The same way we identified whether someone was Japanese-American and interned in those facilities – ask them, check records (in the past, especially in segregated areas, race was often listed on official records – like did they attend a black school, a black church, etc.), ask their neighbors, etc. This would be a relatively trivial task compared to all the other difficult research tasks.
Tell you what. After I get my check from Ireland for kicking my ancestors out of the country, I’ll cash it alongside my check from Poland for economically suppressing the ghetto my other ancestors came from, and you can add that to the reparations fund, OK? Sound good?
Again, please show me any specifics. Third request.
Please tell us how to identify black people. Third request.
This guy aint no MLK. He is just trying to guilt white people into writing him a blank check.
No, we didnt check if they were Japanese America, we simply checked if they were interned.
Ah, so someone who went to a non-segregated school doesnt get anything, eh? Altho indeed, school segregation ended nation wide in 1954, in many other areas it ended much earlier.
Not to mention home schooling, private schools, etc.
It’s not “trivial”, it’s *impossible. *
Are all black people who speak out with unusual ideas you disagree with a “scamster” and a "racist ", or just TNC? And care to cite any quotes of his that you believe are scams or racist? So far you haven’t cited a single thing. But you join a long history of people who extend vitriol towards a black American who dares to speak out with an unorthodox idea. I’m not sure if that’s a crowd you want to be a part of.
Does he support reparations to chinese, hispanics, irish, etc? or just to Blacks (and yes, you said he added native Americans, he hadn’t before).
Scamster? Has he given ANY specifics as to amounts of checks? Last article I read, he just wants us guilty white people to agree to write him a blank check because…reasons.
I didn’t realize the plan was that we all had to personally write a check to Coates. That changes everything!
He’s said that he thinks all such discriminatory policies and practices should be studied. His focus has been on discrimination and oppression against black Americans, so most of his writing focuses on this, but he makes it very clear that he would support similar research and study for the policies that have harmed any other group in America.
He hasn’t even stated that “checks” are necessarily the answer.
I’m unaware of any such language. Do you have a cite in which he says anything like this? I suspect that you call him a “scamster” and “racist” with no actual basis, because you haven’t provided a single quote or cite that supports your assertions of “scamster” and “racist”.
Which would pretty closely match a lot of the utterly baseless vitriol directed against other black writers and speakers who have dared to utter an unorthodox idea that goes against the mainstream.
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Anytime there is the offer of money, people get motivated in a way driven more by money lust than the actual issue at hand. Money has a way of clouding rather than clarifying the issue.
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Who wants to be the person in charge of informing people “Sorry, his life experience qualifies him for $300,000 but you aren’t disciminated against enough to qualify?” Best wear a bulletproof vest if you are the deliverer of bad news. People don’t take kindly to that.
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Does this reparations program continue as long as racism exists? Because if black people are subjected to continuous ongoing racism, who’s to say they aren’t entitled to a check in 2050 for racism suffered in 2020? And a check in 2070 for racism suffered in 2040? This isn’t going to be a one-off thing.
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Anytime you start a contest of “let’s see whose grievance was/is worst,” (sometimes referred to ad Oppression Olympics), it starts an incredibly ugly discussion. It pits various groups against each other - “MINE was worst” - “no, MY suffering was worse than yours” - “no, your suffering was light compared to mine.” Is that the direction we really want public discourse to take?
Okay… so what? Does that mean there’s no point ever talking about any difficult issue that involves money? If your point is “some people are motivated by greed”, then… duh.
We haven’t even started any detailed research, much less determined that anyone “qualifies” for more money than anyone else (or even that individuals will get payments at all). And yet there’s a ton of resistance to this research, just on the off chance that someone, somewhere, sometime might suggest writing checks to black people. Even the slightest possibility of writing checks to black people really, really seems to set a lot of people off.
The #2 answer also qualifies for this one, but no, reparations is not intended to be endless, or to continue as long as racism exists. It’s about harm caused by government policies.
This applies to any difficult discussion that involves human suffering. Yes, these discussions are difficult. We should still have these discussions.
Let’s run some numbers. Approximately 12.6 percent of people in the USA are African-American. Let’s say they are entitled to $100,000 apiece in reparations. Approximately 15 percent of Americans are some other non-white race (Hispanic, Arab, Asian, Native-American, etc.) Let’s say that their racial disadvantage amounts of only half of what black people have suffered, so they only get half - $50,000 apiece.
Going by a U.S. population of 327.2 million, that comes out to a total of $6.577 trillion in reparations (let’s just round it down to $6.5 trillion for short.)
That is a sum that dwarfs the entire FY2019 federal budget ($4.75 trillion.) How is this revenue going to be raised? Income taxes could certainly be raised, but that would require hiking it to a level that all of the non-reparations-receiving households could suffer serious financial pinch (bear in mind that the average American household has a considerable amount of credit-card debt, or mortgage debt, or student-loan debt.) Borrowing? The national debt is already approaching $22 trillion as we speak. Quantitative easing? Then that would destroy a considerable chunk of the value of money.
No one should pay. They get nothing. They should simply be happy to be here and consider themselves lucky.
Has he said they aren’t? No specifics.
Actually the numbers being tossed around are much higher than a mere $100K.
But this is exactly why Coates wont give specifics. He just wants us to agree to write him a blank check. He wants us to agree to reparations- then tell us how much. If he mentioned even the very modest figures you come up with, he’d lose all support. This is why he so very carefully skirts around any specifics.
Calculating Reparations: $1.5 Million for Each Slave Descendant in the U.S | Black Agenda Report = $1.5 Million each
https://thegrio.com/2018/12/18/pay-up-america-new-calculation-puts-slavery-reparations-at-14-trillion/ = $14 Trillion total.
Unless you have an infinite amount of resources, you have to set priorities. You have to make a choice and say this is more important than that.
And when the choice is between addressing past problems and addressing present and future problems, I think addressing present and future problems is more important.
I’ve also made the point that I think reparations would end up being used as an alternative to addressing ongoing problems. People would say a settlement was paid; so the problem of racism has been settled and no further actions is needed.
This puts the kibosh on your platitudes about wanting to see Justice being done, you are perfectly fine to have sinners (worse yet, the descendants of sinners) and innocents pay just the same, that is not justice, that is blind revenge.
Yeah, descendants of slaveholders who still own the old antebellum mansion and ride with the KKK will pay the same as descendants of those who lost men fighting for the Union and then later marched with MLK. How is that justice?
So I guess he must be a “scamster” and a “racist”, because he hasn’t approached this issue in your exact preferred way. Good company you’re keeping, here, in insisting on baselessly calling an outspoken black American with an unorthodox idea with vitriolic names.
No idea what you’re talking about – you appear to be substituting your own misconceptions for actual discussion. Feel free to point out which of my actual words you disagree with, if you’re interested.