Reparations

From time to time, the issue of reparations for slavery raises its head. Blacks in America insist that they are owed for having been slaves, and a few nutty whites happen to agree with them. (Along with a lot of lawyers, looking to get their hands into the pot.) Now this is an issue that, for me, raises a lot more questions than answers. I want to bring up two of them, and let the reader ponder the same thing I've been pondering. Perhaps if enough people, both black and white, look deeply into this issue, we can come to a sensible solution.

Frankly, I think the only sensible solution is for everyone to drop the matter, but any issue involving courts, money, and a chance to get a cut pretty much guarantees that the lawyers won't. But I'll discuss lawyers in a future column. Now, if you're looking for a lot of links and such, you won't find many here. I just want to present a few facts and a lot of ancillary questions under my two main questions, and let the reader think a little more deeply into the issue, past the rhetoric.

First Question: Who gets reparations?

Well, the blacks do, of course! Now the U. S. Census Bureau estimates that, as of July 1st, 2002, there were 38,318,443 people in the United States in the following classification: Black or African American alone or in combination with one or more other races. So how much of a black person's ancestry has to be from slaves, to qualify for reparations? 75%? 50%? 25%? And how we deal with the descendants of black slaves married to or the children of the descendants of white slave owners? And vice versa? Too, we also have to figure out a way to eliminate the descendants of blacks who came to America after the Civil War. And the descendants of free blacks in the Northern states
before the Civil War. Getting complicated, isn't it? If a white descendant of a slave owner is married to the black descendant of a slave, does he pay his wife directly? Or does he pay some bureaucratic madhouse in Washington, D. C., and wait to get the same money back in the form of a government check? And, can she sue her husband for reparations? Any way you cut it, in a situation like that, the money is coming out of their
household budget. So, we need to look very carefully at who gets paid, if anyone. Which leads to the second question.

Second Question: Who pays reparations?

Why the white folks do, of course! Back to the Census Bureau, folks.
Now the estimate for July 1st, 2002 notes that the number of people
in the United States that fit the classification of white only is
232,646,619. Now back in 1860, UTA estimates there were 384,884
slave owners in the United States. So, do we bill all white Americans? Only the descendants of slave owners? Only them plus the descendants of people who supported slavery, whether they owned slaves or not? So, who gets the bill? How do we determine who should pay? We have to eliminate (to be fair) all the white people who immigrated to the United States after 1865, and their descendants. They don't have a dog in this hunt, folks. So how do we figure out who owes?

Looks like the United States government will have to do a family tree on every citizen of the United States, black and white. And some of you thought the Patriot Act was intrusive! Too, we need to look at the percentage thing again. Do you pay, and how much do you pay, if your ancestors were 75% slave owners? 50% slave owners? 25% slave owners? Are you getting a headache, too?

So what it boils down to, is you have a lot of activist blacks screaming that the white man owes them reparations, a lot of activist whites saying Crap!, I ain't gonna pay, a few liberal whites that say the blacks are right, a few conservative blacks that say the folks that want reparations are out of their freaking gourds, and a bunch of hungry lawyers circling the confusion like Great White sharks in search of an easy meal.

And nobody seems to have figured out that, if the United States government reparations at all, they'll have to A. Tax us more, B. Establish a new bureaucracy, C. Make that bureaucracy figure out a way to survive, grow, increase their budget, and increase their paychecks by finding some other group to pay reparations to, and D. increase the intrusiveness of the Federal government into ourprivate

Oh.

I lied.

Oh, not in the above, except in one small area. I told you I had two main questions. Actually, I have three. You see, during my research, I found an interesting site. It's called Africana, Gateway to the Black world. I found something interesting, researching that site. Which leads to my third question: Does EVERYBODY who's a descendant of a slave owner pay reparations?

From the Site:

"The large personal fortunes of a few free blacks in the Deep South permitted them to own slaves. By 1830 13,000 black slaves were owned by nearly 4,000 free blacks."

So, will the descendants of black slave owners be required to pay reparations to the descendants of black slaves?

And, if you're not totally confused, think back to the days of the Pilgrims.

Can you say, "Indentured Servants"?

Copyright 01/27/04 by Dave Hoffman (Use permitted if credit is
given to author)