Reparations: A Conversation 150 Years Overdue

[thomhartmann]

Mitch McConnell outraged millions after making remarks against reparations for Africans turned into an attack against former President Barrack Obama.

McConnell's insensitive comments come as discussions around reparations are reaching the highest levels.

Reparations for slavery are 150 years overdue according to Professor Cornell William Brooks, who discussed the history of enslaved African people in America with Thom.

Reparations for slavery are 150 years overdue according to Professor Cornell William Brooks, who discussed slaves and history with Thom. Mitch McConnell’s reparations comments saying they aren’t a good idea, opposing reparations as nobody alive is responsible.

Let us have your opinion in the comments below.

[eleny]

1. I hope that Prof. Brooks becomes a regular guest

The interview was an education. I'm glad to see the interview posted here so I can hear him again.

[panader0]

2. I often read about people wrongly imprisoned for many years.

DNA evidence emerges and the person is released. They are paid (though not
enough) for their years in jail. How is that different from slavery?
Imagine how much money is wasted by the Trump administration for
these BS actions in the Middle East.

[gladium et scutum]

5. The difference is

the money goes to the individual that served the prison time, unjustly, not to his great grand children.

[Amishman]

6. Yup, 150 years overdue and 130 years too late to be feasible

The records simply don't exist in most cases to have a reasonable determination of eligibility.

[Nuggets]

8. Every community in America regardless

of race or incomes should be brought up to decent standards. For example, anything a public school in a wealthy community needs should be available at every school. Up to date technology, wifi etc.



There are obviously many more issues to deal with.

Using the word reparations will only make ppl feel like they are paying for the sins of their fathers.
It keeps the anger flowing and that won’t help solve our problems.

[lunatica]

12. But it is about reparations

For example, Georgetown University was built by slaves and they have the paperwork to show that they owned slaves who they later sold when they needed money. The records show where the slaves went. The slaves and the descendants of those slaves were left in a poverty stricken community which still suffers economically to this day.

Reparations means Georgetown University owes this community reparations in the form of an equal education and free scholarships to the descendants of those slaves.

It’s not about handing money over indiscriminately. It’s about righting wrongs that have locked in poverty to generations of slave descendants.

[tishaLA]

7. Many of the people arguing for reparations correctly point out that

reparations for slavery is only part of the issue, and besides the US government paid survivor money to confederate soldiers for years after the Civil War, despite the fact that the soldiers had committed treason against the United States.

So, in the wake of slavery we had Jim Crow, which didn't end until the 60s and was a system that kept African Americans from having "a level playing field." Many parts of the New Deal were written to exclude African Americans from being able to access benefits, something that happened because of horsetrading with southern segregationists to vote for the bill.

After WW2, the GI Bill effectively denied many African American veterans the ability to use those benefits because of redlining--another source of the need for reparations--and the fact that, because of the concentration of African American veterans in the south kept them from being able to use the educational benefits because colleges refused to accept African Americans.

This helped keep the wealth gap between whites and African Americans in place--and in fact exacerbated it--and we still feel the reverberations from it today. I could go on with this, but the overall point is that slavery isn't the only reason for calls for reparations.

[gladium et scutum]

10. The U.S. Government

"the US government paid survivor money to confederate soldiers for years after the Civil War".
Do you have a source for that statement?
The U. S. Government paid pensions to U.S. soldiers and sailors that had served in the Civil War.
The ex-Confederate states paid pensions to the Confederate veterans of their respective states. Not the Federal Government.

[tishaLA]

11. Sure

https://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2016-08-08/civil-war-vets-pension-still-remains-on-governments-payroll-151-years-after-last-shot-fired

[gladium et scutum]

13. Sure

The article discusses a CW pension paid to the elderly daughter of a Union Army veteran. Moses Triplett served in the CSA, then deserted that army and enlisted in the Union Army. His pension was a U.S. Government pension paid for his service in the Union Army.
Public Law 85-425 passed in May 1958, elevated Confederate veterans, their widows and children to equal status of U.S. Veterans.
This law did allow pensions to be paid to the widows and children of a few Confederate veterans. Since the last verifiable Confederate veteran died in 1951, no veteran of the Confederate army drew a pension paid for by the United States Government.

[tishaLA]

14. I should have been more precise in my language

The survivor's benefits went to the families of confederate soldiers killed in the war and paid by US government

[gladium et scutum]

16. after 1958,

by that time the last Confederate veteran had been dead for 7 years. The benefits, were paid out to widows, wives and children of men that had served in the Confederate army. That soldier did not have to be killed in the war for the benefit to be paid.

[Act_of_Reparation]

15. Right. The damage done by slavery alone wasn't undone with the subsequent generation.

One's station in life is usually dependent upon the hand one is dealt at birth. Even if each generation is in a better place than the preceding generation, the descendants of slaves will always be at a disadvantage unless some sort of restitution is made to even the playing field.

That doesn't even take into account exacerbating factors like segregation, Jim Crow, systemic racism, and implicit racism.

This question always throws people into tizzy. It isn't about blame or guilt or assigning responsibility for crimes over three centuries in the making. It's about unfucking our system.

Now, we can always argue over what reparations would look like. Personal payments? College funds? Urban renewal? Who knows. Not my department. But something should be done.

[USALiberal]

3. Determining the people would be the issue and take forever.....

Spend billions on AA education/jobs/housing instead.

[snowybirdie]

4. Yes!

Johnson attempted this in the 60s, but the programs have died over the years

[cbdo2007]

9. Which is why this is essentially a non-issue for most people...

There are too many gray areas and questions about who should get what, who pays, and how much they would get.

At this point, money is useless, it is about making opportunity and education available for all people who want it.