Posted on 05/26/2018 11:53:21 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Cynthia Nixon (aka Miranda from Sex and the City) caught a lot of heat for suggesting that decriminalizing weed might be a form of reparations for Black people in New York. This was probably not the best move she could have made in her gubernatorial run, but she later clarified her point. “I’m not going to use that word anymore,” Nixon told the New York Post. “We have to make sure that the communities that have been most devastated by the war on drugs are prioritized for small business loans and other kinds of support. Obviously it would in no way make up for Jim Crow or slavery or hundreds of years of that. But part of the marijuana equity movement is beginning to repair some of the devastation.”
Basically, Nixon’s heart was in the right place but her phrasing was unfortunate. Still, the idea of reparations is intriguing. Much of the wealth and economic system in the United States was built on the backs of slaves. They were never paid for their labor, and the generations that came after them were also discouraged from building wealth. If the federal government was going to repay the descendants of slaves (not that I expect that to happen any time soon), there are few ways that it could make reparations–and these don’t include pot.
Student Loan Forgiveness/Repayment
The pursuit of dreams often takes us through college or trade school. Not many people have the ability to pay for school out of pocket, so they rely on student loans to take care of tuition. Depending on how much you make once you graduate, it could take you decades to pay off your student loans. But, if the U.S. wanted to make things right with the Black community, it could forgive all student loan debt accrued by Black American Students.
If you’ve already paid off all your students loans (kudos to you), then the federal government can simply repay you all the money shelled out to settle that debt–including interest.
Full Scholarships
As previously stated, getting a good education is not cheap. Millions of kids are going to underfunded schools, and they need access to facilities that are more up-to-date. To help set future generations up for success, the federal government could pay for all school tuition from pre-school up to a doctorate-level degree. This would include any tuition required for trade schools.
Clean Slate Credit
Good credit is a cost-effective way of paying the Black community back, but great credit is priceless. The federal government could give Black citizens that descended from slaves a clean slate with their credit score, setting us all at 700. This would be a fairly low-effort form of reparations that would be a huge financial benefit to the Black Community. However, I would suggest that this come along with easy access to financial planners that can help us all maintain good credit. Those of us who already have good credit would get an additional 50 point boost in their score.
Compounded Interest Savings Accounts
Instead of directly shelling out tons of money at once, the federal government could issue reparations in the form of a savings account that grows with compound interest. Recipients can contribute as much as they would like as often as they like, but each savings account should start out with $5,000 of seed money.
Familial Land/Homestead
We never did get those 40 acres and a mule that our ancestors were promised. The federal government could make good on that by giving each family some valuable real estate.
Settling All Debts
It’s hard to build wealth when you’re constantly paying off debts. If the federal government settled the debts of Black people that descended from slaves, that would free us all up to get in good financial standing.
Give them a season pass to the Obama Library if it ever opens.
Reparations?
For what, exactly?
Blacks captured each other in Africa and sold each other to other blacks to transport to all over the world. The US took in less than 5% of all captured blacks as slaves.
A black man started black slavery in the Virginia colony when he sued to keep another black man as a slave.
Blacks by a larger percentage of their population than whites held slaves in the colonies.
An all-expenses-paid on-way trip to whatever country they consider better than America.
All the slaves are dead!
So get over your slaves, I mean selves already...
Buncha friggin’ whiners! Just looking for some free money, that’s all it is...
No FReeper opposes reparations for any living person who was held as a slave prior to 1865.
The argument that the US economic system was built in the back of slaves is a stretch
Totally ignores industrialization and modernization. US western agriculture never used slaves
Oscar Brown Jr. - ‘40 Acres And A Mule’ (1965)
https://bit.ly/2JbCpei
Plus I am willing to provide a one way ticket back to their homeland
What about all the blacks, like Barack Obama himself, who are not descended from slaves?
This woman is batcrap crazy. There is NO interest on savings accounts right now. You can’t set an artificial rate and esp. do it arbitrarily. THe Indians will get very upset and go on the warpath (sarcasm intended).
Land? The states own much of the farming land, not the US govt. Boy some people are stupid.
Forgive student loans just for blacks? Why, that’s racial discrimination against whites, Asians, real Africans, Hispanics, Europeans in general, and other groups who have been made into racial units despite not being in “other” racial groups.
I thought Cynthia Nixon was a progressive crazy but the writer is far to the Left of her, so far in fact that she fell off the pages of her article.
Maybe the fall knocked some sense into her racist head. Who am I kidding? She’ll never change. Too much of an Obamite for that.
Send the bill to the African tribes who enslaved and sold their ancestors in the first place.
I see it as proof Hussein is NOT BLACK!
Seriously, a black man is president for 8 years and never lifted a finger to end the Jim Crow/Hairy Ansslicker oppression law? Not Black!
LBJ’s War on Poverty. It seems to me the reparations have already been paid.
Nearly $25 trillion in spending of taxpayer money on “anti-poverty” programs since 1964, and what has it gotten?...Black Lives Matter, riots, killing of law enforcement officers, feral animals with no fathers roaming city streets, drugs, gangs.
False premise. This country was not mostly built by slave labor. I really am beginning to hate these gimme thats
How about one way ticket s to Africa
“...Reparations...”
More than of 3/4 million Union soldiers died to free the slaves.
The U.S. is the only country in history that sacrificed its own citizens to free slaves.
Slavery has been around since the dawn of human history (sadly).
The idea that AA’s are somehow owed reparations in addition to this is ludicrous!!!
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