Reparations calculations (Who is behind the Reparations March in D.C. Saturday?)

The Washington Times ^ | August 16th, 2002 | Michelle Malkin

[End The Hypocrisy]

"Russell Simmons, a wealthy hip-hop music executive, is marketing the reparations gospel to black youths under the modernized demand for "40 acres and a Bentley." He's also using the movement to sell his own line of "Phat Classic" sneakers. Similarly, attorney Johnny Cochrane is exploring legal recourse against the U.S. government. Meanwhile, one class-action lawsuit filed in Brooklyn, N.Y., against Fleet Boston Financial, Aetna and CSX puts the reparations tab at $1.5 trillion in unpaid wages of slave labor. Additionally, defense attorney Sam Jordan, one of the march's lead organizers, apparently thinks freeing former Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal — the death row inmate found guilty in the violent 1981 murder of Philadelphia Police Officer Daniel Faulkner — would balance the historical books. The gall knows no end."

Those are excerpts...

[End The Hypocrisy]

As they say, follow the money...

[End The Hypocrisy]

The news about Johnny Cochrane's motivations actually came from The Washington Post, as revealed in this thread:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/734076/posts

It's easier to win over juries when their opinions have been shaped by the media and public events, after all...

[StopDemocratsDotCom]

[Oldeconomybuyer]

So these racists want $1.5 trillion and the release of a cop killer? Pathetic.

[HELLRAISER II]

These people actually believe we're going to pay them. That's what years of Welfare & us bending over every time they whine has gotten us. If they want my money, they'll have to take it from me.

[3AngelaD]

Not to worry. They don't have to take your money. The government is doing it for them.

[Chairman Fred]

OK, which political party's politicians defended the institution of slavery? Which party's elected officials enacted all the Jim Crow laws after the Reconstruction?

Yeah, that's it! Now you all know whom to sue! OOOPS! It isn't the Republicans! How can this be?? Oh well, back to the drawing board...

[banjo joe]

Every d@mned day.

[End The Hypocrisy]

You don't think that's ALL they want, do you? ;-)

[Saundra Duffy]

I think I should get reparations cuz even though we're White, my family members were slaves. We were dirt poor in Missouri. My Mom pretty much acted like she was a slave; she even used to wear one of those bandanas over her hair. We had to kowtow to the rich White folks. My Mom and Dad never owned any land. My Mom had to leave school after 8th grade to work so they wouldn't starve. My Dad (who never graduated from high school) had menial jobs all his life. All of us had to scratch our way out of poverty by working and going to school. All you Blacks - shut up about this reparations crap. For victory & freedom!!!

[glock rocks]

[End The Hypocrisy]

Well, I've heard claims made that us "white trash" still have it easier because we don't wear our oppressed & lowly status in our skin color, and can therefore still hang with those whites who are wealthy enough to make us well off, too. Or so the excuse goes, anyway...

[HELLRAISER II]

Isn't that the most unpleasant truth of the situation.

[StopDemocratsDotCom]

I think we Cuban-Americans should also get reparations. In 1960 a group of 1,000 Cubans were trained by the CIA and they were promised they would be backed up if they invaded Cuba. They did their share, but President Kennedy lied to them and did not help the invasion when the group of Cubans got into trouble. This has lead to 43 years of suffering for the Cuban people and a lot of stress and anguish for 1.5 million exiles in the US.
I obviusly do not think we should get reparations, i am just trying to make a point. ALL ethnic groups can make the case for "reparations" in some way or another. I think it's ridiculous that Jesse Jackson wants more cash to stash into his female lover's (bleep) so he can make more out-of-weedlock babies.

[Tao Yin]

If I understand this correctly, reparations mean something that repairs.

What exactly do we need to repair? What damages do current generations still have that needs fixing?

We moved blacks from Africa to America, used slaves, and set their descendants free in the most prosperous country on the planet. Current blacks benefited from slavery.

You can say that slavery decimated their cultural identity, but culture can not be purchased and culture can not be given. I do not respect the culture of reparations that says “gimme gimme gimme”. The reparations culture is not about moving forward, it is about taking advantage and dividing the races.

[LadyAustin]

Maybe my family shouldn't be responsible for reparations, since we didn't get here until after 1900. But we're white, so we're responsible for slavery too, right?

[Paul Atreides]

Is it just me, or was Jesse Jr. the bartender on The Love Boat?

[Paul Atreides]

I have news for you; if you're white, you're responsible for EVERYTHING. Everything bad, that is.

[boris]

Who is "Johnny Cochrane"?

--Boris

[ghost of nixon]

How much do we have to pay for every last whiney liberal (black or white) to just shut the hell up about racism! It might be worth it.

[End The Hypocrisy]

>>>ALL ethnic groups can make the case for "reparations" in some way or another.<<<

Assuming you aren't including "caucasians" in the "ethnic groups" category, I would like to mention that arguably whites can make a case for reparations too.

[StopDemocratsDotCom]

when I mean ALL ethnic groups, I mean ALL ethnic groups.

[End The Hypocrisy]

>>>Reparations are for repairing and what's there to repair if blacks are better off for having been brought to the New World, here in the world's richest nation?<<<

You've raised an interesting point. Indeed, according to this Washington Times article, nearly as high a percentage of blacks (about half) as whites are middle class:

http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20020516-25223272.htm

[End The Hypocrisy]

>>>Maybe my family shouldn't be responsible for reparations, since we didn't get here until after 1900. But we're white, so we're responsible for slavery too, right?<<<

Some would surely try to argue that your whiteness is nevertheless a magnet for privilege at black people's expense, so you should pay to atone. So pay up buddy.

[End The Hypocrisy]

>>>Who is "Johnny Cochrane"?<<<

He's the African American lawyer who got O.J. Simpson off during his murder trial (for allegedly killing a white ex-wife), saying quips to the nearly all black jury such as "if the glove doesn't fit, you must acquit". He has more recently opened up a firm to pursue reparations for ex-convicts who were released based on DNA tests. They'll be suing municipalities for millions and millions of dollars. Ironically though, I recently saw an article that says many homeless folks prefer being in prison.

[End The Hypocrisy]

>>>How much do we have to pay for every last whiney liberal (black or white) to just shut the hell up about racism! It might be worth it.<<<

Well as the saying goes, give 'em an inch and they'll want a mile. Meanwhile, what do you have when you give a person a million bucks? Answer: a frustrated billionaire.

[IronJack]

Correct. David Horowitz has taken this on as a personal crusade. Read his book Uncivil Wars, go to his website (www.frontpagemag.com), or send in a contribution. This guy is the spearhead of the sane resistance, a voice of reason in a mad, mad world.

[maxwellp]

The very very sad thing about the black reparations issue is that if any money can be collected for this dumb idea, the lawyers and the proponents of reparations will walk away with most of the money. Like, "Well black guy we got you $5,000. Now remember who your friends are." Silently, he says "Now where can I put my $1,000,000." Sad.

[Vidalia]

Which states allowed the keeping of slaves, and should be held responsible for this money grab referred to as reperations?

Did Hawaii, Alaska, Washington State, Idaho, Oregon, Montana, either of the Dakotas, California, Utah, Nevada, New Mexico, Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, etc., etc?

Most of these screeching black lazy asses should take a lesson in the history of statehood, a class that is obviously not taught anymore...

[Vidalia]

...and the more miserable request for REPARATIONS...

[piasa]

Saw a busload of chad-pluckers from Tampa, Florida this morning at a restaraunt on their way to the rally in DC. The same ones who are always being bussed around to wacko liberal get -togethers like the MMM march.

I felt like sending them a bill for my ancestors' efforts to free their sorry butts back in the Civil War.

[End The Hypocrisy]

That's more or less how class action lawsuits work, and Johnny Cochran and associates know it.

[End The Hypocrisy]

>>>Which states allowed the keeping of slaves, and should be held responsible for this money grab referred to as reparations?<<<

But, as the argument would likely go, such states benefited from cheap labor (that racism supposedly perpetuated) which spilled over from such other states. And of course they also benefited from a nation's capitol building that was built in part by slave labor. Pay up bud... Time to atone.

[End The Hypocrisy]

>>>I felt like sending them a bill for my ancestors' efforts to free their sorry butts back in the Civil War.<<<

How about also suing for all the bankrupted Southern farms materializing BEFORE the Civil War? I'm talking about farms which either didn't want, or couldn't afford slaves and were consequently driven under by farms which tapped into such comparatively cheap labor that Africans sold us (like they still sell in countries such as Sudan, even as Sharpton, Jackson and Cochran all but ignore such activities).

[Vidalia]

Alaska and Hawaii?

[rightofrush]

Don't be too sure about any peaceable resolution of a brown-white confrontation. The current problem in southern Mexico is basically a brown-white problem.

[End The Hypocrisy]

Well, you know, they were defended by cheap black labor during the wars, especially in Viet Nam. That labor wouldn't have been so cheap "but for" slavery. And sure some blacks were to blame but lawyers go for the folks with the deep pockets. Got your wallet with ya?

[End The Hypocrisy]

>>>Don't be too sure about any peaceable resolution of a brown-white confrontation. The current problem in southern Mexico is basically a brown-white problem.<<<


I'd like to offer some distinctions if I may. First of all, nearly as many blacks as whites are middle class in the USA. In contrast, the vast majority of Mexicans live in poverty, mainly due to bureaucratic corruption (if you'll pardon the redundancy). Poverty can lead to civil unrest.

Meanwhile, the brown-skinned Chiapas, Guerrero and Oaxaca residents who have been massacred during the past decade in Southern Mexico were often killed by fellow brown-skinned folks from their towns, who wanted their land. Mexico's the world's #3 petroleum exporter so some real estate is quite valuable. Thus, we see a bit of the "what's mine is mine and what's yours is mine" philosophy rearing its ugly head. With such a corrupt judiciary, it's hard to resolve such problems through peaceful means.

I think that the more educated and POTENTIALLY affluent blacks are, and the more fairness FOR EVERYONE that there is, the less we'll see the emergence of problems resembling Southern Mexico's. Mexico only recently became democratic, and there are no student loans worth speaking of, and there's practically no significant domestic market to sell to. If it was NEARLY as bad in the USA, why would so many Mexicans keep risking their lives to move here?

Reparations aren't the answer, and neither are quotas. Ending bureaucrats' life tenure career protections like President Bush is trying to do would be a good start, though.

[Vidalia]

Well, you know, they were defended by cheap black labor during the wars, especially in Viet Nam.

Who is/are the "they" you reference?

[zeaal]

Never. The reparations crowd doesn't make mention of the slavery presently in existence throughout the world, nor do they actions suggest they have an interest in the freeing of all men, women and children throughout the world. Never, never, never shall people who are not slave receive money from people who were never slave holders.

Think about all the good these groups could do if they focus their efforts and attentions on program and education to help people gain greater financial independence.

[End The Hypocrisy]

Alaska & Hawaii (which you mentioned in posting #37). Admittedly they joined the union at different times, but by the Viet Nam war, both were on board. And blah blah blah... ;-)

[End The Hypocrisy]

>>>Think about all the good these groups could do if they focus their efforts and attentions on program and education to help people gain greater financial independence.<<<


You're right. Isn't it a shame that they care far too much about their own financial independence?

[Eala]

I would like to mention that arguably whites can make a case for reparations too.

There are quite a few descendants of those driven out during the Clearances (when the Scottish Highlands and Islands were depopulated) who would be due reparations from Britain. Not only lost the land, but their culture and even their language. (How many North Americans speak Ga\idhlig, aka Scottish Gaelic? ans: not many.)

Of course, reparations would be difficult to pay, because there are so many of us over here. *\:-)

[blam]

Australia looks better every day.

[blam]

"Australia isn't all that great, they are pretty Lefty. They got Arab rape gangs roaming everywhere. You think the Australian aboriginals don't like reparations? "

I'll stay and fight. Read Thomas Chittum's, Civil War Two. (Scary)

[End The Hypocrisy]

>>>As for moving to Australia, I'll stay and fight. <<<

I agree that America's still worth trying to save.

[End The Hypocrisy]

Strangely enough, the liberal Washington Post gave a conservative figure for the http://www.millionsforreparations.com event today:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A30662-2002Aug17.html

"Hundreds of blacks rallied in front of the Capitol on Saturday to demand slavery reparations, saying that compensation is long overdue for the ills of that institution."

Ouch! :-)