Reparations.

Write4U said:
Yes, and we'd hate to be inconvenienced, don't we?
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Jeeves said,
The people being inconvenienced are the claimants.
(The same ones who have to jump through hoops and then not allowed to vote.)
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OK, you win, no reparations. Bad idea.
It's not mine.
 
Jeeves said:
But there are plenty of good ideas that would benefit the people you desire to benefit.
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No, not at all. You just showed that it is impossible to benefit those specific people I would like to receive reparations.
Not doable. OK.
 
spidergoat said:
And you have to be African-American to be a presidential candidate. At least until there have been as many black presidents as there have been white ones.
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Right. And then one year the only black candidate crazy enough to run is a fool and a criminal. And for the next 100 years, people associate black people with his level of stupidity and crime.

Somehow I don't think that will help overall.
 
billvon said:
Right. And then one year the only black candidate crazy enough to run is a fool and a criminal. And for the next 100 years, people associate black people with his level of stupidity and crime.
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The one year a black candidate was crazy enough to run, he was 1. not a former slave, so if he'd produced a birth certificate, he'd have been disqualified
2. was one of the more informed and reasonable presidents and 3. didn't help overall
 
Jeeves said:
Refraining from comment or suggestion.
Asking a compound question:
How would it work?
Step by step, from the beginning.
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This was an excellent line of questioning. A shame it didn't (and probably will continue not to) receive more attention.
I can only imagine the huge numbers of potential descendants of slaves still resident in the USA, and perhaps overseas as well - and the sheer scale of effort it would require to identify them all, based only on records kept from centuries of slave ownership.
Who would pay for it all? The investigative effort alone would cost millions.

The British only just finished paying off loans they had to take out in order to compensate former owners in 1830's (in 2015 I think), it was a huge drain on finances for them - and they didn't even have to undertake the massive volume of work it would require to even attempt to verify modern claims for slaves from the 16th century. It would be a near impossible task to verify the names and descendants of two centuries of slavery in the USA.

I also have to chuckle at the thought that some of the claimants would be white.
 
Ben The Donkey said:
I also have to chuckle at the thought that some of the claimants would be white.
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Some of the claimants would also be rich enough to laugh at this pittance.
I also suspect that many people eligible to claim this 'reparation' would be insulted by the very notion. A little tiny sliver of "the pie" goes no appreciable way toward restitution for those wrecked lives - no way at all toward compensation for the people killed en route, or without documented issue.
Further, it doesn't even acknowledge the hardships and humiliation inflicted on the ex-slaves and their descendants during the 150 years post-emancipation.

This is not about the people; it's about a gesture.
 
Jeeves said:
Some of the claimants would also be rich enough to laugh at this pittance.
I also suspect that many people eligible to claim this 'reparation' would be insulted by the very notion. A little tiny sliver of "the pie" goes no appreciable way toward restitution for those wrecked lives - no way at all toward compensation for the people killed en route, or without documented issue.
Further, it doesn't even acknowledge the hardships and humiliation inflicted on the ex-slaves and their descendants during the 150 years post-emancipation.

This is not about the people; it's about a gesture.
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I agree 27.00 is an insult on injury.
That's why I suggested 200 years @ 3.5 compound interest. Do the math, that adds up to a healthy portfolio.
 
Write4U said:
I agree 27.00 is an insult on injury.
That's why I suggested 200 years @ 3.5 compound interest. Do the math, that adds up to a healthy portfolio.
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I did get that. I believe you mentioned $16,000, which wouldn't even retain the law-clerk in a suit for damages, but never mind. Even if it's a couple of million, we still have the same problems.
My practical objection is to the documentation required of the claimants - trying to find those records would be a bureaucratic nightmare.
My ethical objection is to the stock market.
This second part, I'm only imagining:
The proud people who would be offended - what would royally piss them off is the very fact of being offered money (That's supposed to repair 300+ years of suffering? make everything OK? and you won't even consider cleaning up the police force?)
 
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Write4U said:
The topic is reparation. What do you want from the police force, an apology?
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That would be a better start than stock certificates. Especially if they meant it and stopped yanking innocent men out of their cars and throwing them on the ground, on suspicion of ... pretty much anything.

Look, "reparation" means fixing something you broke.
Start repairing a long-standing wrong by actually fixing something that's broken: racial relations.
 
Jeeves said:
That would be a better start than stock certificates. Especially if they meant it and stopped yanking innocent men out of their cars and throwing them on the ground, on suspicion of ... pretty much anything.

Look, "reparation" means fixing something you broke.
Start repairing a long-standing wrong by actually fixing something that's broken: racial relations.
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Who broke them, slaves?
 
Jeeves said:
The one year a black candidate was crazy enough to run, he was 1. not a former slave, so if he'd produced a birth certificate, he'd have been disqualified
2. was one of the more informed and reasonable presidents and 3. didn't help overall
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I was speaking to what would happen under SG's proposal. Prejudging people based on race is not, IMO, a great idea.
 
OK well, these reparations should have been taken up after the war. I'm a millennial and I don't feel I deserve being judged/penalized on something I didn't do 200 years ago.


Also, I'm Canadian and there are no confederate statues...
 
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