20/20: Americans Debate Reparations for Slavery

 

 

 

 

There's no disputing that Americans of African descent suffered centuries of enslavement. What's far less certain, however, is what kind of debt is owed to the descendants of those slaves.

Students on several college campuses are up in arms over an ad placed in campus newspapers this week by conservative activist David Horowitz. The ad denounces the suggestion that the United States should compensate its African-American citizens for the injustices suffered by slaves.

The protests — and Horowitz's ad — are just the latest signs of the simmering national debate over slave reparations.

Crusade in the Courts

A group of influential lawyers and scholars called the Reparations Coordinating Committee has focused on the institutions it says have profited from slavery. Led by civil-rights activist Randall Robinson, it plans to bring massive lawsuits against the government and major corporations.

After reading this I personally agree,

African americans deserve reparations. Whites have stepped on blacks for eternity. In a way slavery still exist. Blacks constantly work hard for the whites. Its not about the money its about justice. Slavery is WRONG whether blacks got paid then or now they deserve it. The Indians got paid and so have the Japanese. America need to pay up for the injustice and cruelty blacks face everyday

 

Again its about justice.

 

MODERATOR NOTICE

Moved to proper section.

No.

Heck no

I don't think we will EVER be able to fully make up for the atrocity that was slavery. Much like affirmative, I think this would be ultimately counter-productive. What we should do instead is tax the rich and improve the socio-economic status of poor Americans and predominately black communities. The problem isn't that poor African Americans are sitting around waiting for reparations, its that just like the rest of poor America, they're being held down by their own poverty.

 

The sad reality exists: For millions of Americans, the American Dream does not exist.

Edited April 12, 201511 yr by RyanDent

Whoever say's no is heartless and cruel. When someone hurts a family member we make sure the law brings them to justice. And most of the time families are compensated.

No way. First of all it just feeds into the already existent entitlement in the black community. Second where would the money come from? Tax payers? Why is it that I whose grandparents came to America from Switzerland during WW2 who had absolutely nothing to do with slavery have to pay for what people did over 100 years before my family arrived here.

Are you just trying to get the US into more debt?

Well....if we pay back one group who've the us has wronged...then we better pay back the Irish, the Italians, the Mexicans, the chines and everyone else. Logically its a worthless waste to try to "pay back" people have really no connection to these said "descendents". Move on with y'alls life and complain about something that has meaning like the nations debt, the future of Social Security or something else.

i couldn't possibly see one reason why anyone alive today would be compensated for anything that happened in the 1800s. If we just look at the easiest way to test the feasibility of a case, we should not look any further than statute of limitations. While some may say that reparations would be appropriate, i don't think any court would or could issue such a verdict. A case would need witnesses to the claims, evidence supporting claims, etc. and in this day and age i would say no court could consider the notion of slavery as an actual crime. While many people say they were a victim of a crime, there still must be evidence provided for any crime in court.

 

Most likely it would have to be on a case by case basis in order to prove someone was indeed enslaved. And, then you would have to decide if it was there was even a case to hear. At the time, slavery was legal so there is no basis for anyone to sue on. The notion that it's illegal now doesn't give anyone, even family members of slaves, the right to pursue any claim. I think anyone who has the idea to sue today is doing so for money and that is it. If these people wanted to teach the history of slavery they should maybe ask for a donation from the government to be made to educate about the history of black slaves instead of lining someones pockets.

 

There is not one person that is living today that deserves an actual cash payment for something that happened way before their life even started.

Get over it, for eff sake. Seriously, leave the past to the past, don't start to do like jew people who keep complaining about how they were massacred during WWII. What has been done has been done, we evolved, minds have changed, no need to bring more of that today. 

I agree with Hystery, get over it. Why should people pay for something that happened over a 150 years ago that they weren't even apart of?

No. 

As said, leave it to the past. 

 

And IIRC, slaves didn't get registered. So finding descendants wouldn't be that easy.

Leave it, and I get a feeling this will turn into an unnecessary flame war.

Please explain to me how it is my fault that people whose names you don't even care to know were kept as slaves by people most likely not related to me and why I should pay YOU for it.

Edited April 12, 201511 yr by c13

This was hundreds of years ago! So no! I see your point, but still.

I agree with everybody here: no, just no. it happend a long time ago. case closed

How stupid this all is. In Russia we had slavery too, my ancestors were slaves. That doesn't prevent me from getting where I am now without putting my hand in other people's pockets. Stop begging for money, go find some work. Jeez, modern news scare me even more than school-shooting stories. 

No, Surely the fact that we're no longer enslaving them should be enough. And the descendants alive today weren't even enslaved so no harm done to them. I think we should just remember the atrocity and suffering of slavery where man was using man for personal gain, and make sure we never go back to that time.

why should JUST the us have to do so that's like saying i that all the countries that had genocides should pay up too. theres never gonna be a way that anything of any horrible treatment or discrimination should fully be paid off because it will always keep happening. That would also mean focusing and giving more attention to one group of people why not give money to anyone thats ever been enslaved or tortured or hurt or ect...  if you wanna go after someone go after the dutch they started the slave trade.

That would be fun to see people asking Germany to pay for the genocide they commited as well as the numerous buildings and cities they completely destroyed with the relentless bombing.

 

I think we should just remember the atrocity and suffering of slavery where man was using man for personal gain, and make sure we never go back to that time.

 

And that's where we see that today's society isn't so far from this definition, people keep using people for personal gain. Of course it's hidding behind the fact that people are paid for what they do, but the system is actually the same. But that's another story.