Aren't Affirmative Action measures enough 'reparation' for past times of slavery here in the US?
441361
No, nothing can compare to that. Reparations means to repair or restore. America know they can't do either one, although it would increase racism, if it were to happen. They said it may be true that all Americans benefit from slavery, but the real question is why should America continue to benefit from the same people that America hated? Not even 50 years ago America still had the slave descendant segregated. America still has something that doesn't belong to them.\n\nEgypt had the children of Israel in bondage 400 years. Egypt like America knew it was wrong, but in their mind they believe it was right. Egypt did not want to give fair judgment, they said they could go free because God kill Pharaoh son. The only problem with that is God was doing his judgment. God said you are not going to keep the weatlh Israel made for you, but I give it to them. Just because Egypt wanted to keep it God gave them ALL the weatlh of Egypt. But no God wasn't finish, now he was going to judge the Egyptians, he gave their land away, let their enemies rule over them. He broke the pride of their power and let the land become desolated, he said there shall be a sword agianst Egypt and her foundations shall be broken down. Egypt is like America, America think because they can forget the past then it's void. But God said "her sins have reach to heaven and God has not forgot her sins". Men can forget but God will not.\n\nhere what King said: "Don't let anybody make you think God chose America as his divine messianic force to be a sort of policeman of the whole world. God has a way of standing before the nations with justice and it seems I can hear God saying to America "you are too arrogant, and if you don't change your ways, I will rise up and break the backbone of your power, and I will place it in the hands of a nation that doesn't even know my name. Be still and know that I'm God."
491771
by Martin Luther King\n"Whenever this issue [compensatory treatment] is raised, some of our friends recoil in horror. The Negro should be granted equality, they agree, but should ask for nothing more."\n\nthat is what he said the white man will say. \n\n "On the surface, this appears reasonable, but is not realistic. For it is obvious that if a man enters the starting line of a race three hundred years after another man, the second would have to perform some incredible feat in order to catch up." \n"A society that has done something special against the Negro for hundreds of years must now do something special for him, to equip him to compete on a just and equal basis." \n"... for 15 centuries the Negro was enslaved and robbed of any wages — potential accrued wealth which would have been the legacy of his descendants. All of America's wealth today could not adequately compensate its Negroes for his centuries of exploitation and humiliation. \n\nHe was a leader how did he fail his people. The real question is what is whites excuse not to be successful. When they had 400 years of benefiting for slavery. Somethings black never had, some still do get that benefit. Others wasn't even allowed to vote until 1965.
259742
I could go on for hours but, until most people are educated in history, politics, respect and self worth. That goes for black, and any other race in this country. It's not so much that blacks should be upset with whites because our ancestors  bought them from their own people and now some want everything handed to them along with other financial reparations. It's that, if you look at factual history, all of us (every race) were slaves at one time to some great empire. Blacks were just the last! I do not think it is fair  that Americans should live in a fantasy world and show over 50% blacks in advertising campaigns, music, TV programing when they only make up for 16% of the US population of which that number actually about 11% due to incarceration.
780933
Only time well tell if this was good for america ! My view on affirmative action is it was racist , racist against both blacks and whites . I think it was a slap in the face to blacks , like saying you cant get jobs so well make to where you have too . Pretty messed up
795509
I refuse to pay for something that people I didn't know did 200 years ago. The people now alive should receive nothing... what harm was done them? The issue you mentioned in Namibia is totally different in that some of the victims of WWII are still alive or their immediate descendants. You list slavery as the reasons African nations are so poor.... check on the numbers of slaves that were actually taken from Africa.... it's much less than you think. The reason African nations are so poor is the lack of emphasis given to education then and now.
1118903
To be honest I think most Blacks are looking for pay back, I heard some say innocent whites need to be kill just as innocent black were. Yes blacks need equality but lets be honest giving blacks equality doesn't offset over 300 years of oppression and struggle. On paper all people need equal rights seems fine, but look deeper into this issue, you will find that the black race deserves much more than equal rights. \n\nWhen Blacks were first "bought" (not sold) into slavery they were oppress from the time they were "purchase," not sold to whites. You can't sell nothing if no one is WILLING to buy it. Blacks were oppress from the time they got own until the time Dr. King died in 1968, by whites not Africans. Is giving the black race equal rights make right all the oppression they face?\n\nHow can 400 years of oppression which include segregation be made OK by giving them equality? Will equality fix or bring justice to the Millions America kill unjustified. Will equality fix or bring justice to tens of thousand that were lynch during the early 1900's. What about their lost knowledge of a language, religion, culture and customs? Will Brown was shoot over 1000 times beaten , then burned alive. These things did not happen in ancient times but in my and my parents generation. We were oppress so we couldn't vote this was only the 60's. So the ones who were slaves could not get anything for their misfortune because they had no rights to back then. Equal rights could not repay all that was done against the Black race. So in reality the two groups will never be equal one side had 300+ years of struggle and robbery while the other had/has 300+ years of privilege and benefits and the expense of one group, not just from free labor but from being on the side of the oppressors. That in it's self gave you privilege.\n\nTruth is the people who would have inherited the money their father SHOULD have got are still here. Just as the people and nation who inherited that borrow wealth, is still here, and the wealth is still here. So if Blacks got paid for that wealth they would have left their descendants with something rather than a spirit of poverty. As a result 70% of elderly blacks have no  financial assets. Which is a direct result form segregation design to keep the wealth in the white community and keep blacks from the houses, shools, and inherited wealth they help build for the white community. It's never to late to do what rights, however reparation will divide the country.\n\nBlacks don't need reparations but equality, and as I said equality is not giving blacks equal rights. Truthfully all the things the white race did or has done against the black race most surely can not be repaid with equality, neither can it be repaid with all the wealth this nation has.
143610
U.S. "legalized" slavery may have ended in 1861, but please do not let us fool ourselves -- slavery, in many forms, still exists today . . . and I'm not talking "slave to my job" kind either.    :-(
119650
Depends on the region of US.  The South was openly segregated through the '60's.  That's part of what the civil rights movement was about.
758715
Suppose that once upon a time there was a country where in good deeds were rewarded by a free market system with wealth, status, and power. Suppose that there was a contest between families to determine whose family could do the most good. Suppose after about 400 years most of the wealth, status and power was concentrated into the hands of those families who won this contest presumably by doing the most good. Suppose that after reviewing 400 years of history the vast majority of the inhabitants of this country realized that this contest was unfair to certain families because of their ethnic background or simply because of the colour of their skin. Suppose that for almost 300 years certain families were never compensated for the good deeds they had done because their labor was stolen from them by institutionalized slavery. Suppose that for about 100 years after that these same families were discriminated against; were denied fair and equal access to wealth, status and power; and continued to be denied the opportunity to compete fairly in the this contest to do good. Suppose that members of these very same families volunteered to serve their country in times of war and died for their country. Would you as an inhabitant of this country wish to do something to address this social injustice? Would you as an inhabitant of this country wish to win this contest to do good fair and square or would you be satisfied with being from a family that cheated by having a 400 year head start? As I understand it, Affirmative Action is doing something to address 400 years of social injustice suffered by certain families due to institutionalized slavery and or the denial of fair and equal access to wealth, status and power.
330947
As long as there are people in this world, like Jesse Jackson, and Al Sharpton, this country will have racial problems.\n\nNoone is asking people to forget the past of their ancestors.  I do not forget the horrible problems my Irish ancestors went through, but thankfully their are not any (that I know of) people demanding I get something for their suffering.  \n\nAsk Jesse Jackson, next time he speaks, to try to speak about another human being without using the color of their skin.  People with influence like him is why there is so much racial tension.\n\n\n---\n\nredvegetable, (above), are you saying that Blacks have different 'needs' than Whites?\n\n---\nditty, (below) are you saying there are no black against white crimes?  How many of those have there been?\n\n---\nHabilis (below) most of your response was a good answr to the question.  I have to disagree with the Georgia flag thing.  That is insinuating that the flag represents racisim.  The confederate flag represents history.  The civil war was not about slavery as some like to say.  Slavery became an issue in the war when lincoln saw the opportunity to bring blacks from the south on to fight for the north.
531612
No, they should not. It is ridiculous and would be meaningless. The whole campaign appears to be just a fop by a few ne`er do wells as a precursor to demands for `reparation`.\n To the merchants of Bristol, slaves were just a commodity same as any other. Sad I know, but to start demanding apologies from descendants of anyone involved in this trade, or anyone living anywhere that benefitted from this trade is ludicrous. It would involve half the planet.
1122097
No, I own my own business and am obviously older than you.\n\nFirst, study your history.\nBlack slaves were more physically capable than whites or Indians and quickly replaced both in agriculture which demanded hard, manual labor under bad conditions. No other group as a race was as strong and productive. Without them, the South would not have benefitted from a strong cotton and sugar industry. The North that bought these products and processed them would not have been as productive either. It was only when the south threatened to go directly to Europe where prices were cheaper than the more expensive North that the slavery issue became a galvenizing force for the North to attack the more rural and agricultural south. There were still slaves in the North during this conflict so it was not just riteous indignation that spawned the liberation of the blacks.\n\nAfter the war, many blacks continued to work on the farms where they had worked their whole lives. Life was much more difficult then and it has only been in the last 100 years or so that most of our population lives in cities.\n\nAfter the war, it took all of us time to heal. Blacks, Southerners, Northerners, etc. Blacks still helped rebuild the South after the war.\n\nNow, we have a huge population that lives in cities. As a whole, I cannot definitively say that blacks are equal to the other races in productivity. Many of their decendents were brought here for their physical attributes and they have been surpressed after the war as well.\n\nI think that we are now at a cross roads. Blacks, as a race, probably have more rights than whites but have not been allowed to complete a transition that can take decades.\n\nI think most people would appreciate it if you would learn more about history and not feel so cormfortable sitting at your computer and spreading racism. You are being more lazy and hateful than those you attack.\n\nUndoubtedly, your stupid comments have hurt and alienated a good many people of all nationalities. So start using Yahoo for something productive because right now, I think America's economy would be much better off without people like you, no matter what race you are!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
680426
There were white slaves too no one ever mentions them and the freed black people had slaves too. If you show me someone who was an actual slave not just a decedent of one yes..my ancestors were slaves too and the people that want \nreparations are just to lazy to get jobs in my mind.\n\nhttp://www.revisionisthistory.org/forgottenslaves.html
424756
Here is the widsom of Dr.King on Affimative Action\n\n"Whenever this issue compensatory treatment is raised, some of our friends recoil in horror. The Negro should be granted equality, they agree, but should ask for nothing more. On the surface, this appears reasonable, but is not realistic. For it is obvious that if a man enters the starting line of a race three hundred years after another man, the second would have to perform some incredible feat in order to catch up." \n"A society that has done something special against the Negro for hundreds of years must now do something special for him, to equip him to compete on a just and equal basis." \n"... for 15 centuries the Negro was enslaved and robbed of any wages — potential accrued wealth which would have been the legacy of his descendants. All of America's wealth today could not adequately compensate its Negroes for his centuries of exploitation and humiliation. It is an economic fact that a program such as I propose would certainly cost far less than any computation of two centuries of unpaid wages plus accumulated interest. In any case, I do not intend that this program of economic aid should apply only to the Negro: it should benefit the disadvantaged of all races." \n\n\nHere what he said about America\n"Don't let anybody make you think God chose America as his divine messianic force to be a sort of policeman of the whole world. God has a way of standing before the nations with justice and it seems I can hear God saying to America "you are too arrogant, and if you don't change your ways, I will rise up and break the backbone of your power, and I will place it in the hands of a nation that doesn't even know my name. Be still and know that I'm God."
850820
It's not acceptable, and every African/Asian/Native/Latin/Arabic-American knows it. The notion that anyone else is responsible for what their grand-pappy did is asinine. Slavery is gone; it's not a personal problem for anybody. However, racism is not gone, and it is a real problem. HOWEVER, minorities perpetuate it just as much as they suffer from it.
339679
affirmative action is reverse discrimination
38346
How hasn't it... I am a 7th generation daughter of a slave and Looking back over the last 141 yrs, our people have went from being slaves of white owners to being slaves of themselves...like gangs and racial seperation among ourselves. We need to wake up and get our crap together.