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like yours truly, were rolling with the homies” on this issue.H e argued that the descendants of the[9LjJosephPerkins4 million slaves freed following the Civil War in 1865 are entitled today to reparations of $400,000 or so (which is roughly the fair-market value of 40 acres and a mule). And he is convinced that there will always be enmity between blacks and whites until the federal government pays up.Now if the caller were the only black person making this case. I could dismiss his argument out of hand. But the February issue of Emerge, which bills itself as “Black America's Newsmagazine. informs us that the reparations movement is gaining momentum.Not only has a reparations bill been proposed in Congress every year since 1989 (the Commission to Study Reparations for African Americans Act, authored by Rep. John Conyers, the Democrat from Detroit), a consortium of black organizations has established an umbrella group to advocate reparations (the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America, with 32 chapters around the country).This is well and good. But reparations advocates will have a hard time making their caseblacks in this country have at least some nonblack blood relations in their family lineage. That means that most black Americans actually are mixed race, albeit some more so than others.Then there’s the question of economic fairness Why should average tax-paying Asian Americans or Hispanic Americans or even European Americans (whose forebears owned no slaves) be asked to pay reparations to all black Americans, including the most wealthy? The Oprah Winfreys and Bill Cosbys don't need the help.The reparationists make their strongest case when they argue that the 30 percent of black Americans who remain mired in poverty may be suffering the residual effects of slavery 120 years later. Emerge cites David H. Swinton, a Harvard-trained economist who is president of Benedict College in Columbia, S.C.If you practice slavery, discrimination, racism, or any of those things for some period of time.” said Swinton. it does have an impact on the future well-being of that group. It’s not enough just to stop doing those things. Once you get behind in ownership of capital, the normal processes of the economy will keep you behind forever.Fair enough. Let us agree that the government has a moral obligation to help these 9 million or so black Americans — whom Harvard social scientist William Julius Wilson termed the truly disadvantaged — to help themselves.
Newspaper Details
Alton Telegraph
Alton, Illinois, US
Tue, Feb 18, 1997
Page 7
Full Page
Clipped by
Alaina P.
NA, 12 Jan 2017
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