Reparations.

[sculptor]

division by race
division by political party affiliation
division by religion
division by ethnicity

who gains by these divisions?

 

[Beaconator]

If you done stuff right. You should be pissed people are trying to do ya wrong.

 

[Beaconator]

division by race
division by political party affiliation
division by religion
division by ethnicity

who gains by these divisions?

The people who are dividing people with macheties

 

[sculptor]

The people who are dividing people with macheties

or
$

 

[Beaconator]

or
$

That would be the federal reserve.

But giving an artist money for a sculpture is somehow not different from giving someone a break from making their own house on govt land. Land which was sequestered for them.

 

[Write4U]

if POTUS doesnt have to file tax returns then why should other white men have to file tax returns ?
thats racist !

Not really, but it is an Aristocracy or a Plutocracy

 

[Michael 345]

if POTUS doesnt have to file tax returns then why should other white men have to file tax returns ?
thats racist !

Not really, but it is an Aristocracy or a Plutocracy

I thought POTUS files tax returns but is not required to make them public, which happens to be the same for everybody

 

[Write4U]

I thought POTUS files tax returns but is not required to make them public, which happens to be the same for everybody

POTUS should be filing tax returns like everyone else. But how are we to know he did if no one gets to see them, publicly or not? As I understand it we're talking about 6 years of tax returns, which are under "audit". By whom?

 

[RainbowSingularity]

Not really, but it is an Aristocracy or a Plutocracy

I thought POTUS files tax returns but is not required to make them public, which happens to be the same for everybody

POTUS should be filing tax returns like everyone else. But how are we to know he did if no one gets to see them, publicly or not? As I understand it we're talking about 6 years of tax returns, which are under "audit". By whom?

my apologies, i was making a bit of a (satire political statement)socio-political quip.

 

[Michael 345]

By whom?

What ever the equivalent of our (Australian) taxation office

 

[Write4U]

What ever the equivalent of our (Australian) taxation office

So far Trump has installed his own gang in all the high places. Fom the courts, to the IRS (internal revenue service), to law enforcement.

Money can buy you a lot of freedom from regulation in the US.

 

[wegs]

I have a solution for an equitable settlement of slavery reparations.

Instead of doling out a cash pittance or 40 acres and a mule, offer all descendants of former slaves a stock portfolio in various large and profitable companies. These stocks would be placed in trusts, so that they could not be sold and be protected from hasty sales to stock manipulators.

This will allow the descendants to receive yearly dividends and introduce them and their children to the concept of stock ownership in a business.
i.e. descendants of slaves on a sugar plantation cutting sugar cane, they would own a small part in the sugar company itself. Fair? Instead of being forever being relegated to the side-lines, these families would be "in the game" and acquire small "estates' which can be passed on to heirs, just like the very rich.

While this would be small time as compared to major stockholders, the concept of owning a little piece of the pie would IMO go a long way in restoring dignity and a sense of participation in the greater economy.

Comments?

It sounds altruistic in a sense, but it assumes that descendants of former slaves aren't able to make it on their own, and need a hand out. In the end, isn't that somewhat insulting? Does this ''repair'' the damage that was done? Is there any way to ever really ''make up for'' such atrocities, like slavery, the Holocaust, etc.?

 

[sculptor]

victimization
if you can convince someone that they are a victim
even by giving them something to "compensate" for their victimization
then
you have accomplished convincing the poor wretches that they are victims
which fosters a victim mindset
which makes them pawns in the broader game

a victim mindset is a defeatist mindset
ergo much easier to control

when you convince someone that they are a victim
who gains?

 

[RainbowSingularity]

division by race
division by political party affiliation
division by religion
division by ethnicity

who gains by these divisions?

fascists

 

[spidergoat]

It sounds altruistic in a sense, but it assumes that descendants of former slaves aren't able to make it on their own, and need a hand out. In the end, isn't that somewhat insulting? Does this ''repair'' the damage that was done? Is there any way to ever really ''make up for'' such atrocities, like slavery, the Holocaust, etc.?

It assumes no such thing. Consider it back pay.

And you can never make up for it, but does that mean we shouldn't try?

 

[Write4U]

It assumes no such thing. Consider it back pay.

And you can never make up for it, but does that mean we shouldn't try?

Anyone who proposes that this creates a victim class forgets that there was a true victim class and the repercussions are still felt.

The damage done can never be repaid in monetary terms, but that is not the point of reparation.

IMO, reparation is a public gesture in recognition of past wrongs, and the recompense should be in a form of permanence that continues to repay for the hundreds of years of great evil inflicted on a people with a small but enduring benefit.

Hence my original proposition of a "protected" monetary trust which yields a small yearly benefit to as many direct descendants of slavery that can be found to have a valid moral claim.

It is a symbolic gesture, which teaches that if not guarded against any form of inequality, anyone can become a victim of a "superior" class.

Normally we erect statues to memorize and celebrate heroes.
Would a statue of a slave communicate the proper message?

This is the moral message contained in the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights, in "recognition" that all human life must be treated on equal terms.
A noble principle.

 

[wegs]

It assumes no such thing. Consider it back pay.

And you can never make up for it, but does that mean we shouldn't try?

I don't think that we can go backwards, and correct such atrocities. But, we can move forward, offering a better future. Promising to never allow that to happen again. Vowing as a government, and culture, to make it so. The American culture, it seems to think that everything gets resolved with enough money thrown at it. Like if your loved one gets killed by a drunk driver, and you sue the drunk driver and win $1 million. I suppose that is justice, but that doesn't change the fact that your loved one is dead. What is $1 million to someone who has suffered such a loss?

I suppose this is an effort, but it still doesn't change the pain of history.

 

[RainbowSingularity]

It assumes no such thing. Consider it back pay.

And you can never make up for it, but does that mean we shouldn't try?

you dont see the same folk rallying against suing people for defamation & emotional damages.

total hypocrisy

 

[Write4U]

you dont see the same folk rallying against suing people for defamation & emotional damages.
total hypocrisy

There does seem to be a qualitative difference between defamation and two hundred years of being whipped or hanged for looking at a white woman.....