There’s a growing demand coming from the fringe — well, let’s hope it’s the fringe — demanding reparations for sufferings caused by slavery in America as well as for the sufferings, primarily of African-Americans, in the years since its abolition. It’s a radical idea that cannot be supported economically or ideologically.
Before going further, it must be stated emphatically that the practice of slavery is abhorrent. That it occurred in America is a stain on our history. That it occurred throughout the world for millennia, is a stain on humanity. No amount of words will remove the fact that this inhumane practice has been part of the human condition. Those who worked for its abolition deserve our admiration and gratitude.
However, demands for trillions of dollars in reparations to the descendants of those who suffered under slavery in America in not supportable. More on page two.
We owe you NOTHING!!!
The white man didn’t sell the African man. Your African man sold their own into slavery. Read your history.
Don’t owe you anything. You owe me. I’m native American.
I totally agree with you, that’s the problem they think everybody owes them.
Maybe this “learned” professor should crack a book and read up on the Zulu Nation and discover what Shaka Zulu did with the remnants of his defeated enemies. It has something to do with the Dutch slave traders and the southern colonies in the New World. It’s a good read.
Not all white people owned slaves. Need a lot of time to trace down all those that did. Oh, and I don’t owe you s**t.
Well my ancestors never owned slaves as a matter of fact they fought to free them….my family tree shows a long history of hard working Americans who came here from Spain and Ireland to have a better life. They worked hard,went to Church and instilled Morales and values in their children which have been carried thru from generation to generation…..and continue on to this day….We are proud of America and the freedoms and opportunities we have in this country….We were taught if you work hard you can achieve anything…..I wasn’t born with a silver spoon in my mouth and my family was not wealthy we just got by…but I know from personal experience if you want something bad enough you’ll find a way to get it ….instead of trying to get something that was never owed to you……..self esteem and pride are wonderful attributes and mean so much more when finally get what you worked for.
Fist; he needs to explain what unearned income is. If I actually have some of it; I will gladly give it up if it would make this hostility go away.
Gee, maybe both sets of grandparents came from the old world after slavery in the USA was all done… outlawed, over! Maybe none of the countries that they came from were involved in slavery of anyone… at all! But EVERY working person in this nation has been a taxed wage slave supporting those with needs and those who just want to take the handout, for just as long as they’ve been working. How is THAT right? Perhaps those overtaxed WORKERS are owed by those who don’t produce anything except more bills, might that be possible?