California about to be the first state to administer reparations!s

[brewer]

Why didn't they include the indigenous native americans? Fuckin racists.

Because they received compensation. The Alaska natives received billions of dollars, 44 million acres of land, free health care and college tuition.

Since when are Alaska natives California natives?

[Rev. Rye]

For the record, I hope this is going To involve social programs that help put black people on an economic even keel with white people. 

It won't, and the committee have explicitly stated as much.

So, no real actions being taken to create a lasting remedy to counteract the lasting effects of slavery. Always a good sign that they're not going to do fulfill the job they were specifically convened to accomplish.

[The Grand Nudger]

Narrow eligibility criteria, and whatever paltry amount they might agree to is going to be sucked into the black hole of the status quo. They know (and have stated) that whatever they do is going to be insufficient and shouldn't be taken to be an alternative or substitute to federal action...but..if they have an ounce of sense, they know it will be.

[Huggy Bear]

Because they received compensation. The Alaska natives received billions of dollars, 44 million acres of land, free health care and college tuition.

Since when are Alaska natives California natives?

the point is, native Americans have been compensated at the federal level, while descendants of slaves haven't been compensated at all, California's actions are setting a precedent for the federal government to act upon.

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Are these same white people opposing the money that went to Afghan and current Ukrainian refugees?

I mean... Americans opposing foreign aid based on the idea that the money could be better spent on helping Americans is not new and is still the case with these issues.

But Ukrainians are white, so it's more acceptable to help them than all the brown refugees we've created over the last 20+ years.

The difference is, with reparations, black people are told it isn't feasible or there needs to be a "study" on how it can be accomplished, meanwhile other groups who aren't even citizens, simply just get a check cut, regardless of any "opposition".

[brewer]

I'm sure you'd settle for a reservation and subsistence living.

[arewethereyet]

Oh, look, another thread about race from Huggy. The only topic he can talk about.

[The Grand Nudger]

The difference is, with reparations, black people are told it isn't feasible or there needs to be a "study" on how it can be accomplished, meanwhile other groups who aren't even citizens, simply just get a check cut, regardless of any "opposition".

Fuck those hyper fecund invaders with calves the size of canteloups, amiright?  I think it's interesting that, on the one hand, you realize that this country as an institution has absolutely no interest in reperations...but, otoh, think that we're simultaneously a welcoming and generous bunch to immigrants.  Just over here cuttin checks left right and center.

[The Architect Of Fate]

Yes, how dare we help people from poor countries now countries I might add America has done a great deal; to make poor. We should be focused on giving the like what 9th generation descendants of slaves checks. Which will simply be a bandaid and have few long-term benefits.

[Rev. Rye]

It's worth noting that the chart Huggy included in his most recent post includes, amongst the results of lawsuits from America's fuckups and settlements to small American Indian tribes who probably aren't that much better off economically after the payments than they were before is Germany's Wiedergutmachung, the money they've sent to compensate victims of the Holocaust. In addition to the compensation provided to the victims, which is, to be honest, miniscule on an individual level (one survivor reported that her years of servitude under the Nazis only netted her a couple grand, so small she only ended up picking it up to help a grandchild go through college, and a 1988 law to compensate Holocaust surviors for life only provided $290 per month, and also worth noting, It doesn't really apply to their descendants), they also spent a LOT of money (the majority of that $90 million, in fact) providing for the state of Israel. For just one example, my therapist talked about how she went to Israel, and found a LOT of German cars there. She's Jewish, so seeing this was kind of off-putting. And seeing them in the Jewish Homeland just baffled and disturbed her. Then she found out that they were so common because German manufacturers were practically giving their cars away to Israel as part of their reparations. And this helped fund the nation's infrastructure and make up for the fact that, unlike their neighbours, they didn't have any oil money to bank off of.

This is the sort of reparations I (and most of us who are criticising this plan) would gladly support: an ongoing program (or set thereof) that helps support black people who have been economically effected by slavery (which would be the vast majority of them) and bring them up to the same even economic level they should have been on 150 years ago.

It might be nice to imagine the government giving you and all the other black people a big lump sum, but, let's face it, for that to have a lasting effect, the owners of said checks would have to invest it in something that's going to keep the money growing. And I suspect that in a world where a sizable number of wealthy people think blowing over $300,000 on a monstrosity like this (hidden because, frankly, Bored Apes are fucking hideous, even if I did pick one that looks vaguely like me):

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And note, over $300,000 is fairly cheap, especially since there's one that's apparently worth more than 4000 times the global GDP.

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is somehow a good investment, I can't be certain that a massive aggregate of people who are disproportionately poor are going to be savvy enough to use whatever money their check has to bring themselves out of the hole the white man has created for them. Hell, I probably couldn't pull it off for myself with all that I know. I've taken business and accounting courses and if you asked me what companies could yield a good return on your investment, I couldn't fucking tell you.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

I have a suggestion. Instead of cash payments or the like, reparations could take the form of indentured servitude. Every Black American who can establish that they are the descendant of an enslaved person would be paired with a White American who can be determined to be descended from a slave owner or slave trader or a lawmaker (at any level) who fought against emancipation - in short, anyone who supported or directly benefited from slavery.

For a period of time to be determined (I'm thinking two years), the White person would be required to work for the Black person - clean their house, tend their garden, raise their children - for no pay beyond room and board. The Black person would be able to punish the White person for not performing these duties satisfactorily. The form and frequency of the punishment would be solely at the discretion of Black person. During the period in question, the White person would not be able to vote, attend school, marry without permission, and could be assigned to another Black person on a whim. White families would not necessarily be paired with Black families as a group.

Maybe two years of indentured servitude would shut up some of these waterheads who keep claiming that slavery 'wasn't that bad'.

Boru