We had our first town meeting:
Should reparations be paid to African American slave descendents to compensate for the atrocities of slavery?
We had a lively discussion, so I figured we could continue that online. Feel free to post questions and opinions on the topic here.
Friday, October 28, 2011
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I loved our town meeting in class today. A lot of really good things were said. Two ideas really made me believe any more reparations that we have already paid would be a bad idea. First of all, No one alive today was a slave or a slave owner. It's in the past. If it were 1870, I would feel differently. Why should I, who have never had or even wanted a slave, who am sickened at the very thought, have to give money to people who I have never harmed or even felt ill toward?
ReplyDeleteSecondly,I do believe that the government should provide a way to help those in poverty or in dire situations, but I don't think they should decide who gets the help based on race.
-Jodie Jensen
I know this might be a stretch, but I think it's an important aspect to consider. Is living in America not reparation enough? If people are pleading with the government to compensate descendants of slaves, is their freedom of living in America no reparation? If their ancestors hadn't been brought to the United States for slavery, chances are the generations today would be living in Africa where poverty conditions are much worse than here, where there are civil wars and acts of violence every day, where it is not uncommon for kids to starve to death. So yeah, Americans may not have treated slaves right, and it may not have been a good thing, but as long as we're talking about compensating today's generation, I think we have. We didn't send the slaves back to Africa or to their own colony, we kept them here, where their descendants now enjoy living in a world power house, a fairly economically stable country, especially compared to Africa.
ReplyDeleteThe class discussion was amazing! Personally I was shocked by the way I ended up thinking about the subject. I personally agreed with the con side. They had solid comments that really contributed to their side of the argument. I completely agreed with the a comment made stating that African Americans are in a state of dependency or inferiority, believing they can't succeed because of statistics, known facts. I believe this comment to be true because I as a minority have the mind set that I can succeed in life if i try by best. There are also opportunities provided as reparations that have been given to minorities to be able to succeed.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the class discussion! However, I only thought of a comment right as class was ending and I wanted to be able to comment. One of the suggestions on the pro side was to use the money for compensations to go to education programs that will improve the gap between blacks and whites. Why not use our money to improve the education in areas of poverty instead of simply focusing on black students? I think that any child in an area with poor education should have the chance to improve their situation. While blacks are faced with more opposition than whites, I think that the main problem is the "culture of poverty" that we discussed in class earlier this year. If that is true, then we should focus our programs on helping any race improve their situation; whites, blacks, asians, mexicans... anyone who could use a leg up.
ReplyDeleteThe idea of reparations for African Americans is an interesting one and I'm glad we had the chance to explore it a little bit during class. As discussed, I do not think reparations are a feasible option nor do I think they offer a just solution to the problems we have in our society. It is important to recognize the atrocities committed in our country's past, but I don't think it is wise to dwell on them. Instead we should focus on the future and how we can improve societal attitudes within our country, armed with knowledge from our past. I don't think reparations are the way to properly go about this. I'm curious, however, to hear from someone who truly believes in and supports reparations for descendants of slaves...can anyone offer this perspective?
ReplyDeleteI too really enjoyed last week's town meeting. An analogy given by the con side was especially thought provoking. The person who presented it asked the pro side to imagine that person 1 has a mother who was raped by a man. The mother has a child from the man and the man dies soon after. The question is whether it would be fair for the child to pay reparations to person 1 because of the offenses of his father. This seems like a ridiculous question, because we don't hold people accountable for things they didn't do, even if it was their ancestors who did it. The reparation for blacks question is more complex than this simple analogy, but the idea is the same. In fact, I think it's even more ridiculous to expect our current generation, which is many generations separated from slaveholder ancestors, to be held accountable for our ancestors actions, than to expect the child to pay for his father's actions, who is but one generation removed. The fact remains that neither the child nor our generation committed the offense, so neither should be held accountable for the crime.
ReplyDeleteThe previous comments have been great. I'm glad to see that people have some real sense about this issue. I must admit, I was getting pretty fired up during this discussion. Some of the comments made by the pro side were completely absurd in my opinion. As stated in other posts, this was a long time ago and none of us today had anything to do with slavery. Second, part of the reason there is still racism or segregation is because of discussions like this. As we continue to give preferential treatment to some races over others, that is creating a divide. Third, blacks are already receiving reparations. Have you heard of Affirmative Action? Blacks and other minorities are being given advantages because of their skin color. Who is being discriminated against now? White people are! Lastly, if blacks deserve reparations, then so do Mormons because they were also treated poorly! Do you see LDS people fighting for the government to give them money or other reparations? No. It would be outrageous! Just like it is outrageous to consider giving reparations to African Americans.
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