was anyone watching "Talkback Live" on CNN?

[JohnCU]

they were having some debate about whether black people should receieve compensation for being enslaved 200 years ago... kind of interesting. they think that the government should give them money just because their ancestors were slaves. Right...

too bad they cut off the discussion to go cover something about arafat.

 

[Pocatello]

I'm not part of that history, but I think Americans had paid the slavery debt by going through the Civil War. I know slavery wasn't only issue in the Civil War, but it's a big reason why the Southern States left the Union.

 

[Cougar]

Yeah, I've heard this topic brought up before. In my opinion it's retarded to even suggest such a thing. If you look back far enough in everyone's history you're going to find that they were "oppressed" by someone somewhere. If we repay the black community because their ancestors were slaves, then at what point do we stop? What about Native Americans? They've gotten the royal shaft over the years.

Why should we have to keep paying for something that happened hundreds of years ago? I personally never had a slave, and I don't know any body that ever was a slave so why do the sins of our forefathers fall upon us? If we go down this road and start paying off black families then it will only increase the rift between black and white culture that america is trying desparately to mend.

that's my $.02

 

[JohnCU]

link

 

[Hammer]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't each freed man given the '40 acres and a mule'? Also we paid in blood during the Civil War. It will likely remain the bloodiest conflict in American history for a very long time.

 

[swayinOtis]

David Horowitz, a former black panther party member and '60s radical turned conservative came up with 10 reasons why reparations are a bad idea. Read it here.

It's a very interesting read because it presents ideas that most people either don't know or are afraid to talk about. Of course he has been blasted by every Jesse Jackson wanna-be (including all the guilty whites) out there. He has been banned from speaking at universities because of this. He tried running this is school newspapers but was denied, or he had all the newspapers with the ad in it destroyed by people who can't handle opposing points of view. It's rather sad what goes on at some of our univesities.

 

[HermitGuy]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't each freed man given the '40 acres and a mule'? Also we paid in blood during the Civil War. It will likely remain the bloodiest conflict in American history for a very long time.

I believe you may be wrong, if I remember correctly the idea was brought up before Lincoln's death but was never acted on after his assassination.

 

[Pundit]

My ancestors were enslaved for about 400 years by the Ottoman Empire (Turks). Most certainly, some of the Turks' decendants live in the US. Do I deserve reparations?

Their claims do not make any sense. People that are born hundreds of years after the fact are not responsible for their ancestors' actions. Responsibility, guilt, and accountability is not transferred with DNS. Every baby born in the US today has the same potential as every other.

 

[HermitGuy]

Also we paid in blood during the Civil War. It will likely remain the bloodiest conflict in American history for a very long time.

On this you are most definitely correct. Blood is certainly the highest price one can pay for their sins, and this country paid dearly for the sin of slavery. Unfortunately we still pay today, some of it justified, a lot of it not so justifed.

 

[Stark]

<< NEW YORK (Reuters) - Three large U.S. companies were named in a lawsuit on Tuesday filed on behalf of black Americans descended from slaves, the first-ever class action seeking reparations from firms for profiting from slavery.

Aetna Inc., CSX Corp., and FleetBoston Financial Corp. were named in the lawsuit filed in Brooklyn federal court by 36-year-old black activist Deadria Farmer-Paellmann in the latest step by some blacks to get compensation for what their ancestors suffered as slaves.

"The practice of slavery constituted an 'immoral and inhumane deprivation of Africans' life, liberty, African citizenship rights, cultural heritage' and it further deprived them of the fruits of their own labor," the 21-page suit said. >>


What a load of crap. I guess they couldn't go after the Africans who actually SOLD their decendents INTO slavery, so pull a Jesse Jackson corporate slur campaign to get some fast cash.

This "victim" mentality has got to go.