Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

General discussion

Paying for the sins of our prior generations.

Jun 20, 2020 1:09PM PDT

Don't google up Slave Owner Compensation Loan

This is another area that brings up where we compensated the slave owners but so far I can't see where the people who were enslaved were compensated.

Discussion is locked

- Collapse -
I wonder when
Jun 20, 2020 3:17PM PDT

blacks will actually expect THEIR own ancestors to pay compensation since it's been proven that African blacks gathered up whole tribes and sold them to European slave traders. Without that happening, America and European countries would have had far fewer if any slaves in the first place. Like the movie says "You can't handle the truth" so it just keeps getting denied or buried. Not only are the Dems hypocrites and have been for scores of years, but blacks are as well.

- Collapse -
That part of the Middle Passage is well-known.
Jun 20, 2020 4:37PM PDT

It was in the history texts the schools used when I taught. Along with drawings of the hold of a typical slave ship.
Those who made the money from the use of the bodies to grow sugar and make rum were all white, civilized "Christians". Their direct descendants are here in the US.
Again, I doubt any substantive good would come out of any reparations I've heard of.

There is a government that could actually turn back the clock on injustices. Something a thousand First Tuesdays can't do.

- Collapse -
Ghana has asked American Blacks...
Jun 21, 2020 12:52PM PDT
- Collapse -
Liberia. No doubt you know its subsequent history.
Jun 21, 2020 2:53PM PDT

The immigrants set up 'lordship over their fellow men,' leading to severe oppression and eventual bloody rebellions, in living memory. Cf. Mt 20:25,26; Mr 10:42,43; Lu 22:25,26.
As Jeremiah predicted.

That the best you guys got?
This endeth the preaching.
You wish.
Of course, you do know this, but one or two others don't.
Grin

- Collapse -
BTW reparations are essential for expecting forgiveness.
Jun 21, 2020 5:12PM PDT

Or so the Bible says.
Also optional, on the part of the injured party. Gives him/her a chance to play God. 2Sam 12:11; Ps 103:3,4; Pro 17:9.
Also Isa 55:7, which shows the necessity of turning away from a bad lifestyle. First. {Jehovah is merciful, not stupid.)

- Collapse -
After 100+ years.
Jun 21, 2020 6:00PM PDT

Both parties are long gone.

What matters is what we do next or "now."

- Collapse -
Agreed.
Jun 21, 2020 7:44PM PDT

BTW I was surprised at how much of your link was new to me. You drew the correct message I think.

- Collapse -
One problem with such schemes is that they're
Jun 20, 2020 4:26PM PDT

all but useless after one generation or so, never mind 160 years. The directly injured parties are dead. Deciding what to give slave descendants, and to whom, would likely satisfy no one.
I hadn't known about the owner compensation. At least they got the money in time to use it.
Since the country has so many slavery-related problems now, I say assign some money amount to attack those. As to the rest, Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn.

- Collapse -
I don't see
Jun 20, 2020 4:31PM PDT

Where we today should be paying anyone for what was accepted practice at the time.

- Collapse -
You want to know why it'll never happen?
Jun 20, 2020 5:37PM PDT

Because the Dems who push for it for political reasons to get re-elected/elected can't figure out how to ONLY force white citizens to pay for it. It would be pretty hard to explain to their voters that blacks would also have to be paying (along with all those immigrants from countries other than Africa...including illegals working here) and who choses WHICH blacks get the money and who doesn't? Not ALL of the blacks here are ancestors of slaves. How do you separate it all and make it work without causing riots again?

- Collapse -
You want to know why
Jun 20, 2020 6:13PM PDT

I expect pols to try to buy votes.

I still don't think we should be paying for the actions that occurred many years ago.

- Collapse -
I say, without fear of contradiction,
Jun 20, 2020 7:38PM PDT

that NONE of today's Blacks are ancestors of yesterday's slaves.
And I am unanimous in that! © Are You Being Served
They won't get a penny from me. Say, where's my next $1200?

- Collapse -
RE:can't figure out how to ONLY force white citizens
Jun 21, 2020 3:37AM PDT
can't figure out how to ONLY force white citizens to pay for it.

Removing statues that honor "white citizens" that had a hand in slavery is ONE way that "ONLY white citizens" would pay. Forbidding the display of the Confederate Flag is another.

Post was last edited on June 21, 2020 3:52 AM PDT

- Collapse -
Unfortunately,
Jun 21, 2020 5:53AM PDT

the illiterate idiots tearing down statues don't even know that they are also tearing down ones of people who were abolitionists who started the 'free the slaves' movement and who were firmly anti-slavery. Because so much of our actual history has been removed from the schools, students today are the stupidest people I've ever seen when it comes to being aware and knowledgeable and are only interested in immediate gratification for things they want rather than what they need...which is mainly a better education than they've received.

And, I agree, that nobody today should have to pay for what happened over 200 years ago....especially since they don't even know that Dems for all that time are guilty of the 'original' sin and have never paid the price for it or that blacks themselves were the original slave traders during the creation of the USA. Slaves were used during all eras of history....will riots now take place in Rome with statues torn down or in Egypt? Were any of THOSE slaves' ancestors brought here directly from those countries and not just African blacks? Who do you think were the ones rowing those ships here from England, Europe, Italy at our inception?

- Collapse -
RE:only interested in immediate gratification
Jun 21, 2020 7:25AM PDT

Like DJT?....HE doesn't want Covid numbers to show more cases(an increase)...so slow down the tests?

immediate gratification?....I say YES.

RE:nobody today should have to pay for what happened over 200 years ago

Statues of people that died years ago...are not anybody "today".

THEY are paying nothing today, THEY are just a reminder of what happened in the past.

- Collapse -
And THAT
Jun 21, 2020 8:28AM PDT

should never be forgotten so it doesn't get repeated.

BLM and others hate walls and want open immigration....but the first thing they did was put up their OWN walls, deny entrance, and ARM people to keep others from coming in. Sound familiar?????

Will the DEMS ever be held accountable for THEIR racist pasts? Oh, hell, no...........because they have REWRITTEN their own history and refuse to teach REALITY to the kids they are influencing today.

- Collapse -
(NT) ???
Jun 21, 2020 3:57PM PDT
- Collapse -
I don't care much for any statues
Jun 21, 2020 12:58PM PDT

However, history buffs may want to connect with them. Being bible minded, I look at all statues as having a religious or worshipful connotation to many, including those who want to remove only certain statues. They say much that when claiming they need to be removed even though they are just metal and/or stone. All or none I say, because they are just images of dead people, or in case of Lady Liberty, images of mythical ones. The Catholics should get rid of their Mary images too.

- Collapse -
(NT) And flags too, of course.
Jun 22, 2020 10:10PM PDT
- Collapse -
When Emma Watson enrolled in Brown University
Jun 21, 2020 3:54PM PDT

(she did well, I'm told) the source of its original endowment was widely discussed.
Reparations were in the mix, too.
Don't recall any input from her. She might have touted G.B.'s much earlier abolition of slavery.

- Collapse -
I don't think so
Jun 22, 2020 2:57PM PDT

I'm white and don't give a damn about the confederate flag . I always thought it should have been against the law . But on the other hand , if the do that won't they have to ban flying Mexican , Italian , etc,etc, etc . flags ?

- Collapse -
Except that those other flags are current and
Jun 22, 2020 5:08PM PDT

belong to existing sovereign nations. Otherwise you have a good point.

Good place to bring this up, which I forgot at the time. When the story broke, I recall Trump tweeting praises for the Confederate officers with US posts named after them. Read like a Fourth of July speech from him. Or Obama or Harding or ... Anyway the casual listener might have missed that these men were in fact all losers* and traitors, facts not at all important to Trump and those whom he thinks of as his base.

*I can except Lee, said to be the best of all, on both sides. Perhaps he could have a statue in his hometown. In a small sidestreet park. I'm told there are ancient rules for posing such, especially the equestrian ones. (Wasn't Traveler famous on his own? Anyone remember the name of Grant's horse?) Avoid the 'conquering hero' poses, maybe. Four feet on the ground, perhaps; Lee in civvies feeding him a carrot.

Light humor. Groucho had a no-brainer question on You Bet Your Life for the occasional doofus who didn't answer anything correctly: "Who's buried in Grant's tomb?" (Famous landmark in NYC for you furriners. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grant%27s_Tomb )
He would then supply a funny answer and award five bucks or so.
My favorite answer: "Mrs Grant is correct!"

- Collapse -
And what about black slave owners?
Jun 21, 2020 12:54PM PDT

Those existed in America too.

- Collapse -
I agree
Jun 21, 2020 9:44AM PDT

But if we did pay , I would also ask that the descendants of those who died fighting to free the slaves be compensated.

- Collapse -
And what about
Jun 21, 2020 9:55AM PDT
- Collapse -
Good point
Jun 21, 2020 10:58AM PDT

This is why it's impossible for this to be anything more than a Dem/liberal talking point because it's not based in reality.....unfortunately, ignorance of the true facts helps those same Dems/liberals with their rhetoric while they encourage race riots they call 'peaceful protests'.,,,with the main people being hurt by it all are the ones they claim to be supporting.

- Collapse -
Hey, when all Confederate statues are gone...
Jun 21, 2020 1:03PM PDT

...we can declare history has been rewritten and nobody should get reparations since it's no longer history.

- Collapse -
(NT) Good thinking, Big Brother. :-)
Jun 21, 2020 2:36PM PDT
- Collapse -
The Union soldiers
Jun 21, 2020 1:01PM PDT

were compensated with pensions from the Federal Government, but none of the Confederate soldiers were from our government. Instead the states they fought for, later gave their soldiers pensions. My great grandfather Thomas Madison Denison, wounded twice at Petersburg in Virginia was one of them who received a pension from Florida.

- Collapse -
The pot isn't going to be allowed to stop boiling
Jun 21, 2020 1:02PM PDT

We're too blended now to find and punish even the descendants of slave owners or even find African Americans who's DNA is purely related to the slave trade. Even as our constitution was being written, provisions were being made to "phase out" the practice...the first being an end to importation of slaves which began in the early 1800s. Some folks, as always happens, defied the law and smuggling of slaves did occur. I read that there was a movement to re-repatriate freed slaves somewhere in the 1820s that was partially funded by our congress. It sounds as though it was a long and hard fought political battle which ultimately brought us to the war event under Lincoln in the 1860s with the final result being the abolition of slavery altogether. No one can say that decent citizens of the new nation didn't try their best.
In any event, I can't see any fair way to make payouts to anyone. Whatever penance was due was paid in both money and blood. I suspect, however, that this will remain a political fight past my own lifetime as anything to keep the pot boiling and the votes coming in is fair game in D.C.