Should white people get reparations for
- being the victims of crime,
- supporting many people in prison,
- having paid trillions for supporting non working people or families without a father?
What do you think?
I think you were inspired by the “Reparations for Native Americans” and “Reparations for African-Americans” threads.
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Whites are still more likely to be victims of white criminals than otherwise, so what’s the point?
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Whites have created the prison situation by demanding harsher penalties for drug use (or allowing their representatives to campaign for penalties and then not paying attention to the results), so they are getting what they “asked for.”
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Most of the trillions (seriously exaggerated, but I’ll let it stand to show its absurdity) have gone to white families, anyway. Non-whites have a higher percentage of their populations in poverty, but whites still provide the largest single group among the poor.
Now stop being absurd and go find something serious to discuss.
When I was in Middle School, one of the kids who bullied me was black.
I DEMAND JUSTICE, DAMMIT!
(Nevermind that the other dozen bullies were white…)
ok so you’re saying abolishing drug laws will lift the oppression of minorities? :rolleyes:
since you couldnt bother to do your research, god forbid it might not fit your assumption :eek:
and what is that percentage? How does that percentage compare to 20 years ago. If you look I would be willing to bet its the monorities who have seen the most improvement. Did somebody expect instant fixes?
There is plenty of serious material here although I question the angle of the OP.
for example, in CA they are building restrictions so that people cannot have a “life on welfare” I believe they are trying to limit welfare to 3 years in a persons life that they are allowed to collect. They are pushing more programs like GAIN, (sorry dunno what the acronym means)that provide free or subsidized child care so that parents can work.
I suppose this should really be a pit thread venting about reparations since the OP sufers from legions of logical faults.
From whom? Ourselves?
Ditto.
Ditto.
In re Drax’s reply, Tom is well known to have his facts straight. I don’t see there’s any basis for your slam on him. The OP is so full of illogic that I fail to see a reason for him to waste good time researching.
However, you’ve made some positive assumptions (clearer than those implicit in the OP) such as poverty should have decreased more for minorities.
Why not back that up with your own research rather than assuming?
I agree with Tom, this begins in illogic and can only wallow in it. A restatement is the minimium required.
berdollos, I presume that you are implying that the arguments given for repatriations for slavery are equally as illogical as yours. If that’s your point, I agree with you.
I think you’re right december, certainly sounds like satire to me.
In the last 1,000 years or so, my ancestors, on both sides, were enslaved first by the Romans and then by the Greeks. So, I figure reparations for whites are a good idea. I could use a few million to soothe my hurt feelings over all that racial/national/religious suppression my ancestors had to put up with. I mean, some of my ancestors were beaten to death, executed, forced to work in inhumane conditions, forced to grovel before ‘citizens’, and were treated as property.
If blacks get reparations, then I want mine for the indignities suffered by my ancestors!
drachillix:
The OP complained about “supporting people in prison.” Look at the prison census for the last 20 years. Note how the U.S. has more than doubled its prison population. Note, also, how the majority of those incarcerated are in for drug-related crimes (often for having a gram or so more than what the law arbitrarily identifies as for “personal use” making them de jure sellers, even if they have never tried to peddle it on the street). Note that the DEA has admitted targeting black communities for enforcement of harsher Federal laws, leaving the suburbs to local officials to enforce the more lenient state laws. Note that when states sentence people for drug offenses, they routinely sentence blacks for longer sentences than whites for the same offenses.
We are putting more black people in jail for longer periods in an attempt to make people feel good about the “War on Drugs.”
Being among the poorest population in the U.S., it would be expected that blacks would make up a substantial portion of the prison population. The overwhelming number of blacks currently in prison, however, are not there for stealing your wallet, but to give white-elected politicians sound byte fodder for the next election.
I made no statement that the repeal of all drug laws would lift all oppression. I noted the very real correlation between drug policy and prison racial census.
(And I provided rather more information than the OP provided or deserved.)
Didn’t do what research? If you are unaware that whites have received more welfare benefits than blacks over the last 30 years (or any subsection of that period), then you have not done any research on the subject. Anyone who is not already aware that white poor outnumber black poor by about 2 1/2 to 1 (if we call Hispanics white) or by 1 3/4 to 1 (if we give Hispanics their own category) has not done enough homework to participate in a discussion of the “trillions” spent.
It is possible that, over the last 30 years we have exceeded “trillions” in all categories of welfare. The statement, as made, however, gives an impression that some substantial portion of the U.S. budget has been spent solely to feed and clothe and shelter indigent, single-parent blacks. The statement, therefore, is “false” in that it does not indicate that whites received more of those “trillions” than blacks, that other entitlements given to whites also exceed those given to blacks, or that the percent given to “supporting non working people or families without a father” falls far short of the total “trillions” spent.
When welfare was “reformed” several years ago, the popular cry (enshrined in Federal Law), was “Two Years and Off.” How did they arrive at the two year figure? They noted that over 66% of all people who went on welfare got off welfare in fewer than two years. The underclass that has fallen into generational welfare is actually much smaller than the 34% remaining, but they had to draw a line somewhere. Casting the “trillions” spent as having been spent specifically on one group out of all the actual beneficiaries is not honest.
(Ironically, the whole “fatherless family” situation was exacerbated by the welfare system that initially denied benefits to families if the father was present. There is, of course, a tendency among humans, magnified in the poorer communities, for some fathers to abandon their responsibilities. The early efforts to get money to the poorest of the poor, however, were specifically targeted at women with children and the presence of the father (even if he was unable to find work) was a strike against the family receiving benefits. The original laws, therefore, exaggerated an already occuring phenomemon and helped to create a “fatherless culture” within the poorest groups.)
I do not favor reparations to any group for injustices dealt to their ancestors. I cannot envision any arrangement for deciding who would receive how much that would result in any “fair” recompense, (and deciding who, if anyone, would not have to contribute would be impossible).
Posting a thread on reparations to white folks for situations created by white folks or in which white folks were the primary beneficiaries does nothing to develop a discussion about whether any efforts should be expended to develop fairness in this country.
What shade of white do I have to be to get in on all this? I pay taxes to support welfare and prison systems and I AM pretty pale for a Hispanic, as most of the folks came from Spain, some from France(as evidenced by my inky black curls)and set up shop in Old Mexico. As nobody in my family is on Welfare or imprisoned, and my brother and I are really fair—he has freckles—what variety of white do we have to be? Is it just northern european white or what?