Posted on 02/10/2011 6:43:40 AM PST by KeyLargo
Mayoral debate gets heated when slave reparations come up
Sam Hudzik February 10, 2011
All six candidates for Chicago mayor claim they support reparations for descendants of United State slaves, but they have different definitions of what that means.
The topic came up at a debate Wednesday evening sponsored by the Chicago Defender newspaper at the DuSable Museum of African American History. Intermixed with questions about schools, the city budget, recidivism and Tax increment Financing districts, was the question about reparations.
Some of the answers, which follow below, include perhaps the most heated rhetoric of the evening.
Carol Moseley Braun
Braun gave a very straightforward answer that highlighted her past support for reparations and other civil rights issues, such as those involving the Confederate flag and the Underground Railroad.
Gery Chico
Chico said he would support reparations "perhaps to help children augment their education...I'd like to see more money put into a pool to develop our businesses into our communities."
Rahm Emanuel
Emanuel said he would support reparations, but added, "I think we have to be honest and frank with ourselves, we have a budget deficit that also needs to be addressed." Emanuel then said there are "clear choices" to be made on education, criminal justice and economic development policy, which will "mak[e] sure that we reverse the social and economic trends that have set major parts of the city and major population centers backward."
Bill "Dock" Walls
Walls said he supports reparations, but is not in favor of "educational reparations" because he said seniors may not benefit from them. He also worries that the educational system would be overloaded, potentially creating "substandard educational institutions just to have educational institutions." Walls said reparations need to be financial. "Don't give it to them under guarded circumstances as though African Americans can't take care of their own finances, like they're going to go out and buy Mercedes Benz and Cadillacs," Walls said.
Patricia Van Pelt Watkins
Watkins said she is "definitely" in support of reparations, before going on the attack in one of the most applause-inducing moments of the debate. "When I hear Rahm Emanuel talking about a budget deficit when we're talking about reparations, to me that's offensive," Watkins said. "This country was built on our backs, the backs of our ancestors. They bled, they died, they came in chains and they died in pain. So don't talk to me about budget deficits right now. Not on this subject." (Emanuel did not respond to Watkins' comments during the debate.)
Miguel del Valle
"I believe that we need to build up our neighborhoods through economic development and the government needs to be a real partner in that process," del Valle said. He talked of "elevating the quality of public education," and providing job training "to elevate the economic status of the entire community." He also called for a federally-funded year-round youth employment program. Pressed by Walls to comment directly about reparations, del Valle replied, "In my mind, that is reparations - elevating the entire community."
I support reparations for every living ex-slave.
The good news is that whatever happens in Chicago stays in Chicago.
Few big city governments are more than political pandering machines with widespread corruption and big benefits for politically connected cronies. Why? Because most of the citizens are poor, uneducated, dis-interested, and unmotivated.
We the people need to make sure that the USA at large isn’t turned into the same thing.
I think you might find this interesting.
First State Recognized Slave Was Owned by Anthony Johnson - a Black Man
http://current.com/groups/learn/92619535_first-state-recognized-slave-was-owned-by-anthony-johnson-a-black-man.htm
They have been paid 10 times over what they deserved already. And that doesnt count what has been stolen. Let them all move to Chicago and give them the city.
They should put all the Poverty Pimps in a Museum.
I've known people who were so dumb they were pitiful, who had enough pride and dignity to overcome it and take care of themselves.
Actually there are ex slaves in this nation. They are mostly arrivals from other countries mainly located in Africa, where slavery is still practiced. Some of the worse ex slave stories I’ve read originated in Sudan.
Money from people who never owned a slave and may have had ancestors who fought against slavery.
As I said up further, if this is allowed to move forward:
Just IMAGINE what 50% of the population could claim (women):
It took until the same century that we put a man on the moon, that we gave *women*/aka “chattal”, authentic control over their destiny by providing them the citizen’s rightful opportunity to participate in free elections by casting their own vote—which is inextricably linked to the derivative opportunity to build independent wealth...
hmm, now how does one begin to calculate a reparative award on that?? We are talking far more punitive time and sum of people than the exclusive black demographic!
What a RIDICULOUSLY SLIPPERY SLOPE.
THIS IS MADNESS.
Most of those ex slaves are working their butts off, speaking good English, and Damned happy to be here!.
You got that right. And when you perform a service for them they usually pay in cash very promptly.
Society has given the reparations seekers Chicago, Detroit, Oakland, Washington D.C., Atlanta, and a dozen other major cities along with affirmative action and financial support for a half century. My card is stamped “paid in full”.
As for their descendants, sorry no free cash for you.
The only reparation I would support would be a one way ticket back to their slave ancestor’s country of origin. As well as a revocation of citizenship. If this country has been so awful to these folks that would seem to me to be the only fair thing to do.
...to be paid only by living ex-slave owners.
Get movin', "slaves".
Bill "Dock" Walls :
Walls said reparations need to be financial. "Don't give it to them under guarded circumstances as though African Americans can't take care of their own finances, like they're going to go out and buy Mercedes Benz and Cadillacs," Walls said.
Okay, 'Dock' wins.
Just for the laugh factor.
He knows dam well they WILL go out and buy Caddy's and Benz's.
And if here's enough money -- Bentley's
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