If reparations were given to American descendents of slaves, would some American blacks be ineligable?
440976
Very few because there isn't any documentation of slaves and what they have are bills of sale. You would have to be living to be able to prove anything.
1092767
Very, but it can't happen because we whites abolished slavery.  No black alive in America today ever was a slave, and no white alive in America today ever owned one.  I don't see how the blacks alive today have any standing at all regarding slavery 140 years ago.\n\nAnd take a look at Africa, and consider our immigration picture.  Do you think blacks in America today would rather their family had stayed in Africa, where slavery continued much longer than here?  Granted what happened to their ancestors was terrible, for those alive today, are they worse off than if their families had remained?
999305
I learned this from one of George Clooney's travels so take what I say with a grain of salt, I might not be as accurate.\n\nI know that back when slaves were being sold, black people were also sold to Muslims. It wasn't just America. When black Muslims had progressed where they were sold they were considered somewhat unworthy because they weren't "royal descents" with strait hair and slightly fair skin.\n\nGeorge Clooney had discovered this and it was shown on Oprah. I believe the "royals" are trying to kill them but I am unsure.
435249
I resent you saying that I have the same mind set as my ancestors whom you claim owned slaves.  All white people did not own slaves, in fact, a lot of them were against it and fought for the freedom of the slaves.  I have always been on the slaves side when I have read or seen anything about slavery.  Just because I am white does not mean I think slavery is acceptable.  I think it was deplorable!  However, a lot of other people have been wronged in history too, mainly, the indians whom we stole this very land from.  Are you going to make repairations to the indians for the fact that YOUR ancestors stole THEIR land????!!!!!
316374
Xenogear is right. There was no one war that robbed blacks of their rights in this country... with the possible exception of the Revolutionary War. Black Americans were slightly better off under the British.\n\nWorld War I temporarily took many civil rights from blacks, but it did the same to everyone, and some were worse off than them in this respect (especially German Americans).
283913
If the government was going to pay descendants of former slaves, this would lead to a series of problems.\n\n1. How does the government tell who was a descendant of a former slave and who immigrated after the Civil War?\n\n2. If we are going to pay descendents of slave reparations, what about all the families (like mine) who sacrificed everything running underground railroads? These, mostly white, families often lost EVERYTHING, including their lives, when the bounty-hunters and pro-slavery forces found out who ran a station.\n\n3. What about every other indentured servant or forced laborer and their descendants?\n\n4. Who will pay for this? What about descendants of people who never owned slaves or fought against those who did?  Why should they pay?  What about those who came to America after the Civil War?  Also, since the money from the government comes from taxes, how do we know "who" exactly paid?  How do we know the descendant of a slave is just not paying more taxes to pay themselves?\n\n5. How much is the per capita reparation?  What should each person get?  Will we need, yet another, expensive bureaucracy to manage it?\n\n6. Is this a one time payment or an installment?  If so, then for how long?  Does this reparation mean other assistance programs are discontinued?  If so, which ones? Does this payment continue from generation to generation or just the current generation?  If not, why not?  If so, why?\n\n7. Should we not then demand that EVERY nation which ever held slaves or participated in their trade be forced to pay reparations?  Would it matter if they were not the same country, or a country at all, when it happened?  What about Italy who, when they were the Romans had slaves fight to the death?  What about the Greeks, or the Egyptians, or the Philistines (Palestinians), or the Syrians, or the Chinese, or pick a country? What about the Dutch who had a large role in the slave trade?  Do they not owe reparations as an accomplice in the African slavery issue?  What about the tribes in Africa who helped the Dutch get slaves?  What about those that still own slaves in Africa (Sudan is the center of modern slave trading)?\n\nThese are just a few of the questions this issue raises.
97316
well they could give my grandpa some money for it! they gave money to jewish people but they dont for african americans. to justify i think they should have given them money too.
512256
Becuase America need to pay for their crime, because it's over doesn't mean their except from a crime. See it's pride of America everyone like to blame what America and their ancestors did on the "Africans". I guess the Africans killed 100 million blacks on their trip here. I guess the "Africans" shoot them, lynch, burn alive, rape, burn their homes, rob of their nationality, names, culture, customs, religion, and families. I guess the "Africans" call them Nigger, and put hoses on them, sent dogs after them. What about the Africans that put them in iron collars, worked from sun up to sun down, whip, beaten, then poured salt in their wounds, I guess it was the Africans. I could go on and on about what America and white America ancestors did. But they all have too much pride to admit it. They don't tell you that they get to benefit from 400 years of oppression to this day. America will bankrupt just repaying for the millions they kill. They will go bankrupt just for the million they mistreated. And if they have to repay for free labor bankrupt their too. If not the fact that America owe blacks anything it the fact America don't have a right to benefit from it. No one no matter what race should come here are be living off the expense of our ancestors that America still hates. The question is who will blacks back then want to benefit form their expense, everyone or just their descendants.
426718
Would you have stayed in the south if you were a slave?  No.  They were looking for jobs and racial tolerance by going north.
293230
Actually, yes.  For example, many members of the Cherokee nation in Georgia (prior to their removal to Oklahoma Territory) held slaves.  This is because they were encouraged to assimilate to contemporary European-American lifestyles and values in that geographic area, which at that time included male-headed nuclear family units (as opposed to female-headed clans), and single-family owned farms on the plantation model(as opposed to communal land tilling), and Christianity.  Many Cherokee (and some few Choctaw, Chicasaw, and Creek) families did assimilate to a large degree, and purchased slaves to work on the plantations they owned.  (Ironically, slave-holding was one of the reasons the Cherokee, Choctaw, Creek, Chickasaw and Seminole nations became known to European-Americans in the 19th century as "The Five Civilized Tribes.")  \n\nCurrent scholarship is demonstrating, however, that even though some members of these Native nations held slaves, they treated them differently than did Euro-American slaveholders.  In many cases, slaves lived in the same homes as their Native owners, and in some cases, Native people even married African-Americans they held as slaves!  This illustrates the very different valence given to slavery by Native slaveholders. \n\nThere are a few excellent books on the subject, among which are:\nTheda Purdue, Slavery and the Evolution of Cherokee Society, 1540-1866 \nPatrick Minges, Slavery in the Cherokee Nation: The Keetoowah Society and the Defining of a People 1855-1867 \n\nOne important note: Native Americans were also enslaved themselves.  Patrick Minges has edited a volume called Black Indian Slave Narratives, in which you can read primary source materials produced by some of these enslaved Native folks.  \n\nJack Forbes also has a very cool book entitled Africans and Native Americans: The Language of Race and the Evolution of Red-Black Peoples, which explores yet another dimension of this aspect of American history.
978633
It depended in what region of the US they were enslaved in (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_slavery_in_the_United_States for more information).\n\nI hope this helps you!!!
457569
well there is a major difference,.african slaves were forced from their homeland and brought here in the bottom of ships. they had no choice in the matter. these immigrants are paid poorly.. i agree.. but slaves who were beaten ..recieved no money.. its a lot easier to cross back over  fence if you dislike it here.. than to find a boat to go back to africa... the same for european slaves. no way out for the indentured servants..   i do agree they are taken advantage of.. and shame on the people who prey on the misfortune of thoseseeking a better life.  but things have to be done properly.. and you cant just come into this country illegally and expect a welcome mate
1010463
Certainly, but then all the people of african decent that were born in this country could not.  \n\nBut good question, it shows how silly this naming thing really is.
505880
ROB, no one never pays for the crime America has commits against the black race, never. It the simple fact that to this day This nation has gone unpunished. I'm not talking slavery or things that are over which that can't be change. I'm talking about a country that keeps committing crimes against others and have too must pride to admit any wrong doing. That's my view as the last guy said it my be over BUT doesn't fix such crimes committed.\n\nI don't know what special treatment we had for 30 years, But a Law that supposedly give us equal rights. I'm sorry to say but were not the ones who had 400 years of the benefits from slavey nor did we heritage those benefits or have to benefit of just being white. Just go back 40 years ago to King's death for preaching truth they killed him. \n\nSo I feel ROB that my ancestor died in vain for the benefit of their slave masters descendants. Like any man, if someone in my family kill your relatives because of hate, would you have a right to be upset? Then I were to tell you get over the death of your relative that I know one of my people killed. Would you not be even more upset that the one who committed a crime against you told you to forget it? Then would you fell betrayed that he got away with it? Now imagine tens of million of your own people died or anyones people died for the benefit of the decsendants that killed them, would you not feel betrayed?
277449
In those days slaves were considered property and were treated as such.  If the slave owner died they were often left to a family member, often passed from father to eldest son or from female family member to a younger female family member.  There were cases of slave owners granting emancipation papers to their slaves upon their deaths and leaving them their freedom.  If a slave owner died without heirs, the estate would have been taken over by the government and either sold as a whole with the slaves included, or broken up and disbursed with.
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."
866442
IF that were to happen it wouldn't BE between blacks and whites... it would be between classes... and the upper class wouldn't stand a chance because the sheer mass of lower class people... the middle class would be caught in-between, but probably sympathize with the lower class...