This post is to answer the many questions that pop up from those against reparations. We can all agree or disagree and that is quite okay with me. I do not intend to write only for people to agree with me here at Freedom Reconnection. My post are intended to get people to feel uncomfortable or get out of their own comfort zone. I must admit that I too have went back and forth on this topic, so I am not unsympathetic to those who say no to reparations.
Strongly, there are loads of information on the topic that is ignored for the talking points to dismiss those who are for reparations. I will layout as best I can answers to tough questions and let people decide for themselves. I am not a scholar or expert on this topic nor a historian and apologize in advance if some of this is all over the place. My hope is to open your mind to the possibility that there are parts of this topic you have not thought about.
Who gets reparations? Well, some believe is should go to ADOS or American descendants of slaves. Some think we should start with living survivors of U.S. Policies that harmed them directly that discriminated and stole homes from Black Americans. A retro active GI Bill that left Black veterans without a penny from WW2 up until the first Gulf War. People who suffered bodily harm from Jim Crow laws that destroyed health, businesses and people who were attacked during the Tulsa raid by local law enforcement who bombed and shot Black residents. Maybe if we cannot compensate slaves or their descendants, we can at least help living survivors of actual policies like Jim Crow that hurt Blacks and weren’t rectified by the Civil Rights Act.
Why should I pay as a non Black American? First, you have already paid. We pay taxes to survivors of 9/11 when we didn’t tear down the towers, Saudi Arabia did. The District of Columbia paid reparations to SLAVE OWNERRS who deemed they were in a hardship due to their “property” being given freedom. American citizens pay millions in foreign wars, foreign aid and taxes to Natives which their family didn’t harm. In fact, Black citizens pay these taxes too. Yes, current descendants of slaves have paid billions to be citizens. Meanwhile, we pay, house and give free schooling to criminal aliens who illegally come to this country. So while Americans threaten not to pay federal taxes if reparations are paid, they’ve sat back and paid to other noncitizens for decades. Why then is reparations the limit? Did you or your ancestors not pay for the people that got loans to expand out West? As a citizen, you fund terrorist groups that hate us, wars that have nothing to do with us and you give monthly stipends to illegal law breakers to fund their families back home in countries not ours. Maybe you’d have a point if you protested more or walked away from paying those.
Determining ancestry. There are DNA tests now available to test find out where someone is from. But, someone like Elizabeth Warren who found out she wasn’t Native, she should be ordered to pay back at least some of the money she got from failing to prove Native ancestors. There are records from slave ship logs and reports that can trace ancestor back to the actual slave. Some one like Obama and Kamala would be ineligible based on foreign ancestors, yet Obama’s daughters might through their mother side. Yes, many of African descent can also be tied to slave owners because of the brutal rape and intermarriages throughout our history. Another interesting place to trace lineage is through insurance companies. Many slave owners put policies on their slaves so if they died or ran away, they could make a claim for lost “property”. Many of these companies are big today for making money off of these plantation accounts.
How do we pay? Most people are so laser focused against monthly stipends that they don’t see anything else. The Black community spends TRILLIONS in many industries. You could capture that money in other ways then just giving out checks. One way is to reduce tax liability. You can make tax exemptions, give points towards a home mortgage or even give out college credit in courses like African America studied towards a degree. There can be points added to credit scores, incentives to hiring businesses, apprenticeship programs or even in the personal loan industry. The idea to is to empower Black America for the suffering it went through during actual policies put forth. There can be tax credits in communities building like the X boys home for Black youth that is currently being built in Georgia. The 21 year old entrepreneur who developed this school might not have enough credits to get the loan to build the school. The State or U.S. government could help the Black community help itself in numerous ways other than straight checks that could create a cycle of dependency. Plus, it can be beneficially mutual to help the U.S. economy, With more money and access to wealth, Black spending could remain inside our borders.
I understand the controversy about this topic and the negative emotions it brings for many. The purpose was to give you a different angle to view a topic, that many conservatives dismiss and walk away, from. Although I know many will disagree, I still present things here to open up our strategy in defeating progressives. We cannot win in the future doing things the same way and expecting something differently. Hopefully, at the very minimum, this piece answered a few lingering questions.
