After clicking link read the Full Text...amazing!
www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h111-40
Tax $$$$ well spent. This is change I can believe in!!!
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After clicking link read the Full Text...amazing!
www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h111-40
Tax $$$$ well spent. This is change I can believe in!!!
>
Yikes. Even though there is no way an actual reparations bill would pass, spending $8M to "study" it is still quite a waste of money.
Slavery has had quite an impact on the NFL, NBA, MLB, and as Chris Rock said," African Americans would be dominating the NHL if they could just figure out how to get the hockey arena warmer". Ok, I'll take my $8,000,000 now. I wonder how well they're doing in Somalia and Kenya and Sudan right now.
.To acknowledge the fundamental injustice, cruelty, brutality, and inhumanity of slavery in the United States and the 13 American colonies between 1619 and 1865 and to establish a commission to examine the institution of slavery, subsequently de jure and de facto racial and economic discrimination against African-Americans, and the impact of these forces on living African-Americans, to make recommendations to the Congress on appropriate remedies, and for other purposes
I think we already have appropriate remedies-something called affirmative action. In this study, why not include Asians who were forced into camps to build railroads, as well as Irishmen who were forced to do jobs that slaveowners didn't want to risk losing their slaves from doing? The list goes on and on.
Don't get me wrong. I think it's deplorable that this country was funded by slavery during its early years, however, it's not like we were the only country and I daresay we've done more than any other country to rectify that situation. If the descendants of former slaves haven't improved themselves with the opportunities afforded them then no amount of money is going to change the direction they take with their lives.
This is just ignorant thinking. I mean, those who consider these types of actions don't realize that it was a very small minority of whites who benefitting financially off of the slaves. I guarantee you that my ancestors didn't make one dime off of slavery, and I'd bet that would be the case with the largest majority of others on here. What about the immigrants who've come to America who didn't own slaves yet were able to become successful? Now you're going to punish them by using their money to repay those they've never had a hand in "using". Utterly ridiculous.
I'll say it once again. Any descendents of slaves who haven't been able to take advantage of the affirmative action incentives given them won't take advantage of any money given to them either. Those who want to succeed have done so.
Wow, what a crock. Ya know, since Obama's been elected, race relations have gone downhill. The problem is that the Liberals SAY they're all about equality and whatnot, but they continue to point out differences and divide people. A lot of folks voted for Obama just because he was black, and a bunch of black people here taunted the hell out of us whites for it. However, this reparations crap isn't anything new and I SERIOUSLY doubt it'll go anywhere. I'd want to revolt if it did, though.
I strongly disagree with that last sentence. Affirmative action has certainly helped, but it is a far cry from balancing the playing field. The reparations focus on slavery, but the fact is that the disadvantages to people of African descent in an American culture that systematically favored whites for all but the last 50 years of our ~400-year history go far beyond slavery. It has been within the lifetime of many members of this board that blacks were prohibited by law from engaging in a variety of public activities, Jim Crow laws encoded social inequities that have been demonstrated to have a long-term psychological effect.
Here is an analogy. Let's say America is a race. Whites, for the most part, have been free to run as fast as their abilities will carry them for the first 4 laps of the race. For the first two and a half laps, blacks were chained to the starting block and not permitted to compete. Then they were unshackled, but anytime a white runner approached, they were required to stop running, step off the track, and wait while the white runner passed. Finally, in the last half lap, all restrictions have been removed.
Do you really thing, in that last half of a lap, when the white runners had a 4 lap lead, that the black runners are going to just automatically catch up and it will be as though nothing happened? While blacks have made great gains once the legal obstructions were removed, whites, too kept running, so blacks are still working to catch up.
Not only this, but if you had been chained and otherwise restricted from competing equally for the first 3 1/2 laps of a 4-lap (so far) race, what would be your mindset? How much hope would you have that you could catch up and meaningfully compete? Sure, some folks would embrace the opportunity, do their best, and match stride with the whites. Others would see no point, though, and struggle to find motivation to compete. The bottom line is that it will take time for the effects of the prior limitations to completely wear off. In the meantime there will continue to be inequities, and we should not pretend those inequities are not present.
That said, reparations makes no sense. Those who directly profited from slavery have been dead for quite some time. Those who were slaves have been dead for quite some time. This is very, very different from the reparations awarded by German and Japanese entities for things they did to people who are still living. This is dragging up old hurts, re-opening old wounds, further slowing the healing process that has been slowly growing for the past few decades.
Beyond that, by the time reparations trickled down, the amount received would make little or no difference. We have programs, controversial as they are, that help to create opportunities that will have a lasting effect. Throwing cash at people is not going to do anything to erase the scars of slavery and systemic racism. Insisting on such payments is not only not going to help anyone in a meaningful way, it significantly sets back the work that folks like MLK, Jr., gave their lives to realize.
The most symbolic position in the country is now held by a black man, who was elected primarily by votes from whites. This could be a time to celebrate the gains that have been made and to find constructive ways to build on them. Hopefully clearer minds will prevail and this issue will be laid to rest.
Are any of their ancestors in Africa better off than they are? That's the question they need to ask themselves.
Jordan Mills on choosing Tech:
“It’s a great experience seeing them play. It was a good atmosphere. The fans stood up the whole game and never sat down. They have a great fan base.”
If anybody has a right to be pissed off, it's my American Indian ancestors!!!
Further, if it were not slavery, descendants of slaves who currently are alive would have never existed. An entirely different set of people would have descended from the would-have-been slaves who never were slaves.
Jordan Mills on choosing Tech:
“It’s a great experience seeing them play. It was a good atmosphere. The fans stood up the whole game and never sat down. They have a great fan base.”
Ugly people are descriminated against, also. I'd rather be black with a 50 million NFL or NBA contract than be ugly, but, I didn't have that choice.
Furthermore, how do you think I felt growing up left-handed and having to sit in a right-handed desk! I demand reparations for having to curl my wrist around to write!!!
Jesus Christ, this is just some stupid bill introduced by a piss-ant congressman who has his head stuck up his ass. Obama has nothing to do with it and I doubt that it would even pass a Committee vote. What really distrubs me is that college graduates even waste their time taking it seriously. ARRRGH!
"All roads lead to Putin" -- Thomas Jefferson
Brian, your analogy is a well painted picture, but I disagree about it's connection to the real world. Are there people held back? Yes. The part where we disagree is that slavery is responsible. The fact that people were held back years ago is not holding anyone back now.
I'm also discriminated against because I'm diabetic. This is definitely worse than being black. I applied for health insurance through AARP and 2 other insurance companies and was turned down because I'm diabetic. I also applied for life insurance through 3 insurance companies and was turned down. Forget about having a dessert when you go out to eat. Even though you can make good desserts with splenda, nobody does it. I'd take being black anyday over being diabetic.