# Who should pay Reparations to African Americans? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [June 19, 2019, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-should-pay-reparations-to-african-americans/835753 "2019-06-19T16:52:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 16
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2019, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-should-pay-reparations-to-african-americans/835753/301 "2019-06-21T18:49:35Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Redlining for the nth time, was settled by black suing and collecting. For some, perhaps. Certainly not for all. > [@](#): > > Few of these were actual acts of the uS government, in fact Redlining wasn’t, that was banks. All were allowed by the government, which had not yet outlawed housing discrimination, and most used government-drawn maps that singled out black neighborhoods (usually with “red lines”) as having lower desirability for loan assistance. > [@](#): > > You keep using it after it’s been totally debunked. Somehow I’m unconvinced by your continuing cite-free claims. ---
**Author:** ![Helmut\_Doork](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e8c25b/32.png) [@Helmut\_Doork](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helmut_Doork)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2019, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-should-pay-reparations-to-african-americans/835753/302 "2019-06-21T18:55:59Z")
What about offering any verified descendants of slaves paid relocation to their home country, if the individual wanted this? That would be fair, and wouldn’t empty the US coffers? ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2019, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-should-pay-reparations-to-african-americans/835753/303 "2019-06-21T18:58:18Z")
> [@Helmut\_Doork](#): > > What about offering any verified descendants of slaves paid relocation to their home country, if the individual wanted this? That would be fair, and wouldn’t empty the US coffers? Just Asking Questions?.. ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2019, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-should-pay-reparations-to-african-americans/835753/304 "2019-06-21T19:03:37Z")
> [@Dinsdale](#): > > My impression is that certain groups desire the assignment of guilt, nearly as much as they desire actual redress. I’m sure many may disagree. > > My preference is that society address ALL who are least advantaged, rather than focusing on how they got there, and whether their family/racial/ethnic/cultural history makes them more or less deserving/needy. Avoids the need to debate and draw as many lines. Also, focusses on the present and the future, rather than the past. > > I favor tossing lines to ALL who are drowning, as VASTLY preferable to “studying” whether some are more deserving that others of being saved, or deserve different types of saving methods. But some apparently prefer to allocate resources differently. I don’t entirely disagree. Except reparations have been historically used to right egregious and socially systematic wrongs, in living memory of these events. I can be convinced that reparation for slavery from 100+ years may not be appropriate. But what about the more recent wrongs? Why exclude some and not others from similar eras? ---
**Author:** ![Helmut\_Doork](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e8c25b/32.png) [@Helmut\_Doork](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helmut_Doork)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2019, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-should-pay-reparations-to-african-americans/835753/305 "2019-06-21T19:07:13Z")
> [@QuickSilver](#): > > Just Asking Questions?.. I don’t care for the city I live in, if there was a govt. caused flood and they paid me to relocate to another city, I would be all over that. ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2019, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-should-pay-reparations-to-african-americans/835753/306 "2019-06-21T19:11:58Z")
> [@Helmut\_Doork](#): > > I don’t care for the city I live in, if there was a govt. caused flood and they paid me to relocate to another city, I would be all over that. new city =/= new country. Would you move to a country you’ve never lived before? Don’t know the culture. Don’t speak the language. Can’t find work. No family or friends. (All this ignoring the subtext implications that people born here somehow don’t belong here and can be paid to leave.) ---
**Author:** ![Helmut\_Doork](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e8c25b/32.png) [@Helmut\_Doork](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helmut_Doork)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2019, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-should-pay-reparations-to-african-americans/835753/307 "2019-06-21T19:18:42Z")
> [@QuickSilver](#): > > new city =/= new country. > > Would you move to a country you’ve never lived before? Don’t know the culture. Don’t speak the language. Can’t find work. No family or friends. Not forced, strictly voluntary. About half of the countries in Africa list English as one of the official languages. The Back to Africa Movement encourages this, even on your own dime. ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2019, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-should-pay-reparations-to-african-americans/835753/308 "2019-06-21T19:29:41Z")
> [@Helmut\_Doork](#): > > Not forced, strictly voluntary. About half of the countries in Africa list English as one of the official languages. The Back to Africa Movement encourages this, even on your own dime. People are free to leave America if they wish and go anywhere in the world that welcomes them. What does this have to do with the subject of reparations? ---
**Author:** ![Helmut\_Doork](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e8c25b/32.png) [@Helmut\_Doork](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helmut_Doork)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2019, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-should-pay-reparations-to-african-americans/835753/309 "2019-06-21T19:29:46Z")
> [@QuickSilver](#): > > (All this ignoring the subtext implications that people born here somehow don’t belong here and can be paid to leave.) Agree it would difficult if not impossible to word the official notice of this without causing offense to some. ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2019, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-should-pay-reparations-to-african-americans/835753/310 "2019-06-21T19:31:58Z")
> [@Helmut\_Doork](#): > > Agree it would difficult if not impossible to word the official notice of this without causing offense to some. You think? ---
**Author:** ![Helmut\_Doork](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e8c25b/32.png) [@Helmut\_Doork](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helmut_Doork)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2019, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-should-pay-reparations-to-african-americans/835753/311 "2019-06-21T19:33:41Z")
> [@QuickSilver](#): > > People are free to leave America if they wish and go anywhere in the world that welcomes them. What does this have to do with the subject of reparations? The reparations would be the costs associated with the relocations, which would be tens of thousands of dollars easily. I meant, the Back To Africa Movement encourages slave descendants to do this on their own dime. I imagine they would be even more for it if someone else is footing the cost. Pointing out this is an idea that did not originate with me, but with a faction of the black community. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2019, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-should-pay-reparations-to-african-americans/835753/312 "2019-06-21T19:38:12Z")
> [@QuickSilver](#): > > … Except reparations have been historically used to right egregious and socially systematic wrongs, in living memory of these events. … Not historically- \*once. \* And it was a bad idea, as this thread has proved. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2019, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-should-pay-reparations-to-african-americans/835753/313 "2019-06-21T19:39:01Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Not historically- \*once. \* > > And it was a bad idea, as this thread has proved. It was wrong for the Holocaust? ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2019, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-should-pay-reparations-to-african-americans/835753/314 "2019-06-21T19:40:59Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Not historically- \*once. \* > > And it was a bad idea, as this thread has proved. Not just _once_. Let’s pretend there is a world outside the borders of the USoffuckin’A. ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2019, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-should-pay-reparations-to-african-americans/835753/315 "2019-06-21T19:47:07Z")
> [@Helmut\_Doork](#): > > The reparations would be the costs associated with the relocations, which would be tens of thousands of dollars easily. I meant, the Back To Africa Movement encourages slave descendants to do this on their own dime. I imagine they would be even more for it if someone else is footing the cost. Pointing out this is an idea that did not originate with me, but with a faction of the black community. So just to be clear, you’re suggesting, without subtext now, that you’d be in favor of paying black people - American citizens, mind you - to move _Back to Africa_? ---
**Author:** ![Helmut\_Doork](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e8c25b/32.png) [@Helmut\_Doork](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helmut_Doork)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2019, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-should-pay-reparations-to-african-americans/835753/316 "2019-06-21T19:50:03Z")
> [@QuickSilver](#): > > So just to be clear, you’re suggesting, without subtext now, that you’d be in favor of paying black people - American citizens, mind you - to move _Back to Africa_? Again, those that _wanted to go_, such as sincere members of the Back to Africa movement. You seem to be getting racial hatred or prejudice in this statement, I can assure you there is absolutely none in this idea. Are you aware of the BTA movement? ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2019, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-should-pay-reparations-to-african-americans/835753/317 "2019-06-21T19:52:16Z")
> [@Helmut\_Doork](#): > > Again, those that _wanted to go_, such as sincere members of the \*Back to Africa \*movement. Again, those that wish to leave may do so. What does this have to do with the topic of reparations? ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2019, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-should-pay-reparations-to-african-americans/835753/318 "2019-06-21T20:02:55Z")
I’m in favor of pursuing reparations, but not from everyone in the United States. Not everyone living here should have to pay them. Just American citizens. It’s a government obligation. And just like I have to pay taxes for other government obligations, I should have to pay for this one. It doesn’t matter that I’m not the cop who beat up a local black man; when he sues my city, my taxes will go toward making him right, because that’s how government obligations work. Reparations? Same principle. ---
**Author:** ![Helmut\_Doork](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e8c25b/32.png) [@Helmut\_Doork](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helmut_Doork)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2019, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-should-pay-reparations-to-african-americans/835753/319 "2019-06-21T20:06:42Z")
> [@QuickSilver](#): > > Again, those that wish to leave may do so. > > What does this have to do with the topic of reparations? You are either not reading, or not understanding- _the reparations would be the US govt. paying for all costs associated with said relocation_, which would easily be tens of thousands of dollars per person, I cannot say it any plainer. How to go about? A more elegantly worded version of the following? Official statement from US govt. The US govt. officially apologizes to all slave descendants for the atrocities committed against your ancestors. The US govt. acknowledges that even 150 years after slavery has ended, and 50 years after the Civil Rights Act, there is still unsanctioned racism in the United States that still often does not give blacks the chance to prosper and succeed as whites do. The US govt. regrets this but also understands it is not a problem that is going to be rectified in the foreseeable future, because while no longer govt. sanctioned, we do realize racism still exists in the hearts of many, and will continue to, even though we wish it were not true. Therefore, the US govt. has decided if any slave descendants feel that they cannot and will not ever get a fair shot at prosperity as a result, we are offering to pay all costs for any such individuals who wish to return to the homeland their ancestors were taken from. ??? ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2019, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-should-pay-reparations-to-african-americans/835753/320 "2019-06-21T20:15:17Z")
> [@Helmut\_Doork](#): > > You are either not reading, or not understanding- _the reparations would be the US govt. paying for all costs associated with said relocation_, which would easily be tens of thousands of dollars per person, I cannot say it any plainer. > > How to go about? A more elegantly worded version of the following? > > Official statement from US govt. > > The US govt. officially apologizes to all slave descendants for the atrocities committed against your ancestors. > > The US govt. acknowledges that even 150 years after slavery has ended, and 50 years after the Civil Rights Act, there is still unsanctioned racism in the United States that still often does not give blacks the chance to prosper and succeed as whites do. > > The US govt. regrets this but also understands it is not a problem that is going to be rectified in the foreseeable future, because while no longer govt. sanctioned, we do realize racism still exists in the hearts of many, and will continue to, even though we wish it were not true. > > Therefore, the US govt. has decided if any slave descendants feel that they cannot and will not ever get a fair shot at prosperity as a result, we are offering to pay all costs for any such individuals who wish to return to the homeland their ancestors were taken from. > > ??? Well, there you have it. Can’t get much simpler than that: \*“If any of you black people don’t like it here, you can fuck right off and we’ll even cover your moving and travel expenses.” \* Any takers of this generous offer?? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-should-pay-reparations-to-african-americans/835753.md?page=15) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-should-pay-reparations-to-african-americans/835753.md?page=17)