Reparations for african-americans

[David Floyd]

Dissident,

ell you are right David, but we can't actually tell them that

for some reason they get offended at that.

Who cares? *I'll* ****ing tell them that.

Gatekeeper,

What exactly is a "special economic zone", in the context of race relations in the US?

[David Floyd]

this is not punishment.

It is in the sense that slavery was not illegal. Ex post facto laws are unconstitutional - laws that are passed and retroactively applied after the fact.

[Dis]

well these are all good points.

but how do you tell that to the majority of african-americans who support reparations? They aren't going to like these answers. They will keep demanding money.

How do we put this issue to rest?

[Gatekeeper]

DF:

Special Economic Zones are basically zones within poor areas of cities or on Native American reservations where taxation isn't necessarily the same as elsewhere (or maybe a relocating company can get a low-interest loan). They're essentially attempts to create zones of development w/i poor areas by enticing companies to locate in such zones with whatever "enticements" they can legally offer. Since many such areas generally have majority African-American or Native American populations, that's where they can be found.

I think south-central L.A. was supposed to be one such zone, along with an area of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.

Gatekeeper

[David Floyd]

but how do you tell that to the majority of african-americans who support reparations? They aren't going to like these answers. They will keep demanding money.

Well ****, if being irrational and demanding other people's money is accepted, then I wanna try it out.

But if these people had guns, we'd call them bank robbers, so I don't see how being loud-mouthed idiots entitles them to money.

[David Floyd]

Special Economic Zones are basically zones within poor areas of cities or on Native American reservations where taxation isn't necessarily the same as elsewhere

Well I have absolutely no problem with lowering taxes. This certainly isn't fair to middle class or rich people, but then again, taxes aren't fair to anyone (IMO) so I have no problem in seeing them cut drastically for even a portion of the population.

[Gatekeeper]

Originally posted by Dissident
How do we put this issue to rest?

Simply put: You don't. All one can do is strive to make people wanting such "solutions" to their problems in the minority as much as you nicely can.

Gatekeeper

[David Floyd]

As long as these people aren't at the same time taking advantage of the taxes being paid by other people, that is.

[loinburger]

**** it, this is just one of those issues where I've gotta say "show me somebody who wants reparations, and I'll argue with him/her (or at least hear their side of the issue), but I'm sure as hell not going to argue with his/her self-appointed representative." If evil honkies like me are the cause of all of the world's problems, then it's awfully naive of us to believe that we're able to understand all of the suffering that our ancestors ("our" meaning "all whities as a whole, because when you get down to brass tacks one honky's pretty much the same as another") have caused (and, vicariously, all of the damage that we've caused, since we're somehow responsible for the actions of our ancestors). My evil white ancestors certainly didn't own any slaves (for starters, they were far too poor to afford any), and I've certainly never met anybody who was able to determine who owned his/her ancestors (or who cared to know who did), which leaves me absolutely awestruck at this thread's premise -- "so, loinburger, if your ancestors were rich, and you were rich as a result of your ancestors being rich, and your ancestors owned slaves, then do you feel that you'd owe the ancestors of these slaves any recompense?" What the ****?

[Space05us]

And yes polls do show most white americans are against reparations. But guess what, most black americans support reparations. And they are what matters. What white people think doesn't matter. because as long as black people push for reparations, the issue will not go away. The issue must be addressed.

Any white person that says what happend hundreds of years ago means absolutely nothing is ignorant, any black person who says they deserve reperations for what happend hundreds of years ago is a whiner. And Im with David on this one, give them a choice to either remain here or fly back to thier "homeland" where they will no doubt be shot on sight because they are American not African. One more thing, they should be trying to get reperations from African nations as well as people here in America because the Africans were the ones who sold them for so cheap

[Space05us]

Oh yeah, I would also like to go back and sue the people of Norway whos anscestors raped and enslaved mine!!

[reds4ever]

Originally posted by Dissident
normally I wouldn't support such an outlandish thing.

But then I realized, that wealth is still out there. People got rich off of slaves. That money didn't disappear. It is still out there, somewhere.

Here in the UK, in 1066 William the Conqueror came and installed a French aristocracy at the head of the English fuedal system. Maybe the 'pure English' amongst us may have a claim against todays aristocracy (who are all pretty much decended from the French invaders) for geting rich on the back of poor working conditions, racial discrimination, unfair work practises....etc?

[Gangerolf]

most african americans have some white blood in them, meaning many (or probably most) of them are decended from both slaves and slave owners. ergo they should give themselves money

[problem_child]

I dunno about repatriations, but Drop 3rd World Dept, smash the WTO. History is full of atrocities, but doing something about the ones being commited now should get priority. I definately think that if Japan is ever forced to pay for the POWs of the US and UK it took during WW2, then it should also pay for the millions of Chinese, Indonesians, THais, Philipinos and others that it also brutalised, and that if America pays for the crimes commited during slavery, it should also pay for what it sponsored in Latin America, South East Asia, and the Middle East.

[Kidlicious]

Reparations should be given as community property. They should be used to build black communities, and train black professionals on the condition that they will work and invest in black communities.

If you just give the money to individuals unconditionally it will just be a waste. The status of blacks will not improve.