Mr Akufo-Addo says the present effects of past slavery "cannot be quantified". This means that no amount of money can quantitatively be agreed upon, as exactly neutralizing the damage. Accordingly he just confessed that reparations payments serve no useful purpose.
My logical response to this absurdity is as follows:
I've never owned a slave.
And, you never picked cotton.
I am of Irish decent. If we extent this reparations illogical, I want a ton of money from the ancestors of the Irish and English landlords who murdered 1 million of my ancestors during the Irish Potato Famine of the mid-1800s.
This illogical can be extended to many groups of Human Beings who have suffered at the hands of others.
So, think about this scam, for a scam is all it is.
Hey ... I have more Neanderthal than most (according to my DNA analysis -- maybe we're relatives ... and you're right ... maybe WE need some "reparations" ... TOTALLY UNBELIEVABLE!
The first four slaves sold in North America were wait for it … Irish! Reading about the twin practices of indentured servitude and slavery there was often little difference as the indentures were often extended for trivial reasons by the plantation owners, some of whom were black.
For the record, although complicated by the ease of crossing the Irish sea I have a complicated combination of Scots and Irish ancestors myself.
Dublin was a hub for national and international slave trade. Slavery was part of the spoils of war. We can't fix the past; we can only move forward and work on the underground diabolical slave trade today whatever form it takes.
It’s possible to make this argument in the earliest days of American colonization. Most Black people were enslaved and most white people were indentured servants, though a few Black folks were also indentured servants (tho I don’t think any White people were officially “slaves” as a legal category).
This was in the days when Americans actually believed in freedom, justice, and liberty would unite across racial lines to overthrow the corrupt elites who were screwing them all over, including using destruction of property (Boston Tea Party) and taking up arms (guerilla warfare used in the Revolutionary War that won American independence from Britain).
John Martin writes "The Irish slave trade began when James II sold 30,000 Irish prisoners as slaves to the New World. His Proclamation of 1625 required Irish political prisoners be sent overseas and sold to English settlers in the West Indies. By the mid 1600s, the Irish were the main slaves sold to Antigua and Montserrat. At that time, 70% of the total population of Montserrat were Irish slaves. Ireland quickly became the biggest source of human livestock for English merchants. The majority of the early slaves to the New World were actually white." Although the internet claims for the most part this is a myth. I doubt it though, knowing how the Irish were viewed and treated by the English.
See but these historical instances of slavery do not have any bearing on our present cultural and political/economic context. You can still see the fallout of the slave trade and European colonization across the African continent and in the USA. The devastating setback of slavery and then Black Codes and convict leasing and share cropping, then Jim Crow and redlining and then Mass Incarceration and the war on drugs—these are all manifestations of the same legacy of slavery that plagues US society til this day. Slavs and Irish folks who ancestors were enslaved don’t experience any systemic disadvantage from that history.
I just don't agree with your analysis. You list a lot of the historical effects of slavery and discrimination. And I won't argue the effects don't carry over to modern times.
They pale in comparison to the effects wrought by those pretending to "help" black people. Lyndon B Johnson told some of his fellow segregationist Democrats, y'all go with me on pacifying these negroes, we'll have 'em voting Democrat for the next 200 years. Except Johnson, never one to shy away from crude language, didn't say "negroes"- he used the other word beginning with 'n'. The Democrats successfully replaced fathers in black families with welfare.
The schools in any large Democrat city aren't educating black children. Baltimore was recently found to have a high percentage of schools where not a single child was reading or doing arithmetic at grade level. I can easily give a half-dozen other similar examples in under 10 minutes.
The war on drugs was something black elected officials were lobbying for, as they saw the devastation drugs were causing in their communities. Did you know that, Jordan? Or maybe you knew it but thought you could get away with blaming it on whitey.
So. Tell us, Jordan. What do you think has a greater impact? Housing discrimination in the 1960's? Or the lack of fathers in black homes and lack of education in schools where black children are being taught today?
Well I think what you’re describing is a part of the same legacy of slavery and anti-Blackness that I’ve just discussed. The democrats try to control the Black vote by handing out a few crumbs to keep people from utter destitution but don’t solve underlying problems because they need those problems to win elections and keep their comfortable careers within the democratic machine. The democrats have pretended to care but actually haven’t, and the republicans haven’t even tried to pretend. Black Americans are still waiting on their 40 acres and a mule, still waiting for all the benefits that white settlers of the west, pioneers and ranchers received, paid for by the US gov’t. Black people *never* received the same level of support and benefits that white communities received—and white folks on these lands had a few hundred year head start on generational wealth accumulation over Black communities. Even despite their lack of support from the government, successful Black communities arose and were burnt to the ground by white mobs (as in the case of “Black Wall St.”), with thousands of Black folks lynched since emancipation. The Klan and other white supremacists terror groups, white mobs and white citizens councils lynching and bombing churches, politicians manipulating people (as you’ve described), and the FBI assassinating leaders and dismantling all attempts at Black self-determination—all these things have had a profoundly damaging impact on Black America. Is the solution to randomly hand out checks? Not quite. But it’s clear that there is still a moral debt. Black people literally built this country—including the White House.
Jordan, you make quite a few well founded points here. Thanks.
"The democrats have pretended to care but actually haven’t, and the republicans haven’t even tried to pretend."
Exactly!
I've pointed this out in another part of this discussion string. People here seem to eager to find fault with democrats while ignoring the inaction (or worse) perpetrated by republicans, particularly since the Dixiecrats were driven from the democratic party in the 1960s. I'm not going to cheer lead for the democrats but at least there is some semblance of reason that shows up in their platforms from time to time. The Republicans..., it seems that cult hero worship over rides any and all other political considerations in that party now.
So sad.
I would much rather have a situation where it takes time to study the policies and follow through of each candidate to cast my vote rather than vote for the lesser of two evils. A true two party system would be a welcome respite from the ridiculous nonsense we have now.
Can we ever know if that is or isn't true? Perhaps the Slavs and Irish would be wildly more successful today had they not been enslaved in the past. Isn’t that the logic of charges against everything “systemic”?
I mean, maybe those people would have somehow been more “successful” as a group? But Slavs and Irish people, especially their descendants in the USA, are in no way disproportionately affected by anything. Black folks, particularly those who descended directly from enslaved people, are most certainly disproportionately affected by the legacy of slavery and racism that is still alive and well in America.
I agreed with Eric Holder once, that time he said we are cowards when it comes to talking about race. The talk is ticklish because we tend to stereotype “Black folks, particularly those who descended directly from enslaved people.” Obviously, that’s bigotry, even if well intentioned. I don’t disagree that black culture in America has faced and still faces particularly horrific barriers to personal success, but despite barriers, untold numbers of former slaves and descendants of slaves achieved success beyond that of the average American. Successful individuals, including “Black folks” from George Washington Carver to Morgan Freeman know the formula for success transcends race. They might use the past as a self-motivator, but not as a weapon or badge that says, “Pity me.” I suspect the people most evidently and “disproportionately affected by the legacy of slavery and racism” are owners of big-box stores getting looted in major urban areas and Black folks getting race-baited by Al Sharpton types.
I mean, there were a handful of freed Black people who owned slaves 200ish years ago. Even some natives who owned slaves. Finding a couple examples of success doesn’t disprove that there is a systemic disadvantage. Just look at the proportions of different metrics from White and Black people in America: generation wealth, median income and wealth, % of homeowners, amount of money going to schools in Black neighborhoods, numbers of grocery stores vs liquor stores in Black neighborhoods vs White ones—countless comparisons. The point is that overall, Black folks are *systemically* disadvantaged in a way that White people have never been. And every time leaders in Black communities around the country and world have tried to step up and build economic and political power and self-determination, look what has happened. The CIA introduced crack into Black neighborhoods. FBI dismantled Black liberation groups. Leaders were assassinated. The problem is that many and often the majority of the businesses and apartments in countless Black communities aren’t even owned by Black people. Nobody is asking for your pity. People are asking for justice.
I want reparations for all citizens of the planet who were grievously impacted by the COVID 19 bioweapon and non-vaccine bioweapons, and the ensuing deaths, injuries, loss of loved ones, altering of DNA, sterilization of young men and women, lockdowns, social isolation, masks mandates, loss of jobs,m ,loss of livelihoods, loss of activities once enjoyed for recreation, loss of community, loss of schooling, loss of socializing, loss of health to missed doctor appointments, medical discrimination, and psychological harm and mental torture from all the lies, manipulations, gaslighting, and implementation of totalitarian measures.
Absolutely! From Fauci, the highest paid government employee, from the tech companies that censored everyone and gained billions in the process, to the corporations that hid research and have funded goons to intimidate critics—take all their money and give it to the people who need healing. And give it to the people in African and elsewhere in the global south who have been used as guinea pigs by big pharma and the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation for decades.
Hear, Hear!! Thank you Bianca Kennedy for crafting this indictment. When Kash Patel is appointed our next Attorney General by newly reelected President Trump, he'll have a ready-made indictment to read to the grand jury as Kash seeks criminal indictments against these evil perpetrators!
Here is a reality: Thanks to government shenanigans, you will no longer be able to afford to live. This is why, along with the $33.7 trillion in federal debt, we have a record $17.29 trillion in household debt, $12.14 trillion in mortgages (nearly double the pre-housing-crash peak in 2007), and a shocking $1.6 trillion in auto loans. Americans are putting the tab of the debt-driven inflation on the credit card because they can’t afford the cost of living, so credit card debt has now surged past $1 trillion. https://www.theblaze.com/columns/opinion/mike-johnson-didnt-avert-the-shutdown-he-accelerated-it
My wife and I lived in Africa for a year 2006-2007 while I worked for an oil company. I've traveled to Nigeria over a dozen times, the last time in 2019.
True justice calls for one to be made whole for an injustice - not make a big bonus on it. Being made whole for people whose ancestors were slaves in this country would mean restoring them to what their lives would be like had their ancestors not been slaves. They have no idea what that would be like. If that was the deal, they'd never in a million years want it. The poverty I saw in Africa was soul-crushing. Imagine being surrounded by a dozen beggars who had been stricken by polio. They get around on a small square of plywood with roller skate wheels, propelling themselves with their hands. Imagine a handful of people from a village on a beach, using muscle-power to drag a fish net along the shore, and after all that effort, being rewarded with a couple of scrawny little fish. They do that b/c if they don't, they don't eat
I've been told that black Americans, when asked what they thought about life in Africa after seeing it, exclaimed, "Thank God for slavery." I personally never heard that. But it's completely plausible.
Reparations are another of many progressive ideas that sound good to the non-thinking. They're actually just a bullshit story for make it sound like fairness and justice to take money from people who earned it and give it to those who didn't. And the proof is the astronomical amounts of money judged by the California reparations commission, which would allow black people to not ever have to work for the next five generations.
To add to your point, in 1974 after fighting George Foreman in the famous Rumble in the Jungle in Zaire, Mohammed Ali was asked what he thought of Africa. His response: “Thank God my grandfather left”.
That makes the point. His grandfather may have left under bad or difficult circumstances but I doubt he was a slave. Ali was saying that he benefited from his grandfather’s departure. Ali didn’t ask for reparations because of what may have happened to his grandfather, good or bad. That would have been absurd on multiple levels.
Did you ever go to the upscale neighborhoods in Lagos or Abuja? Did you see how lavish the wealthy live there? It’s not only poverty, but there is indeed obscene wealth inequality with the vast majority suffering. You have to understand why there is so much poverty. The truth is that African nations would never have existed in the form that they do if they weren’t forged by Europe, who designed them intentionally to be unstable. The Europeans found a small group of elites who were willing to work with them to sell the rest of the country and throw them under the bus. Europe has looted Africa for centuries. That’s why they’re poor. If Europe (and the US and China) stopped destabilizing Africa and functionally stealing their resources, life on the continent would be as nice as nice as life in any “rich” or “developed” country
Never went to Abuja. Visited upscale neighborhoods around Lagos - Ikoyi Island and Victoria Garden City on Lekki peninsula.
I agree with everything you're saying, and add to it. Nigeria is the richest country in Africa b/c of oil wealth. Most of the country's oil revenue is stolen by government officials. The money to be made is part of the reason elections are so fiercely contested. In 2007, two different candidates for governor in two different states were brutally murdered.
The other thing to say is corruption is rampant from top to bottom. Even legitimate businesses can't stay in business w/o payment of dash to some official.
That’s correct. Corrupt officials from the country who are willing to give the West a good deal and screw their people over. Another great example is the killing of Ken Saro-Wiwa and other activities protesting Shell Oil and their treatment of the people and land and the corruption of the government.
Keith Richburg validates your "Thank God for slavery" point in his book, “Out of America: A Black Man Confronts Africa.” Where I lived in West Africa years ago, American blacks and even former American slave families repatriated in the 19th century considered themselves foreigners, not at all related to the indigenous people. Native poverty was appalling, but I’ve never lived among people more amiable and easy going. But then civil war broke out.
What Africa needs is technologies to bring water and agriculture to its desert lands to support its people. Its people will be empowered with some technology such as desalination plants etc. We should help them become independent. Throwing money at the situation does nothing but require more money.
I have been hearing that since I was old enough to find Africa labelled on a map. A lot of places need a lot of things. You can dumps billions at this and see no change because of graft. China is the only country using billion in other countries productively. That is a shameful fact. We have people like the Clintons that rake in $$$$ for Haiti aid and pay friends to build homes that fall down the next year and they keep the rest for their foundation.
Exactly, China has used its billions to buy up USA farmland right next to military installations and deprive our citizens of continuing the small farm. They know what they are doing. And I am not going to be the subject of any Fascist regime ever. The time has come for all of humanity to share equally in all of Mother Earth's resources. These resources were never meant to be held by the so-called Elite. Our true human history is being exposed slowly and we have roots going back to the stars. Its quite amazing. And God/Cosmic Consciousness is much much bigger than I was ever taught.
The CCP's "Belt and Road" conquest is not a charity, it is an investment whose dividends will be paid through control over the host nations vital infrastructures. We'll build you a new airport and freeway system, but we will control their use, may tax them as we see fit, and can shut them down when we wish.
That’s exactly right. They even write about it. The CCP knows the homeland does not have enough natural resource to not only feed its people but to manufacture and build using rare earth minerals and even those that are not rare. It’s giving itself access to what it needs and roads and infrastructure are handy for the task.
I read a very lengthy document a few months ago where a PLA official wrote the destiny of the Chinese, to which all races are inferior, requires its people to disperse throughout the world while maintaining allegiance to the homeland. It will eventually rules the world.
You have the answer, now lets put it into action!!!!!
No More World Governments, No more Leader to leader discussions. We can now have person to person conversations and build new systems decentralized at the Community level. Our best and brightest Ivy League leaders have shown us what they can do over the past 200 plus years. They excelled at two things: Global War and Lying to the People. It is now up to us to correct this mess.
Weren't both South Africa and Rhodesia (yes before it was comically called Zimbabwe) prosperous before the Whites who ran industry and agriculture in those places were replaced.
It makes more sense to work with what you have, where you have it. Don't try moving natural resources like water somewhere that nature made unsuitable in order to modify what took millennia to accomplish naturally.
The North was losing the Civil War when Lincoln wisely declared that it was a war to free slaves from bondage. Britain and France would have more than likely entered the war if he hadn't.
Three hundred thousand (300,000) white American northern soldiers, an average age of 28 years old, died to free the Southern slaves. No other time in history has one race sacrificed so many to free another.
And now, in America and elsewhere, it is being demanded that the ancestors of those who lost their lives pay reparations.
Stephen, thank you for the historical reminder. We often lose sight of historical contexts in which major decisions were made and then make assumptions that fit our current perspectives.
Lincoln did not set out to free the slaves. That was not his objective.
Lincoln's objective was to keep the states united under one federal government but the practice of slavery in half the country demanded a tolerance for slavery in the other half, tolerance that was wearing thin as many other nations outlawed slavery altogether. He attempted to walk a tight rope that was breaking in the middle.
Lincoln / the politicians and generals from the northern states, thought that the rebellion would soon die out for lack of resources and then the southern states would want to rejoin the union. That would only happen if slavery were still tolerated by the northern states, hence the reason that Lincoln was hedging on the question of slavery during his campaign and early administration. By late 1862, however, it was apparent that there was no way to resolve differences peacefully. The southern states didn't trust the northern states to remain sympathetic to their cause.
The south, as you rightly mention, would soon receive support from European nations who were becoming aware of the growing power of the still new nation across the ocean that was seen as a developing threat to their hegemony on world trade. The issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863 was a desperate attempt to isolate the south from their potential allies, an attempt that apparently worked very well.
I agree; Lincoln changed the cause for the war to a higher moral order not because he liked blacks but because he was desperate.
The reason for my comment was to focus not on Lincoln but on the 300,000 whites who gave up their lives for the emancipation of enslaved people. They made the supreme sacrifice and now are burdening their ancestors to pay reparation to a race that they sacrificed their lives to free.
Please do not confer that I am making racist remarks, for I am trying to ground my logic in defense and be the voice of the American soldier who died.
For would not logic dictate that gratitude and thanks by the 40 million blacks of America today pay reparation to the families of those who lost their sons?
This year, half the nation celebrated Veterans Day on Friday the 10th, and the other half celebrated on the 11th.
What happened to celebrate Veterans Day on Monday as we do Lincoln, Washington, King, and Juneteenth day?
I am from the Vietnam era and will never forget how this nation treated Vietnam veterans returning home from their Agent Orange tour of duty in another global elite forever war.
My great great great uncle died in a confederate prison in Louisiana from some hideous disease. We have his letters somewhere. Those young men fought under miserable conditions with the majority of those who died succumbing to disease. Knowing that their odds of surviving their service were not good they volunteered anyway. Why? Because the cause they fought for was far greater than themselves. Heroes, all of them.
“ I am from the Vietnam era and will never forget how this nation treated Vietnam veterans returning home from their Agent Orange tour of duty in another global elite forever war.
It was despicable.”
We are about the same age.
Indeed that war was part of our new age of “global elite wars forever”, a perfect catch phrase that expresses our mass insanity.
I saw yesterday a blurb stating the annual US interest on debt has hit a $ trillion. Soon we will be asked to find the loose change under our sofa cushions and if not the gun-toting IRS agent will come find it. Of course with CBDC they can just take it from us.
The Supreme allowed the gov on more than one occasion to confiscate one's gold and silver and it okay fines and jail time for hold-outs. Whose to say it won't run right along with the UN proposal - who is going to stop it?
How about reparations for the surviving soldiers and family members who, over the centuries, have given life and limb so the whining, entitled, and oppressed freeloaders of every race can play the victim card? In every country since the beginning of time up to this very day, the stronger have preyed on and subjugated their weaker neighbors and countries. Ain't nothing new and it didn't start in America. Over 350,000 Union soldiers died to abolish slavery in this country. Only to have the government, mostly democrats, bail on black Americans during reconstruction.
Although proud and hardworking, the Irish should climb on the "poor me-give me" band wagon too. They were the first "slaves" brought to America.
As always, reparations are NOT about fairness, they are about division and dependence on our corrupt government. Which is just more slavery!
And there were the 'free' Irish that lived within an industry compound, were give a weekly wage, with which the entirety of it was given back to the compound for food and clothing and rent for their shacks.
Well said Dr Malone. Dispatching large sums of money to people who were never slaves and paid for by others who were never slaveowners makes no sense and is a true injustice. This will only result in corruption and more unfairness. We can never become better by blaming others ot creating the victimhood society. We have tried that and all we have created is a class of people who fail to take personal accountability.
Now they're discriminating against slavery of other ethnic groups. Africa may have been the origins of widespread slavery, but I'd like to hear of ONE place that it (slavery) never happened.
The UN is simply a bastion of 'middle-men' who are concocting victimhood for people in 'developing' nations so they can broker 'equity' deals from everywhere else.
You are obviously a racist to oppose reparations for all people of color whether their ancestors were brought here as slaves or not. The fact that you are using logic and reason to defend your view is proof that you are a white supremacist!
I am curious, since Arab nations were heavily, and still are, invested in the slave trade what will they pay? While I am no fan of colonization, almost every nation has been a party to it over the centuries. From what I have heard from actual ‘Africans’ who legally immigrated from their countries of origin, corruption is absolutely rife in most central and southern African nations. I have seen it in action in one country that I have visited on the continent. Should I blame today’s Catholics for terrorizing my English ancestors who fled here for religious freedom? No. How MANY times must each generation apologize for the sins of the long since past generations? And if my ancestors were scratching out a living in what came to be called New England how are they responsible? What do my children and grandchildren have to do with this? I find slavery absolutely disgusting, but it’s been a rather long road for the people of this nation trying to make things better and more level for our fellow citizens, only to have our eyes spat in as not good enough… you must continue to grovel. Retribution is just ugly.
Kenya a good example. England left them in pretty darned good shape which they managed to corrupt in record time. Knew a Hindu lady whose family had migrated there under English rule and had stories to tell.
While Kenya’s economy and infrastructure drastically improved under British rule, no one likes someone else to rule over them. The wealthy, usually UN employees, live in Karen...just outside of Nairobi. Kenya is terribly poor… which is the fault of their leaders, but they are free (and have their own serious tribal problems). I have been to a ‘temporary’ IDP camp… bone crushingly poor, and yet they still have joy, especially those who know Jesus. People are people. A lot of Pakistani nationals now live there and own the businesses, and they look down on the Kenyans, and are deeply resented for it. China is pouring a lot of money into the nation through their Belt and Road initiative, when a country can’t pay it back, they, apparently, take certain infrastructure and mineral resources as ‘payment’, which I think is our playbook, too.
The Puritan/Protestant movement was not terrorized by Catholics or the Roman Catholic Church. Saints Thomas More and John Fisher would beg to differ. They and many other Catholics lost their lives due to Henry VIII and his utter destruction of the monasteries. That was terrorism.
There is a very long history of both political, religious and physical abuse by the Roman Catholic church against dissenters. You’re correct that Henry VIII behaved horribly, but England never did appreciate the heavy political hand of the Pope.
There is a longer history of political, religious, and physical abuse by the intolerant government of the English “Reformation.” Long-established Catholics there were forced to deny the Church and attend CofE services, upon pain of death and family destruction. Catholics were not even full citizens until well past 1829.
Do you really want to do a body count? The RCC was, and is, corrupt. The CofE is corrupt. It would seem that though I don't want to make my ancestors' persecutors pay me restorations, you would still like to argue it didn't happen. Move along, please.
James I and Charles I were the monarchs during Puritans era. QE1 was closet Catholic, which is probably why she only imprisoned her sister Mary and considered naming her the heir. Her father Henry VIII earned the title Defender of the Faith from Catholic Church...before his revolt. And Wycliffe was declared complete heretic more than a hundred years before Henry VIII. “Sola scriptura” does not make him right.
Why are you arguing that the Catholic Church didn't terrorize proto-protestants or Queen Elizabeth I didn't persecute dissenters (which were often Puritans)? They did.
"Reparation justice" is a type of social justice, but as the black economist Thomas Sowell, points out iin his recently published book, the "rich" have the ability to move their capital elsewhere when when threatened by confiscation of it. thus, the effect is not to make poor people richer but rather is to make them poorer.
Check out the United Nations UNDRIP program. This is what Canada is following with regard to native Canadians. The most recent payment was over a billion dollars and it never, ever ends. Canada is also giving away our Crown land to them- massive amounts- and Crown land is supposed to belong to ALL of us. UNDRIP is going to bankrupt Canada and I believe New Zealand is going down the same road. There is a desperate need for the UN to be dismantled immediately.
I believe it was Australia that was asked on a ballot measure to allow the 'natives' to have special representation in their Parliament. I watched a Breitbart I think it was, with a reporter asking voters what they thought in advance. Seems many felt that this was a ruse of some sort as the 'natives' had a vote just like everyone else as to who serves in the Parliament.
I wonder if it was just a form of ammunition to insight the 'natives'. We do that a lot here.
Reparations - Reviving Racism in order to favor a different group of people by taking money from people who did not exhibit racism to others who were not victims of it.
The ONLY component of Reparations that has any truth to it is that slaves were at a disadvantage financially and therefore weren't able to hand down money to their descendants. The solution isn't to use race to fix this, but to make sure that anyone in poverty gets help and those who are amassing billions have their income limited. It isn't about race, it is about money disparity.
I have only one comment; let us cease belonging to the "United Nations", and let them relocate to another country!
The UN building would make a great hotel for the illegal invaders crossing our southern border!
HELL NO!!!!
DEPORT ALL of the INVADERS!!!!!
One step at a time. But - DEFINITELY the end result needed.
There is precious little unity in the United Nations. I hear they put on a fabulous spread for the delegates though.
Absolutely! KICK OUT THE UN!!!!!
Mr Akufo-Addo says the present effects of past slavery "cannot be quantified". This means that no amount of money can quantitatively be agreed upon, as exactly neutralizing the damage. Accordingly he just confessed that reparations payments serve no useful purpose.
My logical response to this absurdity is as follows:
I've never owned a slave.
And, you never picked cotton.
I am of Irish decent. If we extent this reparations illogical, I want a ton of money from the ancestors of the Irish and English landlords who murdered 1 million of my ancestors during the Irish Potato Famine of the mid-1800s.
This illogical can be extended to many groups of Human Beings who have suffered at the hands of others.
So, think about this scam, for a scam is all it is.
And GUESS WHAT? There have been FAR MORE white people forced into slavery over the millennia than there ever were African slaves!!!!
Great point. I carry a smidgeon of Neanderthal genes. I want reparations for the genocide of my peeps. What a crock.
Hey ... I have more Neanderthal than most (according to my DNA analysis -- maybe we're relatives ... and you're right ... maybe WE need some "reparations" ... TOTALLY UNBELIEVABLE!
More than a scam, it's a shakedown. Enabled by contrived White Leftoid Guilt.
More like the Left Leftoid Morons.
Not so much morons as mindless sheep, incapable of analytical thought. They have the college degrees hanging on the wall as certifications.
Yes, too many equate education with intelligence.
The first four slaves sold in North America were wait for it … Irish! Reading about the twin practices of indentured servitude and slavery there was often little difference as the indentures were often extended for trivial reasons by the plantation owners, some of whom were black.
For the record, although complicated by the ease of crossing the Irish sea I have a complicated combination of Scots and Irish ancestors myself.
Hey Scott, don't forget that Viking blood that runs through your body.
Dublin was a hub for national and international slave trade. Slavery was part of the spoils of war. We can't fix the past; we can only move forward and work on the underground diabolical slave trade today whatever form it takes.
Indentured servitude was a form of slavery.
It’s possible to make this argument in the earliest days of American colonization. Most Black people were enslaved and most white people were indentured servants, though a few Black folks were also indentured servants (tho I don’t think any White people were officially “slaves” as a legal category).
This was in the days when Americans actually believed in freedom, justice, and liberty would unite across racial lines to overthrow the corrupt elites who were screwing them all over, including using destruction of property (Boston Tea Party) and taking up arms (guerilla warfare used in the Revolutionary War that won American independence from Britain).
Slavery though wasn't unique to this country. It occurred throughout history prior to the establishment of the U.S.
John Martin writes "The Irish slave trade began when James II sold 30,000 Irish prisoners as slaves to the New World. His Proclamation of 1625 required Irish political prisoners be sent overseas and sold to English settlers in the West Indies. By the mid 1600s, the Irish were the main slaves sold to Antigua and Montserrat. At that time, 70% of the total population of Montserrat were Irish slaves. Ireland quickly became the biggest source of human livestock for English merchants. The majority of the early slaves to the New World were actually white." Although the internet claims for the most part this is a myth. I doubt it though, knowing how the Irish were viewed and treated by the English.
See but these historical instances of slavery do not have any bearing on our present cultural and political/economic context. You can still see the fallout of the slave trade and European colonization across the African continent and in the USA. The devastating setback of slavery and then Black Codes and convict leasing and share cropping, then Jim Crow and redlining and then Mass Incarceration and the war on drugs—these are all manifestations of the same legacy of slavery that plagues US society til this day. Slavs and Irish folks who ancestors were enslaved don’t experience any systemic disadvantage from that history.
I just don't agree with your analysis. You list a lot of the historical effects of slavery and discrimination. And I won't argue the effects don't carry over to modern times.
They pale in comparison to the effects wrought by those pretending to "help" black people. Lyndon B Johnson told some of his fellow segregationist Democrats, y'all go with me on pacifying these negroes, we'll have 'em voting Democrat for the next 200 years. Except Johnson, never one to shy away from crude language, didn't say "negroes"- he used the other word beginning with 'n'. The Democrats successfully replaced fathers in black families with welfare.
The schools in any large Democrat city aren't educating black children. Baltimore was recently found to have a high percentage of schools where not a single child was reading or doing arithmetic at grade level. I can easily give a half-dozen other similar examples in under 10 minutes.
The war on drugs was something black elected officials were lobbying for, as they saw the devastation drugs were causing in their communities. Did you know that, Jordan? Or maybe you knew it but thought you could get away with blaming it on whitey.
So. Tell us, Jordan. What do you think has a greater impact? Housing discrimination in the 1960's? Or the lack of fathers in black homes and lack of education in schools where black children are being taught today?
Well I think what you’re describing is a part of the same legacy of slavery and anti-Blackness that I’ve just discussed. The democrats try to control the Black vote by handing out a few crumbs to keep people from utter destitution but don’t solve underlying problems because they need those problems to win elections and keep their comfortable careers within the democratic machine. The democrats have pretended to care but actually haven’t, and the republicans haven’t even tried to pretend. Black Americans are still waiting on their 40 acres and a mule, still waiting for all the benefits that white settlers of the west, pioneers and ranchers received, paid for by the US gov’t. Black people *never* received the same level of support and benefits that white communities received—and white folks on these lands had a few hundred year head start on generational wealth accumulation over Black communities. Even despite their lack of support from the government, successful Black communities arose and were burnt to the ground by white mobs (as in the case of “Black Wall St.”), with thousands of Black folks lynched since emancipation. The Klan and other white supremacists terror groups, white mobs and white citizens councils lynching and bombing churches, politicians manipulating people (as you’ve described), and the FBI assassinating leaders and dismantling all attempts at Black self-determination—all these things have had a profoundly damaging impact on Black America. Is the solution to randomly hand out checks? Not quite. But it’s clear that there is still a moral debt. Black people literally built this country—including the White House.
Jordan, you make quite a few well founded points here. Thanks.
"The democrats have pretended to care but actually haven’t, and the republicans haven’t even tried to pretend."
Exactly!
I've pointed this out in another part of this discussion string. People here seem to eager to find fault with democrats while ignoring the inaction (or worse) perpetrated by republicans, particularly since the Dixiecrats were driven from the democratic party in the 1960s. I'm not going to cheer lead for the democrats but at least there is some semblance of reason that shows up in their platforms from time to time. The Republicans..., it seems that cult hero worship over rides any and all other political considerations in that party now.
So sad.
I would much rather have a situation where it takes time to study the policies and follow through of each candidate to cast my vote rather than vote for the lesser of two evils. A true two party system would be a welcome respite from the ridiculous nonsense we have now.
Can we ever know if that is or isn't true? Perhaps the Slavs and Irish would be wildly more successful today had they not been enslaved in the past. Isn’t that the logic of charges against everything “systemic”?
I mean, maybe those people would have somehow been more “successful” as a group? But Slavs and Irish people, especially their descendants in the USA, are in no way disproportionately affected by anything. Black folks, particularly those who descended directly from enslaved people, are most certainly disproportionately affected by the legacy of slavery and racism that is still alive and well in America.
I agreed with Eric Holder once, that time he said we are cowards when it comes to talking about race. The talk is ticklish because we tend to stereotype “Black folks, particularly those who descended directly from enslaved people.” Obviously, that’s bigotry, even if well intentioned. I don’t disagree that black culture in America has faced and still faces particularly horrific barriers to personal success, but despite barriers, untold numbers of former slaves and descendants of slaves achieved success beyond that of the average American. Successful individuals, including “Black folks” from George Washington Carver to Morgan Freeman know the formula for success transcends race. They might use the past as a self-motivator, but not as a weapon or badge that says, “Pity me.” I suspect the people most evidently and “disproportionately affected by the legacy of slavery and racism” are owners of big-box stores getting looted in major urban areas and Black folks getting race-baited by Al Sharpton types.
I mean, there were a handful of freed Black people who owned slaves 200ish years ago. Even some natives who owned slaves. Finding a couple examples of success doesn’t disprove that there is a systemic disadvantage. Just look at the proportions of different metrics from White and Black people in America: generation wealth, median income and wealth, % of homeowners, amount of money going to schools in Black neighborhoods, numbers of grocery stores vs liquor stores in Black neighborhoods vs White ones—countless comparisons. The point is that overall, Black folks are *systemically* disadvantaged in a way that White people have never been. And every time leaders in Black communities around the country and world have tried to step up and build economic and political power and self-determination, look what has happened. The CIA introduced crack into Black neighborhoods. FBI dismantled Black liberation groups. Leaders were assassinated. The problem is that many and often the majority of the businesses and apartments in countless Black communities aren’t even owned by Black people. Nobody is asking for your pity. People are asking for justice.
I want reparations for all citizens of the planet who were grievously impacted by the COVID 19 bioweapon and non-vaccine bioweapons, and the ensuing deaths, injuries, loss of loved ones, altering of DNA, sterilization of young men and women, lockdowns, social isolation, masks mandates, loss of jobs,m ,loss of livelihoods, loss of activities once enjoyed for recreation, loss of community, loss of schooling, loss of socializing, loss of health to missed doctor appointments, medical discrimination, and psychological harm and mental torture from all the lies, manipulations, gaslighting, and implementation of totalitarian measures.
Absolutely! From Fauci, the highest paid government employee, from the tech companies that censored everyone and gained billions in the process, to the corporations that hid research and have funded goons to intimidate critics—take all their money and give it to the people who need healing. And give it to the people in African and elsewhere in the global south who have been used as guinea pigs by big pharma and the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation for decades.
Well said!!!
RIGHT ON!
Hear, Hear!! Thank you Bianca Kennedy for crafting this indictment. When Kash Patel is appointed our next Attorney General by newly reelected President Trump, he'll have a ready-made indictment to read to the grand jury as Kash seeks criminal indictments against these evil perpetrators!
Here is a reality: Thanks to government shenanigans, you will no longer be able to afford to live. This is why, along with the $33.7 trillion in federal debt, we have a record $17.29 trillion in household debt, $12.14 trillion in mortgages (nearly double the pre-housing-crash peak in 2007), and a shocking $1.6 trillion in auto loans. Americans are putting the tab of the debt-driven inflation on the credit card because they can’t afford the cost of living, so credit card debt has now surged past $1 trillion. https://www.theblaze.com/columns/opinion/mike-johnson-didnt-avert-the-shutdown-he-accelerated-it
I agree
My wife and I lived in Africa for a year 2006-2007 while I worked for an oil company. I've traveled to Nigeria over a dozen times, the last time in 2019.
True justice calls for one to be made whole for an injustice - not make a big bonus on it. Being made whole for people whose ancestors were slaves in this country would mean restoring them to what their lives would be like had their ancestors not been slaves. They have no idea what that would be like. If that was the deal, they'd never in a million years want it. The poverty I saw in Africa was soul-crushing. Imagine being surrounded by a dozen beggars who had been stricken by polio. They get around on a small square of plywood with roller skate wheels, propelling themselves with their hands. Imagine a handful of people from a village on a beach, using muscle-power to drag a fish net along the shore, and after all that effort, being rewarded with a couple of scrawny little fish. They do that b/c if they don't, they don't eat
I've been told that black Americans, when asked what they thought about life in Africa after seeing it, exclaimed, "Thank God for slavery." I personally never heard that. But it's completely plausible.
Reparations are another of many progressive ideas that sound good to the non-thinking. They're actually just a bullshit story for make it sound like fairness and justice to take money from people who earned it and give it to those who didn't. And the proof is the astronomical amounts of money judged by the California reparations commission, which would allow black people to not ever have to work for the next five generations.
To add to your point, in 1974 after fighting George Foreman in the famous Rumble in the Jungle in Zaire, Mohammed Ali was asked what he thought of Africa. His response: “Thank God my grandfather left”.
Heh. Sidestepped any mention of how/why his grandfather left.
But that's OK. :-)
That makes the point. His grandfather may have left under bad or difficult circumstances but I doubt he was a slave. Ali was saying that he benefited from his grandfather’s departure. Ali didn’t ask for reparations because of what may have happened to his grandfather, good or bad. That would have been absurd on multiple levels.
Did you ever go to the upscale neighborhoods in Lagos or Abuja? Did you see how lavish the wealthy live there? It’s not only poverty, but there is indeed obscene wealth inequality with the vast majority suffering. You have to understand why there is so much poverty. The truth is that African nations would never have existed in the form that they do if they weren’t forged by Europe, who designed them intentionally to be unstable. The Europeans found a small group of elites who were willing to work with them to sell the rest of the country and throw them under the bus. Europe has looted Africa for centuries. That’s why they’re poor. If Europe (and the US and China) stopped destabilizing Africa and functionally stealing their resources, life on the continent would be as nice as nice as life in any “rich” or “developed” country
Never went to Abuja. Visited upscale neighborhoods around Lagos - Ikoyi Island and Victoria Garden City on Lekki peninsula.
I agree with everything you're saying, and add to it. Nigeria is the richest country in Africa b/c of oil wealth. Most of the country's oil revenue is stolen by government officials. The money to be made is part of the reason elections are so fiercely contested. In 2007, two different candidates for governor in two different states were brutally murdered.
The other thing to say is corruption is rampant from top to bottom. Even legitimate businesses can't stay in business w/o payment of dash to some official.
That’s correct. Corrupt officials from the country who are willing to give the West a good deal and screw their people over. Another great example is the killing of Ken Saro-Wiwa and other activities protesting Shell Oil and their treatment of the people and land and the corruption of the government.
The reasons go much deeper. Thomas Sowell has written about why Africa has remained so poor and backward. A lot of it is geography.
No
You're making too much sense. The powerful don't want to hear common sense and the TRUTH.
Yes
They would likely be poor if Europe hadn’t looted them, but they wouldn’t know they are poor.
What do you mean by poor?
Keith Richburg validates your "Thank God for slavery" point in his book, “Out of America: A Black Man Confronts Africa.” Where I lived in West Africa years ago, American blacks and even former American slave families repatriated in the 19th century considered themselves foreigners, not at all related to the indigenous people. Native poverty was appalling, but I’ve never lived among people more amiable and easy going. But then civil war broke out.
What Africa needs is technologies to bring water and agriculture to its desert lands to support its people. Its people will be empowered with some technology such as desalination plants etc. We should help them become independent. Throwing money at the situation does nothing but require more money.
I have been hearing that since I was old enough to find Africa labelled on a map. A lot of places need a lot of things. You can dumps billions at this and see no change because of graft. China is the only country using billion in other countries productively. That is a shameful fact. We have people like the Clintons that rake in $$$$ for Haiti aid and pay friends to build homes that fall down the next year and they keep the rest for their foundation.
Exactly, China has used its billions to buy up USA farmland right next to military installations and deprive our citizens of continuing the small farm. They know what they are doing. And I am not going to be the subject of any Fascist regime ever. The time has come for all of humanity to share equally in all of Mother Earth's resources. These resources were never meant to be held by the so-called Elite. Our true human history is being exposed slowly and we have roots going back to the stars. Its quite amazing. And God/Cosmic Consciousness is much much bigger than I was ever taught.
The CCP's "Belt and Road" conquest is not a charity, it is an investment whose dividends will be paid through control over the host nations vital infrastructures. We'll build you a new airport and freeway system, but we will control their use, may tax them as we see fit, and can shut them down when we wish.
"Sure, where to I sign?"
That’s exactly right. They even write about it. The CCP knows the homeland does not have enough natural resource to not only feed its people but to manufacture and build using rare earth minerals and even those that are not rare. It’s giving itself access to what it needs and roads and infrastructure are handy for the task.
I read a very lengthy document a few months ago where a PLA official wrote the destiny of the Chinese, to which all races are inferior, requires its people to disperse throughout the world while maintaining allegiance to the homeland. It will eventually rules the world.
Uganda is the size of Oregon and has both the soil and water sufficient to feed all of Africa.
You have the answer, now lets put it into action!!!!!
No More World Governments, No more Leader to leader discussions. We can now have person to person conversations and build new systems decentralized at the Community level. Our best and brightest Ivy League leaders have shown us what they can do over the past 200 plus years. They excelled at two things: Global War and Lying to the People. It is now up to us to correct this mess.
Oh no, can't do that, people might get food, not die, have more babies, etc.
'
Sounds familiar. Gates n fellows would cringe at that.
Weren't both South Africa and Rhodesia (yes before it was comically called Zimbabwe) prosperous before the Whites who ran industry and agriculture in those places were replaced.
No one went hungry. You were politically correct using replaced rather than killed.
It makes more sense to work with what you have, where you have it. Don't try moving natural resources like water somewhere that nature made unsuitable in order to modify what took millennia to accomplish naturally.
Such a ludicrous idea.
What about slavery going on TODAY......in AFRICA?
You can give them money for that too. And global warming. And whatever...
The North was losing the Civil War when Lincoln wisely declared that it was a war to free slaves from bondage. Britain and France would have more than likely entered the war if he hadn't.
Three hundred thousand (300,000) white American northern soldiers, an average age of 28 years old, died to free the Southern slaves. No other time in history has one race sacrificed so many to free another.
And now, in America and elsewhere, it is being demanded that the ancestors of those who lost their lives pay reparations.
Where is the logic?
It's not logic. It's greed. Greed at any cost.
Stephen, thank you for the historical reminder. We often lose sight of historical contexts in which major decisions were made and then make assumptions that fit our current perspectives.
Lincoln did not set out to free the slaves. That was not his objective.
Lincoln's objective was to keep the states united under one federal government but the practice of slavery in half the country demanded a tolerance for slavery in the other half, tolerance that was wearing thin as many other nations outlawed slavery altogether. He attempted to walk a tight rope that was breaking in the middle.
Lincoln / the politicians and generals from the northern states, thought that the rebellion would soon die out for lack of resources and then the southern states would want to rejoin the union. That would only happen if slavery were still tolerated by the northern states, hence the reason that Lincoln was hedging on the question of slavery during his campaign and early administration. By late 1862, however, it was apparent that there was no way to resolve differences peacefully. The southern states didn't trust the northern states to remain sympathetic to their cause.
The south, as you rightly mention, would soon receive support from European nations who were becoming aware of the growing power of the still new nation across the ocean that was seen as a developing threat to their hegemony on world trade. The issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863 was a desperate attempt to isolate the south from their potential allies, an attempt that apparently worked very well.
I agree; Lincoln changed the cause for the war to a higher moral order not because he liked blacks but because he was desperate.
The reason for my comment was to focus not on Lincoln but on the 300,000 whites who gave up their lives for the emancipation of enslaved people. They made the supreme sacrifice and now are burdening their ancestors to pay reparation to a race that they sacrificed their lives to free.
Please do not confer that I am making racist remarks, for I am trying to ground my logic in defense and be the voice of the American soldier who died.
For would not logic dictate that gratitude and thanks by the 40 million blacks of America today pay reparation to the families of those who lost their sons?
This year, half the nation celebrated Veterans Day on Friday the 10th, and the other half celebrated on the 11th.
What happened to celebrate Veterans Day on Monday as we do Lincoln, Washington, King, and Juneteenth day?
I am from the Vietnam era and will never forget how this nation treated Vietnam veterans returning home from their Agent Orange tour of duty in another global elite forever war.
It was despicable.
I agree. We are very much in the same page here.
My great great great uncle died in a confederate prison in Louisiana from some hideous disease. We have his letters somewhere. Those young men fought under miserable conditions with the majority of those who died succumbing to disease. Knowing that their odds of surviving their service were not good they volunteered anyway. Why? Because the cause they fought for was far greater than themselves. Heroes, all of them.
“ I am from the Vietnam era and will never forget how this nation treated Vietnam veterans returning home from their Agent Orange tour of duty in another global elite forever war.
It was despicable.”
We are about the same age.
Indeed that war was part of our new age of “global elite wars forever”, a perfect catch phrase that expresses our mass insanity.
Just another money game, like global warming, electric vehicles, and sucking money out of the economy!
I saw yesterday a blurb stating the annual US interest on debt has hit a $ trillion. Soon we will be asked to find the loose change under our sofa cushions and if not the gun-toting IRS agent will come find it. Of course with CBDC they can just take it from us.
The Supreme allowed the gov on more than one occasion to confiscate one's gold and silver and it okay fines and jail time for hold-outs. Whose to say it won't run right along with the UN proposal - who is going to stop it?
How about reparations for the surviving soldiers and family members who, over the centuries, have given life and limb so the whining, entitled, and oppressed freeloaders of every race can play the victim card? In every country since the beginning of time up to this very day, the stronger have preyed on and subjugated their weaker neighbors and countries. Ain't nothing new and it didn't start in America. Over 350,000 Union soldiers died to abolish slavery in this country. Only to have the government, mostly democrats, bail on black Americans during reconstruction.
Although proud and hardworking, the Irish should climb on the "poor me-give me" band wagon too. They were the first "slaves" brought to America.
As always, reparations are NOT about fairness, they are about division and dependence on our corrupt government. Which is just more slavery!
Never hear about plight of endentured who I believe suffered higher death rates than did slaves. They led pretty miserable lives
And there were the 'free' Irish that lived within an industry compound, were give a weekly wage, with which the entirety of it was given back to the compound for food and clothing and rent for their shacks.
Seems we are in a pick your victim and run with it con fest
Reparation for ALL! Just ask everyone to keep their money rather than exchange with some one else whose ancestors may have been harmed.
Well said Dr Malone. Dispatching large sums of money to people who were never slaves and paid for by others who were never slaveowners makes no sense and is a true injustice. This will only result in corruption and more unfairness. We can never become better by blaming others ot creating the victimhood society. We have tried that and all we have created is a class of people who fail to take personal accountability.
Now they're discriminating against slavery of other ethnic groups. Africa may have been the origins of widespread slavery, but I'd like to hear of ONE place that it (slavery) never happened.
The UN is simply a bastion of 'middle-men' who are concocting victimhood for people in 'developing' nations so they can broker 'equity' deals from everywhere else.
Yup.
You are obviously a racist to oppose reparations for all people of color whether their ancestors were brought here as slaves or not. The fact that you are using logic and reason to defend your view is proof that you are a white supremacist!
I wonder if it’s inclusive for a white supremacist to use Greek logic or if that’s cultural appropriation.
Which race, nationality, tribe has not been owned or owned others?
Are black slaves more worthy of acknowledgement than any other?
This is another squirrel. Part of the legion of orchestrated squirrels.
Who said black lives don't matter? Useful squirrel tools. Black Lesbian Marxists, Proven frauds!
How many squirrels does it take to start spotting them easily?
How many squirrels does it take before you grow tired and even stop pointing them out?
MFP and it's family. Why are global concerted efforts intensifying like never before? What could it be?
I am curious, since Arab nations were heavily, and still are, invested in the slave trade what will they pay? While I am no fan of colonization, almost every nation has been a party to it over the centuries. From what I have heard from actual ‘Africans’ who legally immigrated from their countries of origin, corruption is absolutely rife in most central and southern African nations. I have seen it in action in one country that I have visited on the continent. Should I blame today’s Catholics for terrorizing my English ancestors who fled here for religious freedom? No. How MANY times must each generation apologize for the sins of the long since past generations? And if my ancestors were scratching out a living in what came to be called New England how are they responsible? What do my children and grandchildren have to do with this? I find slavery absolutely disgusting, but it’s been a rather long road for the people of this nation trying to make things better and more level for our fellow citizens, only to have our eyes spat in as not good enough… you must continue to grovel. Retribution is just ugly.
Kenya a good example. England left them in pretty darned good shape which they managed to corrupt in record time. Knew a Hindu lady whose family had migrated there under English rule and had stories to tell.
While Kenya’s economy and infrastructure drastically improved under British rule, no one likes someone else to rule over them. The wealthy, usually UN employees, live in Karen...just outside of Nairobi. Kenya is terribly poor… which is the fault of their leaders, but they are free (and have their own serious tribal problems). I have been to a ‘temporary’ IDP camp… bone crushingly poor, and yet they still have joy, especially those who know Jesus. People are people. A lot of Pakistani nationals now live there and own the businesses, and they look down on the Kenyans, and are deeply resented for it. China is pouring a lot of money into the nation through their Belt and Road initiative, when a country can’t pay it back, they, apparently, take certain infrastructure and mineral resources as ‘payment’, which I think is our playbook, too.
Nice post. But which Catholics terrorized the English?
Terrorized Proto-Protestants, Puritans.
The Puritan/Protestant movement was not terrorized by Catholics or the Roman Catholic Church. Saints Thomas More and John Fisher would beg to differ. They and many other Catholics lost their lives due to Henry VIII and his utter destruction of the monasteries. That was terrorism.
There is a very long history of both political, religious and physical abuse by the Roman Catholic church against dissenters. You’re correct that Henry VIII behaved horribly, but England never did appreciate the heavy political hand of the Pope.
There is a longer history of political, religious, and physical abuse by the intolerant government of the English “Reformation.” Long-established Catholics there were forced to deny the Church and attend CofE services, upon pain of death and family destruction. Catholics were not even full citizens until well past 1829.
Do you really want to do a body count? The RCC was, and is, corrupt. The CofE is corrupt. It would seem that though I don't want to make my ancestors' persecutors pay me restorations, you would still like to argue it didn't happen. Move along, please.
Wycliffe would beg to differ. The Roman Catholic church as well as Queen Mary did go after the dissenters. QE1 went after the Puritans.
James I and Charles I were the monarchs during Puritans era. QE1 was closet Catholic, which is probably why she only imprisoned her sister Mary and considered naming her the heir. Her father Henry VIII earned the title Defender of the Faith from Catholic Church...before his revolt. And Wycliffe was declared complete heretic more than a hundred years before Henry VIII. “Sola scriptura” does not make him right.
Why are you arguing that the Catholic Church didn't terrorize proto-protestants or Queen Elizabeth I didn't persecute dissenters (which were often Puritans)? They did.
"Reparation justice" is a type of social justice, but as the black economist Thomas Sowell, points out iin his recently published book, the "rich" have the ability to move their capital elsewhere when when threatened by confiscation of it. thus, the effect is not to make poor people richer but rather is to make them poorer.
Check out the United Nations UNDRIP program. This is what Canada is following with regard to native Canadians. The most recent payment was over a billion dollars and it never, ever ends. Canada is also giving away our Crown land to them- massive amounts- and Crown land is supposed to belong to ALL of us. UNDRIP is going to bankrupt Canada and I believe New Zealand is going down the same road. There is a desperate need for the UN to be dismantled immediately.
I believe it was Australia that was asked on a ballot measure to allow the 'natives' to have special representation in their Parliament. I watched a Breitbart I think it was, with a reporter asking voters what they thought in advance. Seems many felt that this was a ruse of some sort as the 'natives' had a vote just like everyone else as to who serves in the Parliament.
I wonder if it was just a form of ammunition to insight the 'natives'. We do that a lot here.
Reparations - Reviving Racism in order to favor a different group of people by taking money from people who did not exhibit racism to others who were not victims of it.
The ONLY component of Reparations that has any truth to it is that slaves were at a disadvantage financially and therefore weren't able to hand down money to their descendants. The solution isn't to use race to fix this, but to make sure that anyone in poverty gets help and those who are amassing billions have their income limited. It isn't about race, it is about money disparity.