Slavery Reparations

[Gene C]

(06-19-2019 08:30 PM)Dave Taylor Wrote:  Coates also wrote a very long piece regarding reparations for the Atlantic a few years ago. It’s a long read but very informative. I’m excerpting a part of it here that I feel sums up while it is worthwhile for the U.S. government to at least study reparations:

"The early American economy was built on slave labor. The Capitol and the White House were built by slaves. President James K. Polk traded slaves from the Oval Office. The laments about “black pathology,” the criticism of black family structures by pundits and intellectuals, ring hollow in a country whose existence was predicated on the torture of black fathers, on the rape of black mothers, on the sale of black children. An honest assessment of America’s relationship to the black family reveals the country to be not its nurturer but its destroyer.

Coates makes some interesting points, so I don't want to comment to much and take what he says out of context.
I would be interested in the source of his statement "The early American economy was built on slave labor"
Also, it is my understanding that warring tribes in Africa frequently sold their captives into slavery, and that was the main source of black slaves sold in America, England, Central and South America.

Yes, slavery is wrong, but its goes back to thousands of years before Christ. It is not the sole fault of America. Reparations are fine, but they can label people as victims, unable to help themselves, and that is part of the problem. After a while, repeated attempts to help, becomes enabling.