(no subject)

[bzarcher]

"African Americans rally on D.C. for Slavery Reparations."

For -possibly- the first 60, maybe even 70 years after the E. P., I could see this.

Maybe even an even 100 years.

But why? What -possible- good can it do now? None of the offending or offended are alive. Their family fortunes were mostly destroyed by the War, or by Reconstruction. Even if not then, then certainly by 1930.

What -possible- good can this do? One of the people involved is quoted as "America still owes Blacks for what they have endured."

I seriously wonder if that kind of attitude is just setting up more and more racial battles.

What are -any- of us owed? Race irregardless?

America gives us land between our ass and the sea.

America gives the possibility of gaining basic services.

The rest is supposed to be up to us.

Whatever happened to earning things, rather than demanding them?

Comments

[ixx.livejournal.com]

Oh, come on. Remember that post I made a while back? About racism? -Nobody- followed that link, I'm starting to think. Anyway, here's another way to look at things. (http://www.zmag.org/hutch10.htm) Zmag also host a number of other links and resources on this topic -- I also urge you to check out their institutional racism instructional. (http://www.zmag.org/racewatch/znet_race_instructional.htm)

[bzarcher.livejournal.com]

I see some of it. But what's the point supposed to be? There are better ways to create change than demands. Are marches that spend more and more of the resources that they want bolstered effective? Is perpetuating the mentality of "we are owed", rather than "We need this to fix the environment, and the education, and the level of social matters" really a good idea?

I'm willing to concede that things have, historically, been shit. And that maybe we can change the way money is spent to try to fix some of that damage. But demanding blanket targets rather than specific doesn't do anything, and just muddies the issue more and more.

[bzarcher.livejournal.com]

I guess the other thing I see is that in the articles, it talks about the "damages caused by Black-White gaps".

Perpetuating that isn't going to be stopped with money. It's not going to be fixed with demands. It might be fixed if we tried to stop the mentality of "owed" vs "owing", but maybe not even then. I don't have a good answer, but I really doubt money is going to be the part of it some of these people feel it will be.

[ls56.livejournal.com]

the article did not state anything compelling to me. yes we paid reperations to people in the syphillis project, but those people were directly involved, and not generations afterward.

i just don't see how giving money to people would change anything. i watch part of the rally on c-span. these people were talking about checks being sent to individuals, not money sent to organizations.

they were saying that, since they are black, they have no way of getting out of the ghetto. tell that to the black families currently living in the suburbs.

handouts just don't work. if you give people money without them earning it, they have no reason to work.

reparations wont change 6 generations of being lower class. change has to come from within the black community for that revolution.

[ixx.livejournal.com]

If you can accept as true that the police will find more crime where they look the hardest: in the black community. If you accept as true that some states deny the right to vote to ex-felons, even after they serve their sentence, and that this disproportionately affects black men. If you can accept as true that most whites would not live in a neighborhood that is 1/3 black ... meaning that if too many black families start living in the suburbs, it will become a ghetto. If you can accept as true that black men with college degrees earn what white boys with highschool degrees make. If you can accept as true that because of economic differences, whites and blacks are relatively isolated from one another ... What are they supposed to do? What are they supposed to change? And why doesn't organizing a rally, organizing some grassroots power (because that's all they -have-) not count as 'work'? When society is this unfair, how is their poverty their own fault?

Poverty and unemployment cause crime. Crime makes it impossible to find employment, leading to more poverty. It's a cycle. For most cycles like this, you tell someone to get help. Like, stopping the cycle of abuse, or alcoholism. You don't tell them 'it's your fault for being weak, and if you can't change it by yourself, it won't change.'

As for 'a reason to work'... If work is menial, humiliating and doesn't pay enough to raise one above the poverty line, there's allready no reason for most blacks to work. The logic behind this 'reason to work' statement is lame every time I hear it. Should your grandmother not give you her car, because that's something you should have to earn? It's worth money, and you're saying it's wrong to give people handouts, because it detracts from their 'reason to work.' What if you had less 'reason to work' ... you might be able to sit back, quit the job you hate, and take your time about settling into a career that makes you happy. Maybe economic coercion -isn't- a necessary evil. Why does no one seem willing to even entertain that notion?

[ls56.livejournal.com]

i never said that i wouldn't *pay* my grandmother for the car. in which case, yes i did earn it.

most people work because they need to. if i already had my needs taken care of, i wouldn't work either. but, i wouldn't necessarily feel the need to work, i might just be happy sitting on my thunbs doing nothing.

[cadence19k.livejournal.com]

My ancestors were American Indian.. I think I'm going to get together, and demand back rent on the island of Manhattan. $16k in beads. I think not.

I don't care what right anyone thinks they have.. they don't have the right to make money off of what their ancestors created when they themselves are not here to collect..

And lord help us all if women decide that they're owed something, because they were held down even longer than blacks.

*twitches off topic quietly*

[windsinger.livejournal.com]

I dunno, 16k in beads would be pretty darn cool.

[ladylysander.livejournal.com]

... BEEEeeeeeads... Shiny.. beads.. *brain explodes at the thought of that many shinies in one place.*

.. Achem.

Some people are just very greedy. :P