Posted on 03/31/2002 3:59:06 AM PST by Captain Shady
Modern corporations and individuals aren’t responsible for injuries from 140 years ago
A New York woman has filed a lawsuit on behalf of "all African-American slave descendents" against three companies accused of benefiting from slavery.
This is the first of the slavery reparation lawsuits. Other attorneys and civil rights activists, including Johnnie Cochran, also are working on lawsuits. Like tobacco and gun control activists, they have not gotten what they want through the democratic process, so they are taking their cause to the courts.
Of course, this case is even more flawed than the others. Not only are there no surviving former slaves who could reasonably file a lawsuit, there are no surviving perpetrators of slavery to sue.
The truth is that slavery in this country was ended almost 140 years ago. It is a shameful part of our past, but it is a part of our collective history. It is not wise nor feasible to apportion blame and compensation more than a century later.
But reason will not deter these activists from their quest for money and power.
The lawsuit filed last week by the great-great-granddaughter of a South Carolina slave names three companies. It claims that the predecessor firms of FleetBoston Financial Corp., Aetna Inc. and the CSX Corp. knowingly benefited from slavery.
Specifically, the suit claims that FleetBoston at one time acquired a bank that had been owned by a man who also owned ships used in the slave trade. It claims that Aetna’s predecessor firm insured slaves for slaveholders. And it claims that CSX acquired railroads built or run by slave labor.
You can see the direction in which this effort is heading. If corporations can be held financially responsible for what their predecessors did, surely individuals can be held responsible for what their predecessors did. And the span of six generations between the injury and the lawsuit means nothing to slavery reparation advocates.
To bolster their case, advocates of slavery reparations point to the Holocaust-related lawsuits. But the comparison is ridiculous. Actual Holocaust survivors sued the actual companies that used Nazi slave labor. A century from now, the Holocaust suits would have been just as pointless as the slavery reparation litigation.
These lawsuits are unlikely to succeed in court. But they may intimidate companies into settlement. No corporation wants to see its name constantly linked to slavery. Such settlements would be nothing more than blackmail payoffs.
The truth is that it’s too late to place responsibility for slavery. Its perpetrators, both corporate and individual, are dead. There is no reason to persecute and sue their descendants.
I agree with the editorial.
That would set the stage for all of us (though she might want to attach a few strings -- like: no using the money for booze, drugs, prostitution,and spawning more bastards. But, then again, mayber she wouldn't.) Come on half-person-of-color halle. You go, girl (fist pounding air, continual grunting noises)!
Good point. All those programs sound like reparations already made.
The rightness of overturning Jim Crow laws and segregation was apparent to most decent people, but since that time "civil rights" has morphed into an ugly parody of itself, rife with its own brand of bigotry and discrimination.
Those who go down this road are not going to like the end results at all.
On my father's side, my great grandfather was a street merchant in NY. He made sure that my grandfather was educated, and he eventually became a dentist, then a professor of dentistry at NYU. My mother's father came over from Poland, and was a bootmaker by trade. My mother worked two jobs while putting herself through college. All this without government handouts or other programs...
If you look at recent immagrants from coutries like Jamaica, you see blacks working hard and getting ahead. Why is it that they can make headway against the "institutionalized racism," but native born blacks can't? Could it be that they haven't had their work ethic destroyed by government and the so-called "black leadership?" They don't expect hand-outs, and work hard for what they want and need. They realize that the way to self respect is to earn what they get, and not worrying about "self image."
I want to know exactly how slavery has directly impacted the lives of blacks today. Was slavery wrong and evil? Well, duh! Did some blacks lose family members to slavery? Of course! But then, this sort of thing happens to everyone. At one time or another, just about everyone has lost family members to some sort of evil.
Mark
Yes. Its very counter-productive to pursue reparations. Why destroy cooperation and goodwill which has been here in abundance in this country? Its time to stop this race-baiting in the name of reparations.
No American slaves are alive. They don't exist. Neither do "Palastinians".
The Indians are still in some trouble on reservations around the U.S. and any thought that the courts would "grant" reparations to blacks must be set aside for the indians.
Now I would like to form a group to have Our Govt. Confisgate all holdings and money belonging to the English govt. in this country pending the outcome of a class action suit by the irish because of the abuse, deprivation and loss caused by the Brit Govt. on my forbearers and ultimately on me and my family.
What percent of blacks were slaves in 1865? Were they all slaves?
Don't know anything about "Palestinians" ,but I don't think there are any slaves in America now. One's job might not be desirable ,but we can leave the plantation now if we don't like it.
What about our reparations? What about the murder of over 250,000 Blackfeet including women and children using smallpox infected blankets as a biological genocide weapon? What about the long pattern of refusal by the U.S. government to pay for Native American real property stolen by the U.S. Army?
So when do I get title to all my real property including Yellowstone Park ? All you nasty Americans will have to be evicted ..... When will I get my uranium and gold and silver and oil royalties?
This lawsuit on behalf of blacks is outrageous! If the blacks had not been brought here as slaves they would still be in Africa .... DUH!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.