SLAVERY: Doing the Math

DFU ^ | 3-27-02 | Doug from Upland

[doug from upland]

Because there are no living slaves, the idea of reparations borders on insanity.

But let's indulge them for a moment and do some of the math.

HERE IS THE FORMULA:

1) Take the number of slaves, multiply by the average number of years worked;

2) Multiply by 52, the number of weeks in a year;

3) Multiply by 50 hours which was the work week;

4) Multiply by the typical hourly wage paid for field labor;

5) Multiply by 2 as a penalty for the labor being forced;

6) Subtract the value of housing and food received;

7) Subtract the amount of money it cost to rebuild cities after they were burned down in riots;

8) Subtract the amount of money received via welfare for illegitimate children;

9) Subtract the amount of money given to black charities and scammed by Jesse Jackson and the rest of the professional race-baiting poverty pimps;

10) Subtract the cost of descendants of slaves in the criminal justice system --- including judges, attorneys, police officers, institutions, food, etc.;

I am still trying to work on the numbers, but I think that the descendants of slaves owe the people of the United States of America about 3 trillion dollars.

[PatrioticAmerican]

I second the motion, with over $4,000,000,000,000 (TRILLIONS!) having been spent on welfare, etc., I think we are owed a bit in return.

[nopardons]

Probably more.

Do't forget affirmative action in job prefference and in college acceptances.

[one2many]

This sure complicates the math

[shekkian]

This is really just an extortion scheme, no more, no less.

[doug from upland]

A BLAST FROM THE PAST:

Then on ABC World News Tonight last night, Carole "Jennings" Simpson reported that 100 million slaves were thrown overboard during the slave trade. This is what Rep. Major Owens (D-NY) claimed last year, except he said 200 million were thrown overboard and that this genocide changed the ecology of the ocean so much that the sharks still swim the slave routes.

[Procyon]

It's like trying to pay back a loan shark who waited 130 years and let the interest compound.

Look, this is a dead end (even if the attorney dreams of collecting her standard fee of 40% of $1,400,000,000,000.00 ($560 billion) if the case goes to trial).

Anyone who pins their future on the hopes of winning a piece of this loot is delusional. Should we expect an intifada of suicide bombers when the courts throw this case out on its keister?

[SevenDaysInMay]

Millions of slaves' descendants never got off the socialist plantation. Too many don't want to. They're kind of like the modern French.

[Procyon]

...[T]he chief importers of African slaves to the Americas were Brazil and the Caribbean, not the U.S. According to Encarta Encyclopedia, the total number of slaves transported from Africa to the Western Hemisphere was approximately 10 to 11 million; however, out of that total number, only about 6 percent (i.e., 600,000 to 650,000 people) were brought to what became the United States¹.

Slavery in America was finally brought to a halt in the 1860s as the result of a tumultuous Civil War that cost the lives of over 600,000 men from both North and South. Coincidentally, the combined total of soldiers from the Union and the Confederacy who were killed during the Civil War is roughly equal to the number of slaves imported from Africa to the United States (although there were nearly twice as many casualties on the Union side as there were on the side of the Confederacy.

¹ "Slavery in the United States," Microsoft(R) Encarta(R) 98 Encyclopedia. (c) 1993-1997 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

[Procyon]

this genocide changed the ecology of the ocean so much that the sharks still swim the slave routes.

I'm sure he's referring to the nuclear-powered sharks who've swum 130 years without refueling.

[Procyon]

I hear you. It's the shakedown artists who'll be dining on the loot, not the millions of lottery players who are waiting for the big break in life.

[The Bolt]

No, because they all voted in the last Presidential election.

[MadRobotArtist]

More math! So let's do the math shall we? Your average clipper ship could hold about 100 people. Now that's probably a conservative number, but that's also including the crew. They would have to traverse the ocean, taking months to get back and forth. So that said, how is it possible that 100 million blacks died? There would literally have to been a minimum of 100,000 ships traversing the oceans daily, with maybe 50-75 slaves on board. Some of those ships only carried maybe 20, and even less. Does anyone have any ideas how preposterous that is that there could have been 100 million africans tossed overboard?

Now let's get to the math. 1 ship took an average of 2 months to get from America to Africa. They would go to Africa, trade with the African Chieftans, and then head back, taking another 2 months. So that's 4 months. Three trips a year, let's say bringing in maybe 200 slaves a year. It would take literally 10,000 clipper ships 50 years to carry that many slaves. What was the population of America at the time? What was the population of Africa at the time? You see, it is impossible that 100 million Africans were killed at sea, or tossed overboard. No way possible at all. How many ships on the average were lost at sea? How many people could afford to build ships like that? These numbers are totally fraudulent. It's a scam pure and simple.

I want reparations for my ancestors who were wiped out by the white european settlers. I want reparations for my people who were brutalized by slaves, and other immigrants as well. I want reparations for having my intelligence insulted by lazy unproductive people who have been a dependent of mine since I started paying taxes. I want government to be honest, and therefore deserve reparations for that too.

There is nothing worse than a lawyer who sees a goldmine. If this goes through I'm leaving for Scotland. I will not be victimized by a race of people whose own people sold them into slavery, and whose home country is still a 3rd world toilet because that's all they know. Screw political correctness. If I wasn't a racist before, I will be if this goes through. I will be one of the most outspoken racists of my generation for the lie that is being perpetrated against me, and the rest of the non-black population. If they get this reparation thing passed, I pray to God that they are also shipped back to their homeland with their wealth, because apparently America has given them a raw deal.

Nothing is more foul than having to eat a crap sandwich, especially when you don't have any bread.

[FirstFlaBn]

I ran across these little tidbits on the subject lately:

Slaves were introduced to new diseases and suffered from malnutrition long before they reached the new world. It is suggested that the majority of deaths on the voyage across the Atlantic - the middle passage - occurred during the first couple of weeks and were a result of malnutrition and disease encountered during the forced marches and subsequent interment at slave camps on the coast. Conditions on the slave ships were terrible, but the estimated death rate of around 13% is lower than the mortality rate for seamen, officers and passengers on the same voyages.

[studly hungwell]

I, of course, have another approach to reparations.

The slaves were promised 40 acres and a mule. We use taxpayer dollars to buy land in Africa: 40 acres per former slave. The descendents of the slaves can divide it however they see fit.

There is only one caveat: to cash in, each descendent must renounce his or her citizenship and leave (after all, he / she wouldn't be here if not for slavery!)

Of course, once all of the reparations are paid, then we also have to dismantle all affirmative action, quotas, etc. These programs are allegedly to make up for past discrimination, and the reparations have atoned for that.

[Budge]

If I wasn't a racist before, I will be if this goes through. I will be one of the most outspoken racists of my generation for the lie that is being perpetrated against me, and the rest of the non-black population. If they get this reparation thing passed, I pray to God that they are also shipped back to their homeland with their wealth, because apparently America has given them a raw deal.

There is the kicker. The oft repeated "I am a victim because I'm black" has grown very, very tiresome!

The unfortunate part is, older blacks agree with me on this. It is the younger ones, those subjected to the "hate America" education of today that believe this nonsense of "repatriations."

It only grows worse because of the likes of Jesse Jackson.