Waiting in the Wings, Slavery "Reparations" Part Two
Look, I'm as reasonable and equitable as the next guy.
I think everyone in the United States of America deserves an equal chance, at success in life, access to opportunities, and fair treatment by everyone else.
I even think the Chicago Cubs should win a pennant and a World Series, that is, if they ever again deserve to win a pennant and a Series. If not, Cubbie fans should switch to the Yankees.
That same thinking applies to Black, Yellow, Green, and Purple Americans: When they merit success, a win, based on their abilities, talents and exertions, then I wish them the absolute best.
However, no matter your race, I have an odd thought quirk. I think that if you expect a free ride, if you're a Black expecting to suckle on a White breast, call it reparations, and thereby prosper in American society, you're suckling the wrong breast and humping the wrong dog.
That mistaken suckling/humping is the chief fallacy of so-called slavery reparations.
Rep. John Conyers has been tooting the slavery reparations horn for 40 years. (See "Waiting... Part one:" [http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=1235].)
Let's assume Conyers gets his heart's desire with the minefield of reparations and White Americans are penalized/taxed/punished for a crime they didn't commit, unless, of course, they are at least 146 years old and as infants trained under Simon Legree.
Other minefield issues:
Shouldn't only 146 year old, or older, Black Americans be eligible for reparations?
Wouldn't it also be fair that Blacks would be taxed since many freed Blacks were known to be slave owners themselves? See [http://bit.ly/2NOpLC] and [http://bit.ly/1wh8f8].)
Since it was mostly African chieftains who sold their brothers and sisters into slavery, should not a measure of responsibility be assigned to the descendants of those tribal leaders in various nations throughout Africa?
Those little known and ignored truths would make things a tad confusing for the reparationists, that is, Blacks taxed to pay reparations to Blacks and asking people yet living in huts with no running water, such as our president's half brother, to pay up so that African Americans could have a second wide-screen tv.
Maybe Conyers could figure a scheme whereby only a certain percentage would be penalized?
Another dilemma would be what to do for the descendants of the thousands of Irish, Scots, and Germans imported to our shores as indentured servants, a euphemism for slaves. Do they get a share of the reparation pie?
Then there's the whole matter of Blacks residing in the U.S. today who hailed, legally or illegally, from Trinidad-Tobago or from Haiti or from Nigeria or from any other Black country and therefore could not have suffered from the evil of slavery here.
In all equity, should those Trinidadian-Tobagians or Whateverians share in the reparations largesse?
Yet another problem would be taxing poor American Whites, of which there are tens of millions, to dig into empty pockets to kick in with their share?
As with poor American Blacks, they now pay little or nothing to Uncle Sam or, in New York, to Uncle David or Uncle Michael, so coughing up any reparation bucks would be an awful burden, unless Sammy and Davey and Mikey gave them the money.
I wonder, too, whether Black American millionaires and billionaires, successful entrepreneurs, athletes, and entertainers, would agree to pay monies to other Blacks who have subsisted on welfare for generations after they strove and worked tirelessly to get where they are today.
I'm aware that the reparationists would dismiss all those concerns as absurdities, which they are, almost as absurd as the idea of paying reparations to anyone privileged to live in this the greatest nation on the planet where everyone has the opportunity to succeed whether they have any skills or not.
Cases in the last point: Kanye West, every rapper in the land, and every politician.
Not mentioned in the above is how the 80% of America's Whites would react to paying tribute for their sin-less, non-crime committed against the nation's 13% of Blacks.
Believe it or not, Mr. Conyers, there could actually be a significant degree of resentment, considering that the president is Black, hundreds of Blacks hold political offices as governors, mayors, town and city council members, and congressmen.
Some Whites may think, Enough is enough!
Google "slavery reparations," and over 100,ooo links pop up, some reflecting Black-oriented points of view, some the opposite.
In essence, the former take the position that African Americans are entitled to reparations not merely because their long gone forebears may have been enslaved but that they have suffered from discrimination for eons.
The latter take the position that they had nothing, nada, zilch to do with slavery in America and that they themselves may have been victimized by discrimination-as in those "Irish Need Not Apply" signs which dotted the employment landscape for decades.
As the Brits might say, the whole issue of slavery reparations is a sticky wicket.
Not being a Brit, I would say it's all a crock but I have a solution anyway, specifics of which will be outlined in the final installment.
I think everyone in the United States of America deserves an equal chance, at success in life, access to opportunities, and fair treatment by everyone else.
I even think the Chicago Cubs should win a pennant and a World Series, that is, if they ever again deserve to win a pennant and a Series. If not, Cubbie fans should switch to the Yankees.
That same thinking applies to Black, Yellow, Green, and Purple Americans: When they merit success, a win, based on their abilities, talents and exertions, then I wish them the absolute best.
However, no matter your race, I have an odd thought quirk. I think that if you expect a free ride, if you're a Black expecting to suckle on a White breast, call it reparations, and thereby prosper in American society, you're suckling the wrong breast and humping the wrong dog.
That mistaken suckling/humping is the chief fallacy of so-called slavery reparations.
Rep. John Conyers has been tooting the slavery reparations horn for 40 years. (See "Waiting... Part one:" [http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=1235].)
Let's assume Conyers gets his heart's desire with the minefield of reparations and White Americans are penalized/taxed/punished for a crime they didn't commit, unless, of course, they are at least 146 years old and as infants trained under Simon Legree.
Other minefield issues:
Shouldn't only 146 year old, or older, Black Americans be eligible for reparations?
Wouldn't it also be fair that Blacks would be taxed since many freed Blacks were known to be slave owners themselves? See [http://bit.ly/2NOpLC] and [http://bit.ly/1wh8f8].)
Since it was mostly African chieftains who sold their brothers and sisters into slavery, should not a measure of responsibility be assigned to the descendants of those tribal leaders in various nations throughout Africa?
Those little known and ignored truths would make things a tad confusing for the reparationists, that is, Blacks taxed to pay reparations to Blacks and asking people yet living in huts with no running water, such as our president's half brother, to pay up so that African Americans could have a second wide-screen tv.
Maybe Conyers could figure a scheme whereby only a certain percentage would be penalized?
Another dilemma would be what to do for the descendants of the thousands of Irish, Scots, and Germans imported to our shores as indentured servants, a euphemism for slaves. Do they get a share of the reparation pie?
Then there's the whole matter of Blacks residing in the U.S. today who hailed, legally or illegally, from Trinidad-Tobago or from Haiti or from Nigeria or from any other Black country and therefore could not have suffered from the evil of slavery here.
In all equity, should those Trinidadian-Tobagians or Whateverians share in the reparations largesse?
Yet another problem would be taxing poor American Whites, of which there are tens of millions, to dig into empty pockets to kick in with their share?
As with poor American Blacks, they now pay little or nothing to Uncle Sam or, in New York, to Uncle David or Uncle Michael, so coughing up any reparation bucks would be an awful burden, unless Sammy and Davey and Mikey gave them the money.
I wonder, too, whether Black American millionaires and billionaires, successful entrepreneurs, athletes, and entertainers, would agree to pay monies to other Blacks who have subsisted on welfare for generations after they strove and worked tirelessly to get where they are today.
I'm aware that the reparationists would dismiss all those concerns as absurdities, which they are, almost as absurd as the idea of paying reparations to anyone privileged to live in this the greatest nation on the planet where everyone has the opportunity to succeed whether they have any skills or not.
Cases in the last point: Kanye West, every rapper in the land, and every politician.
Not mentioned in the above is how the 80% of America's Whites would react to paying tribute for their sin-less, non-crime committed against the nation's 13% of Blacks.
Believe it or not, Mr. Conyers, there could actually be a significant degree of resentment, considering that the president is Black, hundreds of Blacks hold political offices as governors, mayors, town and city council members, and congressmen.
Some Whites may think, Enough is enough!
Google "slavery reparations," and over 100,ooo links pop up, some reflecting Black-oriented points of view, some the opposite.
In essence, the former take the position that African Americans are entitled to reparations not merely because their long gone forebears may have been enslaved but that they have suffered from discrimination for eons.
The latter take the position that they had nothing, nada, zilch to do with slavery in America and that they themselves may have been victimized by discrimination-as in those "Irish Need Not Apply" signs which dotted the employment landscape for decades.
As the Brits might say, the whole issue of slavery reparations is a sticky wicket.
Not being a Brit, I would say it's all a crock but I have a solution anyway, specifics of which will be outlined in the final installment.