Are reparations a form of punishment or justice?
I don’t think it is wrong for reparations to be both if the circumstance fits. Slave owners paying former slaves is a great example (both punishment and justice).
However, if you miss the opportunity to do reparations when they should be done (when the slaves were freed), then how do you go about it in a way that isn’t an unjust punishment on one group of people?
Who exactly gets punished?
I am making the assumption that the reparations are being paid with funds generated with tax dollars. If the whole population pays into this fund, but only a few receive benefits based on race, are not the people outside the race getting paid being punished?
I’m not on welfare; am I getting punished for providing funds for welfare? If you don’t have kids, are you punished for helping fund schools? My kid is not special ed and does not cost the city, state or fed, more money than a kid who is special ed and gets counselors, social workers and special ed teachers. Am I being punished?
If you note, I did have some conditions for reparations. The idea being they are not just a payment for a payment’s sake but a way to lift people out of a poverty that has its roots in systemic racism. That benefits all of us. I should also add that poverty needs to be another qualifier. If you are black and wealthy then you are enjoying the benefits of a “racist” system and not being hindered by them.
IMO, no, because society benefits when we have programs designed to reduce poverty. You are getting something for your tax dollars. Just paying black people does not guarantee that. Some of the people receiving them will have high income, large amount of wealth. I am much more for expanding things like the EITC (Earned Income Tax Credit) to help out poor people in general.
I can agree with this. However, I would say that we should just improve poverty programs for all poor people. Seems textbook racist to have a race qualifier for financial benefits.
Hence my caveats.
You can’t improve that which is designed to fail by deliberate choice or through ignorance. An entire reboot is necessary.
BTW, I know that the conditions I placed on reparations will never be accepted (which gets back to designed to fail) so it’s another way for me to say I don’t support them. It’s like offering free college tuition, housing and books/supplies to any poor kid, regardless of race; how many are actually going to take advantage of it? Most likely the same ones who were on the path to college anyway.
I am not sure I buy this logic. Some of the programs are working relatively well. The EITC program is seen by almost everyone knowledgeable of it to be successful. Why not redirect some funds that aren’t being used as efficiently to expand that program. It has been shown to encourage work, and also lift people out of poverty.
I guess I am not a fan of having race be a factor in much of anything besides who needs sunscreen and who is probably okay without it. I would rather see our focus be on getting as many people as possible out of poverty, than a specific race of people out of poverty.
Don’t you need a job for that? What program is there for the many unemployable single mothers to keep them from raising sociopaths? Like the kind that killed an 8 year old girl in Atlanta the other night.
Yeah, you need a job to receive the EITC. I think single mothers can get other assistance easier than most other groups of people.
Not assistance: handouts. Assistance implies that it’s a helping hand, a supplement. It’s just free shit.
I can agree with that. Not sure the point your making though?
That nothing will change until the people who are in charge of change, change and when the people who need to change are willing (or forced) to change.
Almost every single person you see on TV talking about the inner cities has no clue. Somehow all it takes to be an expert is the correct skin tone or being a self-loathing white. Even Colin Kaepernick is being held up as some spokesperson for poor blacks. The mixed race guy, who I wouldn’t have guessed is black had I not been told his father was black, born with great athletic genes and raised in the suburbs by a white family. Yeah, he’s an expert on being poor and disadvantaged while surviving the ghetto streets.
It might be nit picking, but some things could improve or degrade depending on programs and such, somewhat independent of people being willing or forced to change.
An increase in the EITC would increase wages for low income workers. It would allow them to perhaps pay part of a child’s tuition. They would basically be doing exactly what they are now, but be able to afford more options some of which lead to self improvement.
I agree that ghetto areas are highly probable to stay relatively the same until people decide (or forced) that they are done living how they have been.
In yet another act designed to show off this country is in the best of hands, Team Trump messaged that Trump would protect…the Christ the Redeemer statue in RDJ, Brazil:
Remember, this team is in charge of foreign policy, too. Not to be outdone, Trump himself decided to randomly attack NASCAR’s only African-American driver on Twitter and lament NASCAR’s banning of the Confederate flag.
I look forward to the Cult 45ers explaining (again) how Trump isn’t a bigot and how some sort of subtle context shows sarcasm or irony or postmodernism at work and Bubba Wallace is probably the real bigot.
As a side note, Trump’s campaign strategy amd theme in the year 2020 appears to be defending the Confederacy. Okey dokey.
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He should have put this statue on the protected list instead 
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The onion going to go out of business…they really should have had this out first.
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I had some family die in Andersonville Prison fighting to free the slaves. When can I expect a check from Al Sharpton?
Get in line behind the IRS.
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Who can’t wait to vote for the candidate who likes to inappropriately fondle little girls?