995, 6 million women, the majority of whom were white, had jobs they wouldn’t have otherwise held but for affirmative action.

Another study shows that women made greater gains in employment at companies that do business with the federal government, which are therefore subject to federal affirmative-action requirements, than in other companies — with female employment rising 15.2% at federal contractors but only 2.2% elsewhere. And the women working for federal-contractor companies also held higher positions and were paid better.

Even in the private sector, the advancements of white women eclipse those of people of color. After IBM established its own affirmative-action program, the numbers of women in management positions more than tripled in less than 10 years. Data from subsequent years show that the number of executives of color at IBM also grew, but not nearly at the same rate.


**
"If Affirmative Action principally benefited white people, why are blacks not calling for its abolition? Are they just that concerned about the welfare of white people?"

Mmmmmmm.

You don't think African Americans have been kept in the dark by a media in thrall of capitalism, do you?

That could never happen could it?

Anonymous said...

An angry wm in Santa Barbara, CA points to what's coming.

This White madness is due to self-inflicted White rage and a failure to make things right for the Negro.

It is amazing that Whites in America are willing to destroy themselves before "doing the right thing".

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/24/elliot-rodger-video-confession_n_5385175.html

The Purple Cow said...

"Getting our lives back means we can invest in our property without fear the government will destroy what we built by forced integration. We could live in our cities again, secure that our children's neighborhood schools would not be overrun with outside students who would drag them down to their level. We would no longer forced to hire unqualified people for jobs or waste tuition on students who are better off somewhere else."

Jeeze, you white people are such whiners aren;t you?

You're never happy. You get the best education, the best jobs, the most out of affirmative action programs - and it's still not good enough.

I've got a better deal for you SMTM.

Why don;t you fuck off back to Poland, or latvia, or Russian or Ireland or whichever fucking tin-pot failure state you great-grand daddy came from and live there?

Americans who don't want to live in your non-racial fascist state would be free from you and your incessant bleating about how sucky your life is, and your wife gets to be raped by cossacks just like your Great Gand Ma-Ma!

It would be a win-win!

Show me the money said...

"Your country is being strangled by capitalists who have destroyed the American dream."
----

That's what I said.

They are using racial spoils as both the distraction and the weapon for their robbery. Income inequality is exploding under Obama's Crony Capitalist Social Justice Regime. Redistribution always first and foremost benefits those doing the redistribution.

Black folks are not the reason racial antipathy did not end, they are the tool with which it is maintained.

Show me the money said...

"You don't think African Americans have been kept in the dark by a media in thrall of capitalism, do you?

That could never happen could it?"
-----

Well, they do think the Tea Party is racist and they do vote 98% for the party that controls the media, so I guess you have a point.

Whoever it may benefit, white people are more than willing to see AA go away. So that part of the deal is settled.

All we need is the outlawing of the concepts of disparate impact and “protected classes”, and we're ready to start cutting checks.

Deal?

The Purple Cow said...

Again, why are you offering me the deal?

It's fuck all to do with me, dipshit.

**
"Well, they do think the Tea Party is racist..."

Oh do grow up, there's a good little boy.

... and they do vote 98% for the party that controls the media, so I guess you have a point."

They vote 98% for the party that hates them less than the other guys.

Strange, huh?

**

"Whoever it may benefit, white people are more than willing to see AA go away. So that part of the deal is settled."

Oh no, it's not settled. Should the day dawn when the media starts to tell the truth rather than the propaganda of billionaires - white women might just start to have second thoughts.

**

"All we need is the outlawing of the concepts of disparate impact and “protected classes”, and we're ready to start cutting checks."

You can't 'outlaw' three hundred fifty years of American history, numbnuts.

The Purple Cow said...

"That's what I said."

No. You. Did. Not

"They are using racial spoils as both the distraction and the weapon for their robbery. Income inequality is exploding under Obama's Crony Capitalist Social Justice Regime. Redistribution always first and foremost benefits those doing the redistribution."

Income inequality has been increasing exponentially since Ronny Reagan's time.

America's rich have declared class warfare on the American people. Since 1980 America has been run entirely for the benefit of billionaire capitalists. Racism is simply a by-product of capitalism. By holding and propagating racist views YOU you are doing the work of the rich in dividing the proletariat.

As I said before you are a useful idiot of the rich. You are working against your own class interests, you're just too dumb to work that out.


**
"Black folks are not the reason racial antipathy did not end, they are the tool with which it is maintained."

Riiiiiiiiiiiiiight.

Soooo, you are saying that nothing you have ever done or said has ever increased racial antipathy?

(As I said, just too dumb....)

Show me the money said...

"They vote 98% for the party that hates them less than the other guys.

Strange, huh?"
---

Strange that when the media tells them the other party hates them, they vote for the party that controls the media?

Think, boy, think.

Anonymous said...

Damn!!! PC is on a roll. Preach it.

Show me the money said...

"America's rich have declared class warfare on the American people."

Yes, yes they have.

"Since 1980 America has been run entirely for the benefit of billionaire capitalists."

We can quibble over the date, but the statement is obvious.

"Racism is simply a by-product of capitalism."

Absolute bunk.

"By holding and propagating racist views YOU you are doing the work of the rich in dividing the proletariat."

All I want is that everyone is treated equally under law. That is not racist. Black people are not my enemy, they are only a tool of my enemy. Should the beaten hate the whip, or the hand that wields it?

"As I said before you are a useful idiot of the rich. You are working against your own class interests, you're just too dumb to work that out."

No, I consider the "rich" who run this country my enemy. The super rich are the ones who push radical equalitarianism, open borders, and cultural obliteration to destroy my class in order to create a more pliable, controllable and cheaper proletariat.

It is you who are the one who believes the lies. It is you who have internalized the desires of the "rich" as your own goals. Redistribution is always from the middle to the bottom. You are a cheerleader for those who would turn 98% of the population of the entire planet into a vast herd of toilers and consumers, whose lives will depend on the whims of an elite who despises them.

You are an absolute fool.

GrannyStandingforTruth said...

"In exchange, affirmative action is outlawed along with the concepts of disparate impact and “protected classes. Most importantly the civil rights act is modified in the legislation to explicitly enshrine freedom of association protections."


That clause reminds me of the fiction story by Toni Morrison called Paradise.

The white man made a deal with the black man for his labor and gave him the land on top of the hill because it wasn't fertile and rocky land. The white man deceived the black man and was unfair. He used trickery and made a crooked deal.

The white man outsmarted himself. Because of the white man's deception, it turned out to be a better deal and worked out in the black man's favor. The white man wanted it back when he realized the hidden potential.

Thus far, all of the deals that the white man has made with black people always had a catch 22 filled with deceit from Reconstruction on up to the Civil Rights Bill.

Makes me think that the white man does not know how to be fair and make any honest deals. Any deal that the white man makes with nonwhite people or other countries are always filled with deceit. History proves that.

Dr. Nuwang said...

PREACH Granny, PREACH!!!!

White People said...

So,no deal, Granny?

Anonymous said...

Okay, I'm convinced. Let's have reparations. But we have to do it fairly in the sense of determining just how much black people have lost by being in the United States.

So let's do this: Take the average income of a person in a typical slave-source country like Ghana, which is 3718 dollars, and the average income of blacks in the US, which is about 31000 dollars, subtract them, and get -27282, and that's how much white people owe blacks per working year. Take 30 years for a working life, and you get -818460 dollars. Now, they'll have to look at historical figures to determine how much whites have stolen from blacks for the past centuries, but for now, we can just use the -818460 figure.

So, when will Nǚwáng be sending me a check?

Seriously, you've got to wonder if there are many black people who are ashamed of being in a race of complainers. I would be. I mean, when they complain about segregation, what is the core complaint? They're complaining about being around other blacks. That's really sad. No Koreans complain about the racial composition of Koreatown. No Hispanics complain about there being so many Hispanics in the barrio. They like being around themselves. Blacks know better than to want to live with other black people.

GrannyStandingforTruth said...

Nah, you have to come up with one better than that, and that is fair and not full of catch 22's or deception.

GrannyStandingforTruth said...

Excuse me, a minus sign in front of it? See what I mean...decepetion is one their strong points.

I'm out, I have a lot of business to tend to today.

White People said...

So you propose a deal then Granny.

Anonymous said...

Black people should give white people reparations. From ruining neighborhoods, lower property values, crime, decadent culture, poor music taste, and for putting up with their stupidity.

If I was to add up all the taxes I have paid since I started working at 15, those taxes have probably supported 4-5 families of 4.

Minorities would have starved without redistribution of resources from whites to non-whites. It is ridiculous, that they still want more. Their greedier than wall street.

They want reparations, we'll I want a refund.

Anonymous said...

Coates: This was 1947, eight years before Mississippi lynched Emmett Till and tossed his broken body into the Tallahatchie River."

Ah yes, Mississippi did it! It would be hilarious if it weren't so stupid and depressing.

Whenever an individual white harms a black, all whites are collectively guilty. Of course there's no such collective guilt for any of the thousands of black-on-white murders that have occurred since Tills murder. Funny how that works.

Anonymous said...

The Purple Cow said...

"In exchange, affirmative action is outlawed along with the concepts of disparate impact and “protected classes.”

That would be bad news for white people.

White women have been the primary beneficiaries of affirmative action programs.

Thats ok, Whites take care of their woman, unlike a huge segment of Blacks who have their women work and take care of them.

Anonymous said...


Blogger The Purple Cow said...

"Getting our lives back means we can invest in our property without fear the government will destroy what we built by forced integration. We could live in our cities again, secure that our children's neighborhood schools would not be overrun with outside students who would drag them down to their level. We would no longer forced to hire unqualified people for jobs or waste tuition on students who are better off somewhere else."

Jeeze, you white people are such whiners aren;t you?

You're never happy. You get the best education, the best jobs, the most out of affirmative action programs - and it's still not good enough.

I've got a better deal for you SMTM.

Why don;t you fuck off back to Poland, or latvia, or Russian or Ireland or whichever fucking tin-pot failure state you great-grand daddy came from and live there?

Americans who don't want to live in your non-racial fascist state would be free from you and your incessant bleating about how sucky your life is, and your wife gets to be raped by cossacks just like your Great Gand Ma-Ma!

It would be a win-win!


Except Blacks would cry white flight as they always do. Blacks cannot survive without whites and whites. Today blacks are crying about whites fleeing to charter schools and leaving only black kids, with black teachers and lots of money to fail.

The Purple Cow said...

"Strange that when the media tells them the other party hates them, they vote for the party that controls the media?"

African Americans don't need the media to tell them that Republicans hate them. Republicans do that job very nicely.

The racist statements, the 'jokes' they share on line, the racist caricatures of the Obamas.

Think cunt, think.

The Purple Cow said...

Quotes: SMTM

"Racism is simply a by-product of capitalism." 



"Absolute bunk."

And you are going to explain why you think it’s bunk right?

(That’s how this whole ‘debating’ thing works, see.)

**
”All I want is that everyone is treated equally under law.”

Oh really? Since when? The only time you claim to be interested is when you perceive that whites are getting a raw deal. All other forms of iniquity under the law are conveniently overlooked.

**

”That is not racist. Black people are not my enemy, they are only a tool of my enemy.”

Oh puhr-leaze give us a break

**

”Should the beaten hate the whip, or the hand that wields it?”

Both I would have thought.

(The poor hard done by white male. You’ve got to feel sorry for them. All they get is the best education, the best jobs, the best opportunities, the vast majority of the power and wealth. How terrible it must be to be a poor downtrodden white boi.)

**
”The super rich are the ones who push radical equalitarianism, open borders, and cultural obliteration to destroy my class in order to create a more pliable, controllable and cheaper proletariat.”

Really? Where? When? Show us your evidence, please.

**
”It is you who are the one who believes the lies. It is you who have internalized the desires of the "rich" as your own goals.”

..and you have evidence for that of course. Show me what it is.

I’ll wait…..

**

”Redistribution is always from the middle to the bottom. “

Says who?

Redistribution of income and wealth or redistribution of wealth is the transfer of income, wealth or property from some individuals to others caused by a social mechanism such as taxation, monetary policies, welfare, charity, divorce or tort law.

**

”You are a cheerleader for those who would turn 98% of the population of the entire planet into a vast herd of toilers and consumers, whose lives will depend on the whims of an elite who despises them.”

And you have evidence for that of course…

I’ll wait…..

You are an absolute fool.


GrannyStandingforTruth said...

"Thats ok, Whites take care of their woman"

If that was so, why did white women benefit more from Affirmative Action than blacks did?

Funny, how you always use to compare the ghetto blacks against middleclass whites and upper class whites in your assessments, but completely leave out middleclass blacks and upper class blacks that do take care of their women as well. Yep, you always lump all blacks in the same boat. Even when you do those surveys you never survey middleclass or upperclass blacks.

"Except Black cry at white flight as they alway do."

Nah,it's not about white flight. It's about redlining neighborhoods and banks charging blacks way more than they do whites.

Middle class and upper class Blacks like nice modern houses,locations, and better schools too.

"If I was to add up all the taxes I have paid since I started working at 15, those taxes have probably supported 4-5 families of 4."

Oh boy, here we go again with that only white folks pay taxes. Puleeeeeeezzzz! Spare me the BS. Black people pay taxes and have been paying taxes since slavery ended, so we could say the same thing about some of your ghetto white folks.

What restribution? hehehehe. That is a joke and BS.

"poor music taste,"

Well,there sure are a lot of whites with poor music taste because they're the number one consumer and copycats of that poor music taste. You never hear of blacks trying to copycat or steal any of your music and claim it as their own creation when it begins to make big profits. I'm surprised that whites haven't started lying and claiming that they invented hip hop yet. That's usually what they do when the big profits begin to roll in like they did french braids, pancakes, and every thing else that blacks created.

"Whenever an individual white harms a black, all whites are collectively guilty. Of course there's no such collective guilt for any of the thousands of black-on-white murders that have occurred since Tills murder. Funny how that works."

You are so full of dung. The only reason you push that BS about black on white murders is because you are afraid to compete. Therefore, if you push the scary Black boogeyman theory, if helps reduce the competion. Deep down inside you are insecure when it comes to competing with BLACK folks. Which is why you push all of those negative labels aimed at Black people. Btw, you've been pushing that collective thugs, hoes, pimps, and other negative stereotypes about Black people since slavery ended in order to make sure that inequality remains and that Blacks socioeconomic and political status stays the same. You're scared that Black folks might get ahead of you.

GrannyStandingforTruth said...

Bye Bye, I have to go now.

The Purple Cow said...

"Except Blacks would cry white flight as they always do. "

Oh I doubt it.

I mean think about it. No more FoxNews, no more NASCAR, no more country and western music...

Q.Incidentally, what do you get if you play a country album backwards?

A. You get your girl back, you get your job back, you get your dog back...

...no more WWE, no more Deep-pan Pizza, no more Coldplay, no more 'shock-jocks', no more Tea Party, no more 'Caibou Barbie'.

Christ, we are talking heaven on earth.

**

"Blacks cannot survive without whites and whites."

Errrrrrrr what??

The Purple Cow said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
GrannyStandingforTruth said...

Btw, most Black upper-class live in white middle class neighborhoods. Redlining never died, it went underground or rather undercover.

field negro said...

Damn PC, go easy on the troll.

We want the poor thing to come back.

You can't just keep slapping it around with facts like that.

BTW, has anyone seen or heard from our resident Neo Nazi, Frank Drackman?

Poor guy, he must be in prison again.:)

Bill said...

GrannyStandingforTruth said...
"poor music taste,"

Well,there sure are a lot of whites with poor music taste because...


Exhibit 1 - Kenny G

Trollonymous Burgundy said...

Bill said: "Exhibit 1 - Kenny G"

Yet another white exploiter of Soft Jazz and black music. Keep trying.

Anonymous said...

As long as the reparations include a one way ticket to Liberia, that is a good trade.

Let me know when this program starts.

Anonymous said...

To purple cow...the offer stands. No more NASCAR...just take the deal...

Limpbaugh said...

In response to the earlier questions about why the south lost the war if they were so wealthy? The south lost the war largely because they were dependent on England for manufactured goods. Their wealth was in agriculture. England originally supported the south because they bought cotton. One of the issues was the excise taxes on cotton that made it more profitable to sell cotton to the north. A year into the war, the war became more about slavery with the Emancipation Proclamation. The British Parliament was opposed slavery at the time and England stopped supporting the south. The fact that news traveled by ship in those days delayed that reaction. The south was winning the war for the first two years. Better generals was probably a factor. They lost the last two years. Out of desperation, Jefferson Davis even said the south would free the slaves if they won, but it was too late in a time when news traveled by ship.

Limpbaugh said...

I think it is a big mistake to identify John Conyer's bill as study about reparations. Too many people will oppose it. If the wealth had been divided up after the civil war, instead of before it, we might have already had racial equality, so reparations shouldn't be ruled out as a solution. But their are also other possible remedies. The problem wasn't just slavery. It was all of the discrimination that followed it as well. If something could be done to change white racism, that would go a long way toward solving the problem without even involving black people. There are probably all kinds of things that can be done. Maybe specific civil rights law changes or areas that need affirmative action can be identified. There are social factors involved, not just economic factors.

LaCubanadeMatanzas said...

Making it plain

"Sun" As in light (Field)

It is rare that you and i do not agree and this time there is no exception: In my 25 yrs of being in and around and supporting the reparations mobement i have never read or heard of an argument that is more clear.
There are no words

Ps


Maybe if black women were still in chattel slavery white gurls would not have to be worried about those small penis white boys LMAO

Field, thanks for the post at twit!

The case for reparations is clear he has made his point and those who disagree are probably still trying to get along OR sleeping with ghosts smh lmao