The Corrupt Promise of Reparations

By Mark Fernwood, a LRWF associate member, is a member of the Contra Costa Republican Central Committee.

The Democrats have been pushing the idea of giving “reparations” to blacks as compensation for slavery that ended 150 years ago.  It is also claimed that the compensation is also for “systemic racism.”  This is a baseless claim in an era when blacks can buy any property and work at any job, even become President of the US.

Legally, in the US, to have an enforceable claim, you need an “injured party,” also needed is a wrong doer, that caused the injury.  Under US law, like most, if not all countries, there is no such principle as “hereditary guilt.”  Were it otherwise, one could be arrested and told that your great grandfather George, was a bank robber.  The penalty for bank robbery is 10 years.  As George was never caught, YOU will have to serve his time!  Then the story would get even worse.  As $10,000 was stolen, with interest YOU now owe $1,000,000.  We are seizing all your assets, including your home, but this will not cover even half.  Also, you cannot bankrupt out of damage awards.

Then, who were the parties that caused the “injury?”  Just the slave holders?  Historically, some Northern blacks did become rich and also owned slaves.  Would the European merchants also be liable, that transported the slaves across the ocean to be sold?  These merchants bought the slaves from Arab traders on the African coast.  Are all Arabs now also liable to pay “reparations?” The Arab traders did not venture inland to capture their victims.  They bought them from black dominant tribes that captured and sold members of “inferior” tribes.

Consider how much “compensation” was already “paid” by the Union soldiers that fought for years and gave their lives to end slavery.

Democrats, want to keep this simple: all blacks should receive compensation.  All taxpayers, white, black, Asian and Hispanic should pay.  Simple and on the surface, yet seemingly, totally illogical.

What is really intended is to buy black votes.  Democrats have seen the erosion of black votes to Republicans as an emergency, needing a desperate solution. Reparations would also be a cover for redistribution of wealth.

Reparations also plays into the Democrat mantra of “systemic racism.”

Why Is This History Of Slavery Hidden In Schools? - YouTube 3 min by Thomas Sowell,  Hoover Institute, Stanford University.