Slavery Reparations

[Gencor]

(06-22-2019 10:49 AM)L Verge Wrote:  

(06-21-2019 10:50 AM)Christine Wrote:  A couple of thoughts I had this morning while out walking:

Did the federal government ever buy, sell, or hold slaves? Did any state government ever buy, sell, or hold slaves?

If the answer is no, then this begs a question. Can a government be held responsible for actions made by individual citizens? I am not asking this to be smart alecky or cause contention, I sincerely want a serious answer.

The government ordered Japanese citizens to be placed in internment camps during WW 11. I understand the reasons, but it still was a terrible policy. I believe reparations were made to those people and families.

The government ordered Native Americans placed on reservations, and we are still paying reparations for that, but the result has not been to help these wonderful people but has only 'enslaved' them in other ways.

Were the Jim Crow laws and government policies that caused so much racial disenfranchisement federal laws or were those state laws? Is the federal government responsible for terrible state laws enacted by individual states and their elected leaders?

Who decides who would receive these reparations? Having done a great deal of Civil War era genealogical research I know how difficult it is to find slave ancestors. What about the person who doesn't know his or her ancestry? Many people don't even know who their parents are, let alone their great great great grandparents. How would it be proven? After all, many African Americans here today came after the Civil War and did not have slave ancestors.

Who pays? My ancestors were not even in the United States during the slave period, so would I still be responsible to pay a tax to pay reparations for something my relatives had no part of?

And who decides how much reparation would be 'enough?' If a person received a pell grant for college, have they received enough reparation already? How about federal housing money? Or food stamps? Or welfare payments? Or Medicaid? Or subsidized child care? Has that money already received, much in consequence of the past injustices and terrible government policies that have kept poor people enslaved in another sense, already paid the debt?

I make no pretense to knowing the answers to any of these questions, however, one look at the immigration chaos shows that even for all of the problems in the United States of America, millions of people all over the world still think this is the best place to live to accomplish their hopes and dreams. Too bad many of the people who have lived here for generations have been told differently.

Bless you, Christine, for bringing out these very poignant, logical, and necessary questions and comments that need to be addressed. I live in a county right outside of the nation's capital that is approximately 85% African American, but also the wealthiest black county in the U.S. Except for pockets inside our infamous Beltway, our neighborhoods are flourishing, even though our schools are overcrowded and underachieving in some areas.

Our residents have taken advantage of incentives over the past fifty years and advanced. They are frequent visitors to Surratt House, volunteer as guides and visitors' center workers, and attend most of our monthly educational programs -- in good numbers, not just one or two folks. And, some of them don't understand this issue of reparations -- they believe in taking advantage of what has been offered to advance their position in life and working hard to stay there.

One of the best examples that I can offer is a young lady whose mother works in one of our nature centers. She told me about six or so years ago that her 16-year-old daughter was very interested in the Lincoln assassination. I told her she was too young to be a volunteer guide, but that she should join the Surratt Society in order to get the Surratt Courier newsletter - which she did. Two years later, she became a guide, even when away at college in Baltimore. This year, she had to resign because she was accepted into the law school at University of California, Berkeley. BTW: Her mother is a single mom. To me, they are fine examples of people who could have fallen in the economic/social gutter, but decided to use what has been made available to them as well as their own hard work and determination to better themselves and those around them.

One other comment: I went to college in the mountains of western Maryland - on the fringes of Appalachia. When you enter into those mountain pockets of desperate poverty, it is a very depressing sight. I wish that some of our ultra-liberal complainers would take on projects to improve those situations and similar ones for other ethnic groups. One does not have to be descended from enslaved persons in order to face prejudice, poverty, and depression.

All of these are excellent points and coming from my Southern background, I have listened to the stories of the slaves all of my life. We even keep their slave quarters behind some of our restored mansions of that period, as museums. I, myself, even live on the remnants of an old plantation property, that has been developed over the many centuries, since the old mansion was built in the 1800's. I understand wanting the horrible abuse to be recognized and even some reparations to be made. What I am not clear about is exactly what they are asking and there seems to be a quiet tug of war going on between those who are pushing for this and those that could do something about it. In all of the discussion that I listened to last week, I didn't hear a demand, just an argument. Unless I have missed something here, there has been no demands made, just the discussion of it. I am not sure that isn't just some ploy to get a financial settlement and while we probably shouldn't discuss this in polite company, however, I just feel that everyone is dancing around the obvious. There is a bigger picture, surrounding all of this and making it more possible for this discussion to continue. I am not convinced of the sincerity of either side to bring this to a good conclusion. Of course, we all have ideas of how this may be handled but as I said, I am not convinced yet either side is sincere enough to bring a good conclusion to this, that everyone will be satisfied with.