Should the US pay slave Reparations for Slavery?

Greetings,

You are correct in part...financial reparations cannot make up for the genocide of African people. However, what do you suggest should be done to restore the souls of Africans affected by the genocide?

Looking forward to hearing from you

<<Don't you think that Baruch Spinoza would suggest calling a deeply held idea arrived at by years of thoughtful contemplation as "silly" inconsistent with the spirit of his statement below?>>

I'd call creationism silly....

Alisa,

Well thought out and wholly universalist.

Thank you.

Princess Adinasse

There's another example of reparations - to Jewish decedents of the Holocaust. International courts recognize the culpability of current generation for the harm done by previous generations.

Before going into the particulars of okay - how much? to whom to be paid by whom details, I think that there are significant discussions to be had about the nature of racism. Racism is so horrible - and I'm a good person. How could I be called racist? To be racist - don't you have to belong to the KKK? Explaining racism to the average white person is like trying to explain water to fish. What water?

I was reading this thread yesterday and started a response, but became so depressed, I had to walk away from it. I'm back because it's important for this discussion to take place - particularly among UU's, whom I trust to think seriously about issues of fairness, justice and the worth and dignity of all people. Also, I'm back because people in our country with dark skin don't have the choice to walk away from issues of racism.

Acknowledging what the previous generations in America did to Africans is much easier than acknowledging how the current generation of white people who live here continue to reap the benefits of those actions - regardless of the date of immigration of one's family. Some of the civil rights laws were passed within my lifetime. Our legal and political system has been in a push-pull struggle to end slavery/keep slavery, share some of the wealth with former slaves/don't share the wealth with former slaves, allow dark skin people to live in certain places/don't allow dark skin people to live there, allow other races to vote/don't allow other races to vote, etc. Education, health care, employment practices, legal protections, water fountain usage, seating on public transportation, etc. was regulated to keep down descendents of former slaves - and anyone who looked like them regardless of date of immigration - in order to hoard resources for white people.

There is not a single city or town in the US that I can think of (your experience may vary) where the majority of African Americans live in a particular part of town. It's not that every African American in that city or town lives in that designated area now, but the majority of that area is inhabited by African Americans. This is not an accident. Historical laws, custom and practice mandated that segregation. Current city and county guidelines determine the upkeep of those streets, sidewalks, streetlights, etc. Where I live, there is a noticeable difference between the city upkeep of the schools, city streets, etc. in traditionally African American neighborhoods as compared with white neighborhoods. This distinction is a hold over from years and years of institutionalized racism - that is systematically a part of every institution, social system, etc. in our culture.

Statistically, African Americans have a shorter life expectancy, less access to health care, less education, more likely arrests, longer prison sentences, less pay for the same job, higher unemployment, etc. These differences all have their origins in our history as a country who prospered on the shoulders of slaves. The current generation of African Americans collectively bear the social, economic, legal and health consequences of the decisions of whites over the last 400 years.

As laws come into existence to eliminate the most obvious parts of institutionalized racism, more subtle discrimination takes over. Racism is embedded in American culture. By virtue of being more subtle, it is less easily regulated and fought by legal measures. Heart to heart discussions need to be taking place. It's important to study what has occurred, what are the consequences, what precedents exist in the law and what would be the most equitable means of restitution. Too much of our history as a country has been based on what powerful people could get away with. We need to look beyond what we could get away with and look at what would result in the most significant form of justice.

I don't think it is as easy giving money - though I think there has be to be a financial component.
Alisa

The greater question is, who will pay reparations on the souls?

<<Africa, specifically, Benin Republic, where my father is a King>>

Uh, question. How is your father a King when Benin doesn't have a monarchy?

www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/6761.htm

www.traveldocs.com/bj/govern.htm

I'm just asking...

the UU church in nashville (where i attended and volunteered) hosted a white privilege conference with fisk university. i'll try to find the material and post here.

also, the place where i work just had a seminar on white privilege and it was very sobering.

i'm white and benefit from years of exploitation of other's labor even if i personally don't agree with it.

so yes, i'm for reparations. of course, money can't make up for exploitation but we can try. that is what the idea of restitution can mean. that we pay a price for something from which we should not have benefitted. how can we repay someone for our ancestors raping them, stealing their children and then denying it all? there are no white people in the us who have not benefitted from our racist history. if you think you haven't then you're operating under the biggest white privilege of all: denial!

in this way, i also believe that native americans deserve reparations for all the euros taking the land they were living on which they understood could only truly belong to mother earth.