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22-03-05, 02:54 PM
INSPIRED wrote:
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Hello , im writng an article on slavery reparations for my uni magazine and i really want to hear what people think.
Do you feel that much of the west is in debt of the victims of the slave trade?
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I'd say yes......we should find the people that were slaves and pay them for their years of work without compensation. In America, how many slaves do you think we would find?
Do you even see there being a case for reparations, considering that all of those immediately involved in the slave trade are dead?, isit too late?
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No, I do not see a case for repiartions
How much do you feel that reparations can do to repair the damage left by the legacy of slavery?
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Little or nothing to repair the damage of slavery.
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Personally i feel that reparations cannot help, and theres no amount of money that can make up for the loss of lives, dignity and spirit of africans enslaved in America, i'd love to hear the views of those who disagree ( or agree) with me.
This above statment makes is clear that you have changed from arguement based on merits to one based on emotions.
A few points
- Only a tiny minority of Americans today have an ancestor who was a slaveowner. Prior to and during the Civil War, the great majority of the U.S. population was located in the northern states, where slavery did not exist.
- In 1860, the total population of the U.S. states where slavery was outlawed was about 19.5 million. The free population of the South was 7.5 million. This means that among Americans today who had ancestors living in the United States during the time of slavery, most of those ancestors lived in northern states, and are thus completely innocent of slavery. In fact, many of those northerners were abolitionists and detested the institution of slavery.
- Even more significant is that the vast majority of Americans' ancestors did not even live in the United States during the time of slavery. They immigrated here long after slavery was abolished.
- Great waves of immigration took place long after the Civil War, particularly around 1900, as well as the most recent decade. In fact, since 1870, more than 78 million people have immigrated into the United States, versus a small fraction of that prior to 1860. Everyone can all agree that the more-than 45 million Americans of Latin American and Asian descent are completely unrelated to the U.S. slavery experience, since almost all of their ancestors immigrated to the U.S. long after slavery ended, most of them in recent decades. And of the very few people of Latin American or Asian origin who were U.S. citizens during the time of slavery, it is safe to say that very few of them, if any, were slave owners.
- What about Americans of European descent? If "guilt" is determined by one's ancestors being slave owners, then Americans of Italian, Polish, Slavic, Scandinavian, Greek, and other descents can be sure they are completely innocent; their ancestors immigrated to the U.S. long after slavery ended. Even the vast majority of Americans of Western European origin are innocent; their ancestors came here after the Civil War as well.
- Another significant point is that millions of black Americans did not even have ancestors who were U.S. slaves. More than a half million Africans emigrated to the United States in recent decades. And many if not most of those immigrants have children, bringing the total number of African Americans whose ancestors were not enslaved to at least a million, probably more. Assuming slave reparations were paid to all blacks, that constitutes many, many people who would be entitled to reparations whose ancestors were not even slaves.
-It may come as a surprise to many that during the pre-Civil War period in America, whites were enslaved, too. And this does not simply refer to voluntary indentured servitude. From the 1600s until the Civil War, whites were frequently kidnapped or captured in Europe, and sold into slavery in the Americas. Should they get reparations as well?
- The notorious "middle passage" endured by Africans - the Atlantic crossing of slaves from Africa to the Americas - was indeed terrible, with death and disease ever present. But conditions on board ships transporting Europeans to the Americas were equally terrible. Both voluntary and involuntary emigrants were confined below the decks in crowded, disease-ridden conditions with insufficient food or water. "There is on board these ships terrible misery, stench, fumes, horror ... so that many die miserable," according to a German passenger on one of the ships.
For the entire two- to three-month voyage, white slaves were typically never permitted to go above deck. They were crammed together in holes, in chains. In fact, deaths on ships coming from Europe equaled or exceeded deaths on ships coming from Africa. According to historian Sharon V. Salinger, during the 1700s the mortality rate for black slaves was 10 to 20 percent, versus 25 percent for white slaves. Should they get repartions as well?
- The African American historian Shelby Steele points out that issue of white slavery has been suppressed in America because there probably was a time when whites, ashamed of this fact, wanted to suppress it. "But now it's probably blacks who want to suppress it," said Steele. "Those who are grounded in the idea of black victimization may feel that this weakens their argument."
-Following is an excerpt from a 1939 article in Philanthropist titled "White Slaves":
"A very large proportion of the slave population in the South are but slightly colored, and many of them are so nearly white as to require the closest scrutiny to detect the fact of their having the first drop of African blood....Color is becoming every day less and less a test by which to determine the fact of human chattelship."
No Reparations for Whites or Blacks
The African American historian Shelby Steele points out that issue of white slavery has been suppressed in America because there probably was a time when whites, ashamed of this fact, wanted to suppress it. "But now it's probably blacks who want to suppress it," said Steele. "Those who are grounded in the idea of black victimization may feel that this weakens their argument."
http://www.nlpc.org/
PaRrIs
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