A bit like when Don Cheadle found out his ancestors were enslaved by Native Americans.

Yep. There are more people than you would imagine who simply cannot grasp that concept that ALL cultures have owned slaves at some point.

So, when the inevitable topic of Reparations is seriously taken up in the USA, all of this needs to be thoroughly researched, documented, and included in the discussion. My summary thinking is as follows:
- African nations sold the slaves to the Dutch traders
- The Dutch traders brought the slaves over in their ships
- Mainly white but some black people in the UK colony (up until 1776) or USA (after 1776) purchased the slaves in NY, Charleston SC, and - later - in New Orleans

So, those three continents are responsible for the entire slavery situation. It took active participation in all three "locations" to make it happen. If any one of the three did NOT participate, it would not have occurred in the EU colony/USA.

A question that must be addressed is since the USA was not formed until 1776, can it not be argued that what happened here before then should be directed to the UK since it was an English colony.

So....any reparations that the think tank/committee comes up with should be divided by three and payable by north African nations, the EU, and the USA. Or maybe add the UK to it and make the EU/UK pay 50% and Africa and USA 25% each. Whatever, the committee can figure the details out, Obviously, committee members should include individuals from the African nations, the EU, the UK and the USA.

Perhaps she should devote 75% of her future earnings to REPARATIONS.

(10-18-2021 05:11 PM)boss man Wrote:  Yep. There are more people than you would imagine who simply cannot grasp that concept that ALL cultures have owned slaves at some point.

So, when the inevitable topic of Reparations is seriously taken up in the USA, all of this needs to be thoroughly researched, documented, and included in the discussion. My summary thinking is as follows:
- African nations sold the slaves to the Dutch traders
- The Dutch traders brought the slaves over in their ships
- Mainly white but some black people in the UK colony (up until 1776) or USA (after 1776) purchased the slaves in NY, Charleston SC, and - later - in New Orleans

So, those three continents are responsible for the entire slavery situation. It took active participation in all three "locations" to make it happen. If any one of the three did NOT participate, it would not have occurred in the EU colony/USA.

A question that must be addressed is since the USA was not formed until 1776, can it not be argued that what happened here before then should be directed to the UK since it was an English colony.

So....any reparations that the think tank/committee comes up with should be divided by three and payable by north African nations, the EU, and the USA. Or maybe add the UK to it and make the EU/UK pay 50% and Africa and USA 25% each. Whatever, the committee can figure the details out, Obviously, committee members should include individuals from the African nations, the EU, the UK and the USA.

At the time of the Civil War there were over 3,000 Black slave owners in the City of New Orleans alone.....Most were women.

That's why there is a need to shift from instances of slavery, which are myriad and extremely diverse, to the "institution" of slavery which is easier to assign blame to. That way, the inconvenient slave owners that come up can be framed within entire institution, hence blame can be assigned to the "proper" perpetrators instead of the actual individuals, such as this lady's ancestors.

Its a stupid discussion. We have had a Black president and Black VP.

There is nobody alive who was a slave and probably nobody whose parent was a slave.

As for reparations, there is welfare which is disproportionately used by those whose ancestors were slaves. Obama and Kamala don't have any need for it.

The idea of reparations is generally to put the "victim" where he/she would have been without the act for which reparations are owed. Without slavery in the USA, the place where most of its "victims" would be is Africa. So how about this as an idea? If you want reparations, give up your USA citizenship and go back to whatever country in Africa your ancestors came from. I wonder how many would take up that offer.

I taught one semester at an HBCU many years ago, as a favor to help out a friend. This was during the "Roots" era, and our dean got very much into digging into his ancestry. Unusually for most descendants of slaves, he found a pretty complete record and eventually identified some cousins in Nigeria. He began corresponding, and wanted to travel to meet them. He found an academic conference in Lagos and basically blew the college travel budget to go there (we were all fine with it, as he was a really good guy and we were happy for him to get the chance). After the conference, he travelled up to northern Nigeria to meet the family. They threw a three-day shindig to welcome him. The last night was a banquet, with the main course a stew with some very dark meat. He asked what it was and was told, "Don't worry, don't you like it?" After questioning several times, he was finally informed that it was rats who fed off the village's grain storage facilities. As he told us the story, he said, "At that moment, all I could think of was, thank God for the slave ships."

(10-18-2021 09:52 PM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  The idea of reparations is generally to put the "victim" where he/she would have been without the act for which reparations are owed. Without slavery in the USA, the place where most of its "victims" would be is Africa. So how about this as an idea? If you want reparations, give up your USA citizenship and go back to whatever country in Africa your ancestors came from. I wonder how many would take up that offer.

We saw how well the Liberia experiment turned out.

Hey, as far as I know I've got some Scottish in me. The English were quite oppressive to my ancestors at some point. Mind you, I've never been to Scotland, have no living relatives who experienced this oppression, and though my family came here poorer than dirt somehow I've somehow managed to carve out a decent living. So, should I petition the crown for reparations for mistreatment of some random ancestors or just accept the fact that oppression and slavery have existed throughout human history?

(10-18-2021 05:11 PM)boss man Wrote:  Yep. There are more people than you would imagine who simply cannot grasp that concept that ALL cultures have owned slaves at some point.

So, when the inevitable topic of Reparations is seriously taken up in the USA, all of this needs to be thoroughly researched, documented, and included in the discussion. My summary thinking is as follows:
- African nations sold the slaves to the Dutch traders
- The Dutch traders brought the slaves over in their ships
- Mainly white but some black people in the UK colony (up until 1776) or USA (after 1776) purchased the slaves in NY, Charleston SC, and - later - in New Orleans

So, those three continents are responsible for the entire slavery situation. It took active participation in all three "locations" to make it happen. If any one of the three did NOT participate, it would not have occurred in the EU colony/USA.

A question that must be addressed is since the USA was not formed until 1776, can it not be argued that what happened here before then should be directed to the UK since it was an English colony.

So....any reparations that the think tank/committee comes up with should be divided by three and payable by north African nations, the EU, and the USA. Or maybe add the UK to it and make the EU/UK pay 50% and Africa and USA 25% each. Whatever, the committee can figure the details out, Obviously, committee members should include individuals from the African nations, the EU, the UK and the USA.

Been reading about reparations alot recently. I think the only way they work is as a gesture of atonement. You can't make things "square" by writing (a series of) checks. That's not going to erase the effects of slavery over the last 400+ years.

Therefore if the people of the US (not white, not black, the US corporately) want to "atone" for their "sin", then it has nothing to do with the British, the Dutch or modern African nations.

My ancestors were never enslaved.

I've never owned a slave.

To those that want "reparations" I have one sentence.

Go frick yourself.