Reparations for slavery
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Reparations for slavery is a proposal in the U.S. for the federal government to pay reparation, in various forms, to slave descendants for the transatlantic slave trade. There is also a newer movement to secure reparations, particularly from Western, ex-colonial powers, for Africa and African nations.
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Historical context
The arguments surrounding reparations is based on the formal discussion about reparations and the actual land reparations received by African Americans which were later taken away. In, 1865 after the South was defeated in the American Civil War, General William Tecumseh Sherman issued Special Field Orders, No. 15 that set aside tracts of land in the sea islands and around Charleston, South Carolina for the exclusive use of Black people who had been enslaved. Around 40,000 freed slaves were settled on 400,000 acres (1,600 km²) in Georgia and South Carolina. However, President Johnson reversed the order after Lincoln was killed and the land ownership reverted back to Whites. In 1867, Thaddeus Stevens sponsored a bill for the redistribution of land to African Americans, but it was not passed.
When reconstruction abruptly ended in 1877 rather than addressing the atrocities of slavery, a deliberate movement of regression and oppression arose in southern states. (Jim Crow) laws passed in the South to reinforce the existing inequality that slavery had produced. In addition White terrorist organizations such as the KKK engaged in a massive campaign of intimidation throughout the South in order to keep African Americans in their prescribed social place. For decades this inequality and injustice was rationalized away in court decisions and in public discourse. Reparations dropped off the radar screen.
Among the arguments made for reparations:
Accumulated Wealth
An argument made by supporters of reparations is that had emancipated slaves been allowed to possess and retain even the meager amount of compensation granted to them by the U.S government for centuries of free labor, their descendants might now control a much larger share of American social and monetary wealth.
Symbolic Healing
Another argument is that a token payment of reparations could act to validate the feelings of the African American community. Just how much of a token is debatable. That a symbolic ackowledgement of the slavery's effects on the black community would have the same value as a large payment. (This argument presumes that such feelings should in fact be validated.)
Land instead of money
This argument has two different versions. Deeding public lands in the south to black people who can prove they are decended from slaves. Then through development of this land they would gain pride of ownership and a real stake in wider society. This would cause positive sociological effects througought the African American community.
A more radical version of this form of reparations involves no money changing hands. However an area about the size of Mississippi and Alabama would be given to the African Americas as a separate sovereign country. This solution is not preferred for any number of reasons. Those in favor of the separtist argue that it would prove that African Americans can build a viable, prosperous nation without white assistance. This solution also has the appeal of not resulting in anyone looseing their private property or paying money for what they, arguably, had nothing to do with.
Social services instead of money
Chicago city councilwoman (Alderman) Dorothy Tilman made the argument that reparations for slavery would not/ shold not take the form of money paid directly to anyone. She said that increased funding for schools, healthcare and wefare in the black community could be used as a form of reparations. For example many of the school buildings on the southside of Chicago which is perdominately black (with notable execption for the southwest side Irish) are in poor condition. The communities they are in are full of people who wonder where to get food on the table. Many young black people there only see crime as a way up. Starting with schools that are not unpleasant places to be would be a step in the right direction. Conditions in many inner city, black communities are the same.
Other groups are getting it
Currently the Japanese Americans interned during WWII are receiving reparation for their loss of property and liberty during that period. For a very long time Native American tribes have received compensation for lands ceded to the U.S. by them in various treaties. Numerous other minorities are receiving reparations for past grieveiances.
If other minorities are recieving reparations for past grieveiances, then that is not right. Blacks in this country have suffered longer than any other race. Even after slavery blacks were still not free and unfairly persecuted. So to say nothing is owed that is rediculous. Now in whatever form reparations take is debatable, But if money is going to be paid back it should be in the form of education. Putting more funds in black community schools. By sending more blacks to college to have a better life. It would also be a good investment for the economy than just giving away money.
It was not that long ago
As of 2006 Slavery in the US ended 141 years ago. If one's parents were 41 when they were born and they lived to be 100 they could be the direct descendants of slaves. Their children would be only one generation removed from slavery. This argument runs in to problems when it comes to those who ran away or were freed before the civil war. How to determine who ran away? Should the descendants of slaves who ran away from slavery be penalized?
Among the arguments made against reparations:
Relocation of injustice
The principal argument against reparations is that their cost would not be imposed upon the perpetrators of slavery, nor confined to those who can be shown to be the specific indirect beneficiaries of slavery, but would simply be borne by taxpayers per se, thus creating new victims of defunct slavery. (It is sometimes further noted that, while slavery prevailed, the principal indirect beneficiaries of American slavery were Europeans, who took possession of expropriated labor in the form of reduced pricing of American agricultural exports.)
Identification of victims and of levels of victimization
Identification of actual descendants of slaves would be an enormous undertaking, because such descent is not simply identical with present racial self-identification. And levels of actual victimization would be impossible to identify; had freed slaves been given their recoverable damages, they would have followed different patterns of marriage and of reproduction, and in some cases would not have made their offspring the sole or even principal heirs to their estates. (Opponents of reparations refer to the lost wealth of slaves as “dissipated”, not in a sense of simply having ceased to exist, but in a sense of being untraceably transmitted elsewhere.)
Comparative utility
It has been argued that reparations for slavery cannot be justified on the basis that slave descendants are subjectively worse off as a result of slavery, because it has been suggested that they are better off than they would have been in Africa if the slave trade had never happened. For example, neoconservative commentator David Horowitz writes,
- The claim for reparations is premised on the false assumption that only whites have benefited from slavery. If slave labor created wealth for Americans, then obviously it has created wealth for black Americans as well, including the descendants of slaves. The GNP of black America is so large that it makes the African-American community the 10th most prosperous "nation" in the world. American blacks on average enjoy per capita incomes in the range of twenty to fifty times that of blacks living in any of the African nations from which they were kidnapped. (From http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=1153 Ten Reasons Why Reparations for Blacks is a Bad Idea for Blacks - and Racist Too]
Some respond that this argument follows from a classic ethnocentric view that assumes that the natural order of Africa was preserved over the course of time, and places insufficient blame for the current economic situation in African nations upon the colonization of various parts of that continent by European and American nations during the 19th and 20th century. Others assert that comparing American slave descendants to Africans is irrelevant; that African Americans are worse off than non-African Americans because of slavery, and that it's upon that basis that reparations should be considered.
Reparations could cause increased racism
Anti-reparations advocates argue reparations payments based on race alone may be perceived by nearly everyone forced to make payments as a monstrous injustice, embittering many and inevitably setting back race relations. Apologetic feelings many whites hold because of slavery and past civil rights injustices would to a significant extent be replaced by anger.
The Libertarian Party, among other groups and individuals, has suggested that reparations would make racism worse:
- A renewed demand by African-Americans for slavery reparations should be rejected because such payments would only increase racial hostility... (From press release)