If Germany atoned for the Holocaust, the US can pay reparations for slavery

[TexasTowelie]

The idea of paying reparations for slavery is gaining momentum in the United States, despite being long derided as an unrealistic plan, to compensate for state violence committed by and against people long dead.

The topic saw substantive debate in the July 30 Democratic primary debate, with candidate Marianne Williamson calling slavery “a debt that is owed.” Some Democratic congressional representatives are also pushing for financial recompense for the descendants of enslaved people.

Calls for reparations in the U.S. are generally met with skepticism: What would reparations achieve? Who should receive them, and under what conditions?

Other countries have tackled these questions. In 1995, South Africa established its Truth and Reconciliation Commission and paid reparations to the victims of apartheid. Eight years before, the United States apologized to 82,000 Japanese Americans unduly imprisoned during World War II and paid them US$20,000 each to compensate for their suffering.

Read more: https://theconversation.com/if-germany-atoned-for-the-holocaust-the-us-can-pay-reparations-for-slavery-119505

[padah513]

1. Nothing wrong with having this discussion

But let's do it after 2020.

[TexasTowelie]

3. Considering that one of the presidential candidates this cycle advocates

letting felons vote while they are incarcerated, I think this discussion is a bit late (or is that decades?).

[WhiskeyGrinder]

21. "After the election" never comes though.

[democratisphere]

2. I suggest we move on from this topic before we end up giving drumpf 4 more years.

Get smart.

[TexasTowelie]

4. Yet providing voting rights for incarcerated felons was worthy of discussion just a few months ago?

[democratisphere]

5. NO.

[TexasTowelie]

8. I didn't think it was either, but comments for and against raged for a few days when it happened.

Then after the first debate the discussion was about busing. A policy from fifty years ago and that hurt the Democratic Party. Once again, the issue was amply discussed.

I don't see anything wrong with this OP. The topic was brought up in the debates. Not only is it timely, but it is past the time to discuss it. It's progressive and it's moral.

[democratisphere]

9. The humans affected were dead long ago. Compensating

their offspring, many generations removed, is no answer. We can do better for ALL AMERICANS if Congress ever decides to do the work they were elected to do instead of constantly ass kissing, over compensating and preserving the insanely wealthiest.

[LuvNewcastle]

17. Well said!

[Brawndo]

22. +1 This

[Timmygoat]

6. I know I am a bit off the subject

But I have been watching Trump at his rally telling people how bad our cities are, how dreadful they are being maintained etc, to me his next line should be 'that is why I am going do do something to help them", giving specifics, but instead of help, he gives them hate,
that is not a president!
The only help he gives is to Kushners and Ivanka and his own properties.

[Hortensis]

7. Not an emotional issue for me. If it is for enough AAs

to feel at least some attempt at reparation should be made, fine with me.

In some places it might be best used to develop programs and communities, but many people don't live where they could personally benefit. Cash would respect individual choice and needs. A native American friend in high school very happily used her part of some kind of reparations settlement her tribe received to buy a used car, a wonderful indulgence just then but an imperative after graduation.

[PJMcK]

10. An honest question

In a detailed manner, how would reparations work?

Thanks, in advance.

[TexasTowelie]

12. O'Rourke said that he would sign the reparations bill introduced by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee

earlier this year. It is a holistic bill that essentially calls for more study:
https://jacksonlee.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/congresswoman-sheila-jackson-lee-introduces-legislation-for-a-commission

[brooklynite]

20. IOW: "we don't know"

[TexasTowelie]

23. I agree.

The only thing that is being promoted at this point is to have a discussion. Nothing has been pledged or promised to anyone beyond that.

I am a bit surprised by the overall reaction on this site to the idea of reparations.

[brooklynite]

24. That's precisely WHY it's a problem

When you don’t have a concept, you allow everyone opposed to assume the worst.

The value of South Africa’s “Truth & Reconciliation omission” is that it wealth with the actual people involved. The Civil War was 150 years ago. Should White Irish and Italians who’s relatives came to American in the 1880’s feel guilty? Should people who are only 1/2, 1/4, 1/8 lack expect restitution?

[hlthe2b]

11. I'd like to see a long-overdue reconciliation council that would look at comprehensive issues

of which reparations, in whatever form that might come, would be part. I don't mean a study group that will round-file the entire issue for years, but much like the South African Reconciliation Commission that would serve to educate Americans on the full extent of our history with slavery and its aftermath. And, I might add, that needs to include our horrendous history with Native Americans.

It isn't that we can't talk about it, but we have to get the WH before there is a chance of that happening. That may not seem good enough for those with the impatience of youth and I understand that, but I believe older POC truly recognize that and will be forgiving if we don't talk about it 24/7 as the focus of campaigns.

[TexasTowelie]

13. See post #12. nt

[empedocles]

14. Uh, . . . Germany, atoned, after Nuremburg, after thorough exposure of the reich, and

devastating losses of population and cities, that left no one - 'unaffected'.

[cheezmaka]

15. The money from the Billion Dollar Round Table is a good start...

Money in the millions and billions are already set aside to give minorities and women preference for contracts with their companies. It will encourage more entrepreneurship as well as the opportunity to build lasting wealth. That money is virtually being "untapped".... Certification from the National Minority Supplier Development Council as well as the Women Business Enterprise National Council is all that's needed from a minority small business owner to get started....

[Everyman Jackal]

16. Will each person have to prove that he/she is the descendant of slaves?

Will it matter how many slaves they are descendant from? Will they have to have a DNA test to show the percentage of African-American ancestry they have? Will their income matter?

[Calculating]

18. Want Trump to get 4 more years?

Because dems talking about 'slavery reparations' is how Trump can win 4 more years. The whole idea just isn't practical and isn't fair for any of the parties involved. Why should people whose ancestors never owned slaves pay? Why should people who were never personally impacted by slavery get anything? My ancestors came over from Europe in the early 1900's and had nothing to do with slavery, should I be expected to pay higher taxes so reparations can be paid out? Reparations might have been fair shortly after slavery was abolished, but now it's simply impossible to implement the idea correctly.

[pecosbob]

19. Tangential, but personally I don't believe Germany 'atoned' for that war or the Holocaust.

An attempt to make them 'atone' for the first world war was attempted, but history showed us that it didn't work very well. They only 'atoned' for the second world war and for the Holocaust by being bombed to ruins, something which didn't happen during the first. After the second world war the Marshall Plan was introduced pumping billions of today's dollars right back to the same bankers and industrial magnates that had been producing tanks and Zyklon-B just months before. The only lesson Germany was taught was that you have to be the biggest kid on the block or you don't get to make the rules.

Sorry for my digression. Now, the question of reparations...a can of worms, to say the least. But while we're at it, why is no one talking about reparations for Native Americans?