As a group, self-proclaimed black liberal minded folks are not as tolerant as they claim. In fact, they are extremely intolerant. They always speak of diversity, but that only refers to your skin color, genetic sex and/or who you bone. It is all cosmetic for they will not tolerate diversity expressed in the form of perspectives and alternative views. First, if you even propose a statement of fact against reparations, to question them doesn’t just mean you are wrong, it means you are a bad person. Especially if you are Black. If so, anticipate the typical references of Uncle Tom, Sambo, and traitor to follow you as opposed to engagement on the substance of your argument. For if you challenge their belief, in this case against reparations, you are part of the problem and this will be reflected in an epistemological push back with respect of how we make claims of truth. It was John Stuart Mills who noted that if you only know your side of an issue, you know nothing.
Many of the people advocating for reparations clearly have not thought it out. From their perspective, read some Ta nehisi Coates, get a few white democratic presidential hopefuls to add it to their platform and calling those in disagreement racist bigots is all that is required to provide clarity. I can never get simple questions answer, maybe therefore it seems easier to call me names. Who will pay for? Will whites who migrated to America after slavery be required to pay? Will Chinese, Korean, Indian and Japanese Americans pay? Will Blacks immigrants from Africa and the Caribbean be eligible, or will they have to pay? Will it be all whites, or just the 25 percent of white southerners who owned slaves? If you cut a check, will it be to organizations or individuals? Will they come from the government or corporations? This was tried less than a decade ago in Farmer-Paellmann v. Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corporation (2007) and prior in Farmer-Paellmann v. FleetBoston et al. (2002). The plaintiffs alleged that the defendant corporations (FleetBoston Financial Corporation, Aetna and CSX Corporation, First Boston, Chase Bank, J.P. Morgan & Bank of America, Lehman Brothers, Lloyd's of London, Loews, New York Life, Norfolk Southern, Reynolds American, Union Pacific, Westpoint Stevens and others), or their predecessors, had ties to the trans-Atlantic slave trade and were unjustly enriched from unpaid slave labor. The case started because while in law school, Farmer-Paellmann learned of Aetna's role in insuring slaves. Out of curiosity, she asked Aetna for copies of old policies documenting the practice, which Aetna sent to her. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of 35 million African-Americans seeking compensatory and punitive damages. It also sought financial payments for the value of "stolen" labor and unjust enrichment and calls for the companies to give up "illicit profits."
I must admit this was a reasonable and logically valid effort for reparations and completely in opposition to the present call. Presently, even more comical is the focus on the rational for reparations to be due to a racial wealth gap via wealth redistribution. Sure, I will take a check, but I will not be giving it back to express a form of vapid consumerism to buy stuff I do not need to impress folks I do not know. But if the precept is that this will even address the racial wealth gap, how will it do so and what will be the recourse if it does not? My take is that it will do nothing to address or even fix the issues we have unobjectively blamed for the economic disparity between blacks and others. I would even argue that days, weeks and months after reparations, after they cut you that check that nothing will change. Nothing because 72% of black kids will still be born to single mother households, 62% of abortions in Georgia will still be performed on Black women although they comprise 30 percent of the state population, Black women will still be five times more likely to have an abortion, 90 percent of Black twelfth graders will still not score proficient in Math, 75 percent of Black boys in California will not meet state standards in reading, black males will still comprise the majority of homicide victims in New Orleans, Baltimore, Chicago, Memphis and nationwide and the jails and prisons will still be overflowing with Black bodies. Money will never address the historical subjugation we have experienced historically nor; would any price be adequate for such subjugation. In fact, I find it offensive for someone to attempt to place a dollar figure on the historical oppression of the descendants of slaves.
The problem is if we are giving material exchange for the past sins of slavery, what will be our recourse if poverty, dropout and incarceration rates do not change or possibly get worse? You got your check and the white man, the state or the government can wipe their hands clean of any future responsibility for the ills of our community. Why? Because we failed to realize our problems currently are self-inflicted, cultural and decades removed from slavery, but our learned helplessness won’t allow to see such, or stand up and empower ourselves.
In my view, we can do more for ourselves than white folk or the government. Only we can fix ourselves and our community. The government is not designed or required to make people wealthy, they only take peoples wealth. We need to stop watching TV more than other ethic groups including Nigerian Americans and we need to change our spending habits – there is a reason we spend more on name brand European automobiles than whites and Asians. In the early twentieth century more than a dozen states had laws on the books that prevented Asians (mainly Chinese) from owning land and lasted until the early 1950s. Yet some twenty years later they were out earning whites and continue to do so to this day. Ours is not an issue of fiscal capital but rather moral capital. All things consistent and regardless of race, children with fathers in the home are way less likely to end up incarcerated or pregnant and way more likely to finish school, attend college and live above the poverty line. Reparations will do nothing to address or redress our collective ills, and if we can’t see that, no amount of money will have the efficacy or utility to assist us if we don’t take responsibility for the harm we continue to inflict upon ourselves, removed from the government and more importantly, the white man. If stating the above makes me an uncle Tom Sambo, then I’ll be that. Miss me mane, I beg no white man for shit.
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