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Dems renew demand for slavery reparations
Washinton Examiner ^ | 1/4/2017

Posted on 01/08/2017 3:09:57 AM PST by Altura Ct.

Members of the Congressional Black Caucus and other Democrats this week re-introduced legislation that would set up a commission to consider whether reparations should be paid to black Americans for slavery.

Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., has proposed the bill in each Congress for at least the last two decades.

A description of the bill said the legislation would set up a commission to both examine the possibility of reparations, but also an apology for the "racial and economic discrimination against African-Americans."

It's a response to the "fundamental injustice, cruelty, brutality, and inhumanity of slavery in the United States."

Conyers' new bill wasn't released as of Wednesday, but the version of the bill proposed last year found that 4 million blacks were enslaved in the U.S. from 1619 to 1865. It said the commission would examine the entire history of slavery, and then make recommendations on whether the U.S. government should apologize for slavery, and whether reparation payments are warranted.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society
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1 posted on 01/08/2017 3:09:57 AM PST by Altura Ct.
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To: Altura Ct.

All the slaves are dead. All the masters are dead. Who do you pay?

With that said, how come reparations are only brought up when a Republican president is in office? Why was this NEVER brought up when Obama was there to sign the Bill?


2 posted on 01/08/2017 3:15:16 AM PST by Cyclops08
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To: Altura Ct.

They’re just like little two-year olds: “Why?” “Why not?” one track minds, over and over again.


3 posted on 01/08/2017 3:18:24 AM PST by Gaffer
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To: Altura Ct.

I say we pay them every penny we owe them, lets follow obama’s lead


4 posted on 01/08/2017 3:19:05 AM PST by ronnie raygun
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To: Altura Ct.

Lock them up.


5 posted on 01/08/2017 3:19:24 AM PST by SpaceBar
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To: Cyclops08

Don’t be silly.... Lets rob the ketchup industry (HEINZ) because all those tomatoes didn’t become ketchup (catsup) by themselves!!!


6 posted on 01/08/2017 3:21:30 AM PST by Klemper
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To: Cyclops08

I’m fine with reparations - if a condition of getting the money is that the recipient and their entire family must return to Africa and never return to the US in perpetuity.

It would probably be cheaper than welfare.


7 posted on 01/08/2017 3:21:53 AM PST by Spktyr (Overwhelmingly superior firepower and the willingness to use it is the only proven peace solution.)
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To: Altura Ct.; All
When will these African nations ever apologize or pay "reparations" for slavery?

Better yet, when will they end the practice?

Slavery in modern Africa

Slavery in Africa continues today. Slavery existed in Africa before the arrival of Europeans - as did a slave trade that exported millions of sub-Saharan Africans to North Africa, the Middle East, and the Persian Gulf.[1] However, slavery and bondage are still African realities. Hundreds of thousands of Africans still suffer in silence in slave-like situations of forced labour and commercial sexual exploitation from which they cannot free themselves.

Modern-day enslavers also exploit lack of political will at the highest levels of some African governments to effectively tackle trafficking and its root causes. Weak interagency co-ordination and low funding levels for ministries tasked with prosecuting traffickers, preventing trafficking and protecting victims also enable traffickers to continue their operations. The transnational criminal nature of trafficking also overwhelms many countries' law enforcement agencies, which are not equipped to fight organized criminal gangs that operate across national boundaries with impunity.

Slavery by African country

Chad
IRIN (Integrated Regional Information Networks) of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports children being sold to Arab herdsmen in Chad. As part of a new identity imposed on them the herdsman "...change their name, forbid them to speak in their native dialect, ban them from conversing with people from their own ethnic group and make them adopt Islam as their religion."[2]

Mali
The Malian government denies that slavery exists, however, the slavery in Timbuktu is obvious. Slavery still continues with some Tuaregs holding Bella people.[3]

Mauritania
A system exists now by which Arab Muslims -- the bidanes -- own black slaves, the haratines.[4] An estimated 90,000 black Mauritanians remain essentially enslaved to Arab/Berber owners.[5] The ruling bidanes (the name means literally white-skinned people) are descendants of the Sanhaja Berbers and Beni Hassan Arab tribes who emigrated to northwest Africa and present-day Western Sahara and Mauritania during the Middle Ages.[6] According to some estimates, up to 600,000 black Mauritanians, or 20% of the population, are still enslaved, many of them used as bonded labour.[7] Slavery in Mauritania was finally criminalized in August 2007.[8] Malouma Messoud, a former Muslim slave has explained her enslavement to a religious leader:

"We didn't learn this history in school; we simply grew up within this social hierarchy and lived it. Slaves believe that if they do not obey their masters, they will not go to paradise. They are raised in a social and religious system that everyday reinforces this idea.[9]"

In Mauritania, despite slave ownership having been banned by law in 1981, hereditary slavery continues.[10] Moreover, according to Amnesty International:

"Not only has the government denied the existence of slavery and failed to respond to cases brought to its attention, it has hampered the activities of organisations which are working on the issue, including by refusing to grant them official recognition".[11]

Imam El Hassan Ould Benyamin of Tayarat in 1997 expressed his views about earlier proclamations ending slavery in his country as follows:

"[it] is contrary to the teachings of the fundamental text of Islamic law, the Quran ... [and] amounts to the expropriation from muslims of their goods; goods that were acquired legally. The state, if it is Islamic, does not have the right to seize my house, my wife or my slave."[12]

Niger
In Niger, where the practice of slavery was outlawed in 2003, a study found that almost 8% of the population are still slaves.[13] Slavery dates back for centuries in Niger and was finally criminalised in 2003, after five years of lobbying by Anti-Slavery International and Nigerian human-rights group, Timidria.[14] More than 870,000 people still live in conditions of forced labour, according to Timidria, a local human rights group.[15][16]

Descent-based slavery, where generations of the same family are born into bondage, is traditionally practiced by at least four of Niger's eight ethnic groups. The slave masters are mostly from the nomadic tribes -- the Tuareg, Fulani, Toubou and Arabs.[17] It is especially rife among the warlike Tuareg, in the wild deserts of north and west Niger, who roam near the borders with Mali and Algeria.[18] In the region of Say on the right bank of the river Niger, it is estimated that three-quarters of the population around 1904-1905 was composed of slaves.[19]

Historically, the Tuareg swelled the ranks of their slaves during war raids into other peoples' lands. War was then the main source of supply of slaves, although many were bought at slave markets, run mostly by indigenous peoples.[20][21]

Sudan
Francis Bok, former Sudanese slave. At the age of seven, he was captured during a raid in Southern Sudan, and enslaved for ten years.(Courtesy Unitarian Universalist Association/Jeanette Leardi)

There has been a recrudescence of jihad slavery since 1983 in the Sudan.[23][24]

Slavery in the Sudan predates Islam, but continued under Islamic rulers and has never completely died out in Sudan. In the Sudan, Christian and animist captives in the civil war are often enslaved, and female prisoners are often used sexually, with their Muslim captors claiming that Islamic law grants them permission.[25] According to CBS news, slaves have been sold for $50 apiece. [1] In 2001 CNN reported the Bush administration was under pressure from Congress, including conservative Christians concerned about religious oppression and slavery, to address issues involved in the Sudanese conflict.[26] CNN has also quoted the U.S. State Department's allegations: "The [Sudanese] government's support of slavery and its continued military action which has resulted in numerous deaths are due in part to the victims' religious beliefs." [2]

Jok Madut Jok, professor of History at Loyola Marymount University, states that the abduction of women and children of the south by north is slavery by any definition. The government of Sudan insists that the whole matter is no more than the traditional tribal feuding over resources.[27]

It is estimated that as many as 200,000 people had been taken into slavery during the Second Sudanese Civil War. The slaves are mostly Dinka people.[28][29]

South Africa
Despite significant efforts made by the South African Government to combat trafficking in persons the country has been placed on the "Tier 2 Watch List" by the US Department of Trafficking in Persons,for the past four years.[47] South Africa shares borders with Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Mozambique and Swaziland. It has 72 official ports of entry "and a number of unofficial ports of entry where people come in and out without being detected" along its 5 000 km-long land borderline. The problem of porous borders is compounded by the lack of adequately trained employees, resulting in few police officials controlling large portions of the country's coastline.

Child slave trade
The trading of children has been reported in modern Nigeria and Benin.[30] The children are kidnapped or purchased for $20 - $70 each by slavers in poorer states, such as Benin and Togo, and sold into slavery in sex dens or as unpaid domestic servants for $350.00 each in wealthier oil-rich states, such as Nigeria and Gabon.[31] [32]

Ghana, Togo, Benin
In parts of Ghana, a family may be punished for an offense by having to turn over a virgin female to serve as a sex slave within the offended family.[33] In this instance, the woman does not gain the title of "wife". In parts of Ghana, Togo, and Benin, shrine slavery persists, despite being illegal in Ghana since 1998. In this system of slavery, sometimes called trokosi (in Ghana) or voodoosi in Togo and Benin, or ritual servitude, young virgin girls are given as slaves in traditional shrines and are used sexually by the priests in addition to providing free labor for the shrine.[34]

Ethiopia
Mahider Bitew, Children's Rights and Protection expert at the Ministry of Women's Affairs, says that some isolated studies conducted in Dire Dawa, Shashemene, Awassa and three other towns of the country indicate that the problem of child trafficking is very serious. According to a 2003 study about one thousand children were trafficked via Dire Dawa to countries of the Middle East. The majority of those children were girls, most of whom were forced to be sex workers after leaving the country. The International Labor Organization (ILO) has identified prostitution as the Worst Form of Child Labor.[35]

In Ethiopia, children are trafficked into prostitution, to provide cheap or unpaid labor and to work as domestic servants or beggars. The ages of these children are usually between 10 and 18 and their trafficking is from the country to urban centers and from cities to the country. Boys are often expected to work in activities such as herding cattle in rural areas and in the weaving industry in Addis Ababa, and other major towns. Girls are expected to take responsibilities for domestic chores, childcare and looking after the sick and to work as prostitutes.[35]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_modern_Africa

Or,

http://web.archive.org/web/20160108090835/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_modern_Africa%3C/a%3E

*******************************************************************

The Price in Blood
Casualties in the Civil War

At least 618,000 Americans died in the Civil War, and some experts say the toll reached 700,000.

The number that is most often quoted is 620,000. At any rate, these casualties exceed the nation's loss in all its other wars, from the Revolution through Vietnam.

The Union armies had from 2,500,000 to 2,750,000 men. Their losses, by the best estimates:
Battle deaths: 110,070
Disease, etc: 250,152
Total 360,222

The Confederate strength, known less accurately because of missing records, was from 750,000 to 1,250,000. Its estimated losses:
Battle deaths: 94,000
Disease, etc: 164,000
Total: 258,000

http://civilwarhome.com/casualties.htm

8 posted on 01/08/2017 3:22:12 AM PST by ETL (On the road to America's recovery!)
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To: Altura Ct.

I want a pony.


9 posted on 01/08/2017 3:23:29 AM PST by Drango (A liberal's compassion is limited only by the size of someone else's wallet.)
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To: Cyclops08

Perhaps a win-win deal can be negotiated?
Surrender of U.S. citizenship and passport in exchange for air travel to African country of ancestral origin and $500 cash upon landing.
Travel banned to the United States for 50 years for all repatriated people taking advantage of the one-time offer.

10 posted on 01/08/2017 3:24:08 AM PST by Blue Jays ( Rock hard ~ Ride free)
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To: Altura Ct.
"Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., has proposed the bill in each Congress for at least the last two decades."

"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Albert Einstein, (attributed) US (German-born) physicist (1879 - 1955)

11 posted on 01/08/2017 3:25:07 AM PST by Sooth2222 ("Every nation has the government it deserves." - Joseph de Maistre (1753-1821))
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To: Altura Ct.

I agree with reparations, but lets call it the “Drug Dealers Empowerment Act”.


12 posted on 01/08/2017 3:25:09 AM PST by Herzo61
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To: Altura Ct.
It's a response to the "fundamental injustice, cruelty, brutality, and inhumanity of slavery in the United States.

We have already had "a response". Several in fact. The Emancipation Proclamation, The Civil Rights Act of 1964, The 14th & 15 Amendments to the Constitution.

Reparations is a fancy name for shakedown and more "wealth redistribution". Coloreds are now free to be whatever they wish and make their own way, including grifters and agitators like the Hussein Obamas.

13 posted on 01/08/2017 3:26:13 AM PST by Kudsman (Trump or bust 2016!)
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To: Altura Ct.
Dems renew demand for slavery reparations

COOL! Well, get busy. Get a bill through the Republican House, have it approved by the Republican Senate, and make sure President Trump doesn't veto it!

ROFL!!!!

14 posted on 01/08/2017 3:26:25 AM PST by Lazamataz (TRUMP LIED TO ME!!!! ....He said I'd get sick of winning.... AND I'M NOT SICK OF WINNING YET!!!!)
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To: Altura Ct.

600,000 Americans dead, more than 1,000,000 injured and maimed, multiple billions in property damage and business losses, massive destruction of infrastructure, hundreds of thousands displaced and homeless, and over 100 years of hostilities.

I say that’s reparations enough.


15 posted on 01/08/2017 3:27:00 AM PST by Westbrook (Children do not divide your love, they multiply it)
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To: Spktyr

Your earlier proposed offer was more eloquent. :-)

16 posted on 01/08/2017 3:27:25 AM PST by Blue Jays ( Rock hard ~ Ride free)
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To: Altura Ct.

So who owes who after offsets for disproportionate welfare, crime, property values?


17 posted on 01/08/2017 3:29:38 AM PST by A_Former_Democrat ("Liberalism is a mental disorder" On FULL Display NOW BOYCOTT PepsiCO Kellogg's)
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To: ETL

Those numbers plotted against the total U.S. population at the time are likely remarkable.

18 posted on 01/08/2017 3:30:14 AM PST by Blue Jays ( Rock hard ~ Ride free)
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To: Westbrook
600,000 Americans dead,

Not even counting the low-grade one-sided race war.

19 posted on 01/08/2017 3:30:20 AM PST by Lazamataz (TRUMP LIED TO ME!!!! ....He said I'd get sick of winning.... AND I'M NOT SICK OF WINNING YET!!!!)
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To: Drango

LOL!

I want a unicorn! With sparkles and glitter! ;)


20 posted on 01/08/2017 3:32:36 AM PST by proud American in Canada (May God Bless the U.S.A. (Trump: I will bear the slings and arrows for you, the American people))
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