Posted on 07/06/2005 7:45:13 PM PDT by NathanBookman
A federal judge dismissed a wide-ranging reparations lawsuit brought by descendants of slaves, concluding Wednesday that the courts are not the place to correct centuries-old wrongs inflicted on millions of people.
U.S. District Judge Charles Norgle's ruling all but closed the door on the reparations movement's most aggressive and wide-ranging effort to date to win compensation through the courts, narrowing future legal options and pushing the debate toward the political arena.
But supporters of the reparations cause said it only increased their determination.
(snip)
The lawsuit was a combination of several separate cases brought by descendants of slaves seeking monetary damages from modern-day corporations with historical ties to businesses the plaintiffs said had profited from slavery. Eventually the suit named 17 major corporations as defendants, with 19 plaintiffs. (snip)
Wednesday's dismissal is final, however, and can only be appealed to the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, where the plaintiffs will have much narrower avenues to revive their case. That appeal will come soon, plaintiffs' attorneys said. (continued...registration required)
(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...
Okay, let's do reparations.
Then I'll send you the damn bill that my ancestors ran up, including life and limb, in securing their freedom.
I take it that they're not gonna sue Nigeria, where most of the slaves came from? I take it that they're not suing England, who was the government at the time when the slave trade was started, and who governed 2/3 of the slavery years in the USA?
That's called welfare - no? (BTW, I do want my money back...)
I'm with you there. My great grandfather never laid eyes on his own child before he died in the civil war. I'm sure that it's worth a portion of any settlement paid out due to reparations..
It's about money. It's free money. It's "I don't have to work for it and the court will give it to me" money.
What about the black slave owners? Do their descendants get to pay reparations? What about the black tribal leaders who sold other blacks into slavery?
Actually black slaves probably were better off than those who stayed in Africa.
I would like to sue on behalf of my great-great-ect, Grandfather. All the workers of his plantation quit without giving a two weeks notice.<>
Tell ya what. I'll agree to pay reparations. Here's the deal.
I'll give every native-born black person in America $1 million. In addition, I'll give the same people an additional $1 million for every year that they themselves were slave.
So, if you qualify for being a) black and b) a slave for 12 years, for example, you would receive $13 million.
So far, so good.
I will then deduct the costs of the following:
*The Civil War
*Prisons
*Schools
*Affirmative Action
*Public Housing
*Busing
*Hospitals
*Public Transportation
*Gerrymandered Congressional Districts
*Title IX
*The Welfare State
*Food Stamps
*School Breakfasts and Lunches
*Head Start
*The Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department
*The EEOC
*Every Civil Rights lawsuit since Dred Scott
*Pain and Suffering for Jesse, Rev Al, OJ Simpson, Michael Jackson and Maxine Waters
*Midnight Basketball
*Crack
*Gang-related Crime
*Gangsta rap-related crime
*Riot-related damages to Detroit, Newark, Los Angeles, New York and any other city with more than 50,000 people where such activities took place.
*Special,one-time "Future Grievance Fee" (+)
(+) this one-time fee is to be pooled to pay for the inevitable lawsuits, protests, etc, that will be lodged when the vast majority of recipients will do something totally against their self-interest with their new found wealth --- like squander it --- and spawn 17 ABC/NBC/CBS/CNN/MSNBC specials on the plight of the unfortunate.
In return, the subject or reparations is to be dropped and the case considered closed, vis-a-vis the historical wrongs of slavery. We agree that the 14th Amendment is in full force (both ways) and that no other lawsuits, grievances, protests, demonstrations, etc. will be had on this subject.
Do I have any takers?
Tell ya what. I'll agree to pay reparations. Here's the deal.
I'll give every native-born black person in America $1 million. In addition, I'll give the same people an additional $1 million for every year that they themselves were slave.
So, if you qualify for being a) black and b) a slave for 12 years, for example, you would receive $13 million.
So far, so good.
I will then deduct the costs of the following:
*The Civil War
*Prisons
*Schools
*Affirmative Action
*Public Housing
*Busing
*Hospitals
*Public Transportation
*Gerrymandered Congressional Districts
*Title IX
*The Welfare State
*Food Stamps
*School Breakfasts and Lunches
*Head Start
*The Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department
*The EEOC
*Every Civil Rights lawsuit since Dred Scott
*Pain and Suffering for Jesse, Rev Al, OJ Simpson, Michael Jackson and Maxine Waters
*Midnight Basketball
*Crack
*Gang-related Crime
*Gangsta rap-related crime
*Riot-related damages to Detroit, Newark, Los Angeles, New York and any other city with more than 50,000 people where such activities took place.
*Special,one-time "Future Grievance Fee" (+)
(+) this one-time fee is to be pooled to pay for the inevitable lawsuits, protests, etc, that will be lodged when the vast majority of recipients will do something totally against their self-interest with their new found wealth --- like squander it --- and spawn 17 ABC/NBC/CBS/CNN/MSNBC specials on the plight of the unfortunate.
In return, the subject or reparations is to be dropped and the case considered closed, vis-a-vis the historical wrongs of slavery. We agree that the 14th Amendment is in full force (both ways) and that no other lawsuits, grievances, protests, demonstrations, etc. will be had on this subject.
Do I have any takers?
Actually black slaves probably were better off than those who stayed in Africa
Thank You for your very wise observation!!!!!
Plus, most learned to read and write on the plantations here and got food and housing. Oh wait, they still get free food and housing.
I don't think it's fair for blacks to repay America for it's gifts to them and for the rights they enjoy here, esp if we are not asking other immigrant groups to repay...;)
Considering that many of them were captured in tribal wars (losers) and sold by fellow blacks into slavery, use so-called "reparations" money to buy them 40-acres and a mule in Africa + a one-way ticket to get there (also require them to renounce their American citizenship with no possibility of future American citizenship for them or their descendants). It could be the bargain of the century...Any takers? (crickets chirping)
I have always been mystified by racial grievance mongers who pontificate on the glorious Nirvana that their lives would be had they only been left in Mother Africa, notwithstanding the general quality of life there. Since most American blacks have some measure of Caucasian genealogical ancestry, and since slavery was the transmission belt that enabled the mixing of their black and white ancestor's gene pools,(whether by rape,semi voluntary or voluntary associations) than what they are really saying is that they and their decendents would rather not exist.
I acknowledge the kidnapping and suffering of my African ancestors, and the resultant decades of slavery, oppresion, and discrimination that amounted to a monstrous crime for them. But the result was me and my family living in a nation that provides the most liberty and opportunity for any African descended people on earth. I am profoundly grateful to be here. I welcome the opportunity for any clarifcation of the historical record, and should that clarification reveal more evidence of the often bestial nature of the American institution of slavery, than we should unflinchingly face and acknowledge it. The historical record should be properly contextualized, and honestly examined without any attempt to inflate the crime beyond the actual truth of the injustice. The endless racial navel gazing, racial identity posturing, and puffed up grievance mongering should be rejected for the PC irrelevance that it is.
The main reason that I am not entitled to slavery reperations is because I was NOT ENSLAVED. I grew up in an era in which I remember all of the visible (literally) signs of Jim Crow when I visited relatives in the south in the early 60's. I experienced numerous physical racial attacks as my newly acquired Souh side Chicagoneighborhood underwent racial intergration. I experienced some minor racial discrimination at other times and places. The United States today is NO LONGER THE NATION THAT ONCE OFFICIALLY DISCRIMINATED AGAINST IT'S CITIZENS, unless you wish to consider "Racial Preferences" for preferred minorities, admittedly still discrimination. None of that changes the fact that I am blessed to be a citizen of the greatest nation in the history of mankind, with a higher standard of living, opportunity and liberty than any other. I am proud to have enlisted and fought for this country as a soldier during the Vietnam era, despite all those who told me that no black man should do so on behalf of such a racist and oppressive nation.
Sometimes it seems as though the race industry merchants and class action lawyers would divide us into warring ethnic enclaves with mortar pits in the streets sniping at each other ala the Balkans, all of them seeking racial spoils with government help. This is nothing more than a cultural Marxist wealth redistribution scheme.
CC
Public transportation???
Yes, public transportation. You'll notice that my list includes not just things the United States has provided, but those things also supplied by WESTERN CIVILIZATION, of which, the United States happens to be the paramount example (thus far). Mass transit happens to be one of them (along with hospitals, public education, et. al.).
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