Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Reparations? Really?


Lately there has been a lot of talk within the black community about reparations. For those of you who are unfamiliar with reparations it is a proposal by some in the United States that some type of compensation should be provided to the descendants of enslaved people. Of course an argument can be made that the plight of black people was significantly affected by the institution of slavery but that is not what this is all about. The truth is that there are other ethnic groups of people that have been persecuted in the past and there were no reparations for them. So what makes black people so special? You can certainly argue that the treatment of Native Americans was just as bad as African-Americans. Do you really think Native Americans would rather have casinos and a few plots of land? or their pride and families alive? If you take too long to answer this then you probably need to re-evaluate your life. The fact that people are actually discussing this is laughable to me. The people who really needed reparations are dead and gone. What have we done to deserve anything? Now let's really be honest. What would most of us do with the money if we got it? Most of us would blow it on material things like cars, clothes, jewelry, etc. Dave Chapelle probably wasn't too far off with his skit. lol. Money doesn't change the kind of person you are it only reflects who you already are. All this talk about reparations only devalues the struggle that our ancestors went through. To think that you can ease the pain of hundreds of years of suffering with money and land is ridiculous. Slavery WAS a tragic part of our history but it WAS a tragic part of our PAST. There is no way that we can move forward as a people, country, and world if we do not let go of the past. Reparations is just another excuse for black people to use why they are downtrodden and blah blah blah. We all know even if we had reparations there would be another excuse. Let's be accountable for own actions and stop looking for handouts.
This messgae was inspired by the ignorant comments of a Mr. Warren Ballentine

1 comment:

nat turner said...

the decendents of the enslaved in this country deserve reperations and here is why. this great country of ours was built on the backs of slaves. america is one of the wealthiest nations in the world because black people gave america 400 years of free labor.
reperations dont have to come in the form of a check or any other monetary compensation. why not in the form of education?