A Time for Reparations

It is time to put our money where our mouth is. We need to do the right thing that General Sherman recommended at the end of the Civil War to give every slave a mule and 40 acres of land. We have given reparations to Japanese internment victims and Germany has given reparations for World War II to Israel. Estimates are that slavery cost the slaves $20 Trillion. There is no real way to calculate the cost of slavery, with interest up until today. What we do know is that slavery lasted from 1619 to 1865 in the US-which is 246 years where slaves were not allowed to read, to get an education, to move around, to think or be a person. Families were split up, people were raped multiple times, whipped, harassed and terrorized. There is nothing called a good slaveowner, or slaves were well treated. This is totally impossible and a fallacy. Slaves were denied wages, freedom and were give bare necessities to survive. The slaves were at the beginning of the Civil War estimated at $4 Billion. The cotton industry was responsible for the huge growth in the north with cheap textiles, exports to Europe and was central to the US economy. Now, after the Civil War, segregation and Jim Crow laws kept blacks from voting, from a good education, from good jobs and income. Jim Crow laws in essence were like the Nuremberg laws and just as harsh. The South had vagrancy laws and black men were picked up on the streets and taken to work for free or to pay off a fine or debt. Wages were terrible for blacks and blacks were denied entry to jobs, good schools and white society. Red lining was practiced so blacks could not get mortgages to buy homes. Blacks had seller contracts at high rates and if they missed a payment would lose the house and they gained no equity. Blacks were denied social security, GI Bill benefits, unemployment and other New Deal support systems until much later than Whites. Do not forget lynching, destroying towns, massacres and killing blacks for whistling at a white woman (Emmitt Till). Jim Crow lasted from roughly 1865 to 1964 or another 99 years. So we have 345 years of lawful destruction of black lives, jobs and freedoms. We had other Civil Rights laws in 1968 that helped with housing issues but this is a good time. After Civil Rights, the war on drugs and crime targeted black people. Blacks in jail, blacks dropping out of school, blacks being shot by the police or stand your ground laws. Blacks wages, wealth and ability to move up are markedly less than whites. For every slave, lower wage, red line, person in jail, a white person benefited. Whites gained from slavery, segregation, post Civil Rights and the white economy benefited from killing black society. I hear that blacks should be fine and equal and if they are not, it is due to them being lazy or thugs or dumb. To me, it is like having the Daytona 500 and whites have a 345 lap head start, and then you let the blacks begin the race. Why did they not win? so far behind? Hmmm? Anyone with common sense can see how white society, American society has benefited from keeping the blacks down and discriminating blacks. What do we do? Reparations, pay the descendants of slaves from 1865. Estimates are from a low of $12,000 per person to $1.5 million or $5 Trillion to $24 Trillion is due to blacks. I have seen direct payments or payments to the community. We have done both in the past. I do believe a direct payment would be fantastic along with community money to rebuild cities, education, homes, business development and health care. The community funds can go to an oversight committee that would take requests for funds for local areas. Money to people would be a stimulus package and support business, education and living expenses for blacks. Both are good spending and would add to GDP and the economy. There is a Congressional Committee proposal by John Conyers that is introduced each year to look at the issue. I would be willing to start with $1 trillion over 10 years which is $100 B per year. We can then divide up the $100 B between people and the community. The point is to do this. We need to look at this and do it now. Pick numbers that make sense. Pick numbers that help the black community and the US. I am open to ideas.