Walter, Williams, Creators Syndicate, July 8, 2009
{snip}
It goes without saying that slavery was a gross violation of human rights. Justice would demand that all the perpetrators—that includes slave owners, and African and Arab slave sellers—make compensatory reparation payments to victims. Since slaves, slave owners and slave sellers are no longer with us, such compensation is beyond our reach and a matter to be settled in the world beyond.
Absent from the reparations debate is: Who pays? Don’t say the government because the government doesn’t have any money that it doesn’t first take from some American. So which Americans owe black people what? {snip}
Are the millions of Europeans, Asians, and Latin Americans who immigrated to the U.S. in the 20th century responsible for slavery and should they be forced to cough up reparations money? What about descendants of Northern whites who fought and died in the name of freeing slaves? {snip} What about non-slave-owning Southern whites, a majority of whites; should they be made to pay reparations? And, by the way, would President Obama, whose father is Kenyan and mother white, be eligible for a reparations payment?
{snip} Some blacks purchased other blacks as a means to free family members. But other blacks owned slaves for the same reason whites owned slaves—to work farms or plantations. Are descendants of these blacks eligible and deserving of reparations? There is no way that Europeans could have captured millions of Africans. They had African and Arab help. Should Congress haul representatives of Ghana, Ivory Coast, Nigeria and Muslim states before them and demand they compensate American blacks because of their ancestors’ involvement in capturing and selling slaves?
Reparations advocates make the foolish unchallenged pronouncement that United States became rich on the backs of free black labor. That’s utter nonsense. Slavery has never had a very good record of producing wealth. {snip} In fact, the poorest states and regions of our country were places where slavery flourished: Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia while the richest states and regions were those where slavery was absent: Pennsylvania, New York and Massachusetts.
The Senate apology is nothing more than political theater but it could be a slick way to get the camel’s nose into the tent for future reparations. If the senators are motivated by white guilt, I have the cure. About 15 years ago I wrote a “Proclamation of Amnesty and Pardon Granted to All Persons of European Descent” that is available at: www.gmu.edu/departments/economics/wew/gift.html
[Editor’s Note: Other articles on the Senate apology are listed here. here.
Original article
(Posted on July 8, 2009)
Comments
“Reparations advocates make the foolish unchallenged pronouncement that United States became rich on the backs of free black labor.”
Wasn’t the bulk of that slave wealth destroyed in the war between the states? The South was very poor after the war and, if there was great wealth (I would think the plantation owners, a minority, would have been wealthy) then it went up in smoke during the war.
Well if we’re going to go there for blacks then we have to do so for everyone else. I’m of Irish descent and my people were indentured servants here in the U.S., which was nothing less than slavery, so I am owed an apology and reparations also.
I will agree to reparations to the decendents of former slaves by the Federal government…..on the same day they (those who demand reparations) agree that the same governmment pay reparations to the owners of slaves (or their decendents) for loss of property, a much stronger legal claim, and reimburse the eleven Southern states for destruction of state property, suspension of civil liberties, suspension of republican government (guaranteed by the US Constitution), military rule, lack of due process, and disenfranchisement of millions of white voters. Of course, this reparations bill should also include the return of the counties of Virginia (now called West Virginia) to the Commonwealth of Virginia, which was created in violation of the US Constitution.
“…was a gross violation of human rights.”
That is the first error of all these discussions regarding slavery. There is no such thing as a “human right.” Rights aren’t magically, even cosmically bestowed upon mankind! We fool ourselves with this type of high-minded, humanist/humanitarian claptrap at our own peril.
Nevertheless, Williams is right of course and it is good that at least a small handfull of sensible Blacks are capable of seeing the reality of the situation.
Walter Williams is only one of a few blacks that can fit into a modern society. And his essay is right on and very good, not because I agree with him, but because he makes a very persuasive argument and supports his thesis with irrefutable logic, something VERY RARELY seen in other blacks.
But, couldn’t all this be summed up with far fewer words by simply noting that it’s nonsense to apologize to someone who was never injured by someone who caused no harm? And giving reparations would not be compensation since none of the parties involved in the matter are alive today. It would be extortion by an undeserving people who have been robbing, stealing and killing whites for over a hundred years. If true justice were a VALID concern, it is they who should be paying whites.
There is no carry over involved with slavery. No black today has been affected by it. Blacks like to say they fail and score low academically because of the after effects of slavery, which is absolute nonsense. They fail, because they have little or no abilities and very low group intelligence. The proof of this can be found all over the world. It’s no secret. Every nation on earth knows this.
Blacks don’t succeed in very many things because they can’t. Couldn’t we just stop playing “Let’s pretend,” and tell them that outright?
I know, I know, they’ll be insulted and riot, but they’re going to riot anyway, so I’m all for getting it over with as soon as possible so we can concentrate on important matters instead of race, which diverts attention away from important matters just to appease a people who are no more than children with deadly temper tantrums.
All living Whites are responsible for slavery that happened over 150 years ago, but no living blacks are responsible for the over 40,000 black on White rapes that happened last year and the 100,000’s in the past 150 years.
Considering all the white victims of black crime, and other injuries we’ve suffered, I say vote reparations for whites.
In Canada, massive amounts of financial reparations were paid out to Indians to compensate for their ‘mistreatment’ in residential schools. What did it result in? Not much - many aboriginals blew the money away, and drugs and/or suicide were the unfortunate end result on more than one occasion. Giving blacks or Indians huge amounts of financial largesse only encourages them to waste it, in my opinion, without doing anything for their personal betterment and ability to contribute to society as productive persons.
It is appalling to suggest that whites will pay reparations to contemporary blacks for what long dead whites did to long dead blacks. So in fact we are being punished for what a long ago somebody did to a long ago someone else.
Very typical of Stalinist ideas of collective punishment. Whites are ‘class enemies’.
Walter is right and of course he can say it but a White man would not be allowed to say it without being a “racist”.
I have to agree with the poster #4 above who said that not being a slave was NEVER a “human right”…what “rights” do we humans have anyway? NONE. Unless we TAKE them by force in one way or another.
I don’t recall even one of the Ten Commandments saying, “Thou shall not be a slave or slave owner”.
Hey, where’s my share then? I have a touch of Cherokee! (Joking.)
Seriously, the whole idea of reparations is ridiculous. What are they going to spend it on, more KFC? Because as most AmRen readers are aware, blacks are all about bling and I-want-it-now.
I think that if everyone made reparations for what their ancestors did, we would all break even. My ancestors were killing each other way back when.
And yes, Virginia was illegally split. I understand that a lot of Southerners don’t even consider West Virginia to be a state.
I’m glad that Mr. Williams put this out. I don’t want to dislike anyone, but far too many blacks are pushing us into the corner. I feel myself filling with rage sometimes, but when I read writings from Mr. Williams, I feel a bit at ease knowing there are some out there with the intelligence and honesty that bring me back to reality.
Reparations WILL BE MADE! make no mistake about that my fellow AmRenners, IT WILL BE PAID! Probably in a night time rider on a congressional pay raise, but IT WILL BE PAID! Black and muslim panderers in Congress and Senate will see to it to their peril, remember to vote against EVERY ENCUMBENT at mid terms..
If Walter Williams ever ran for public office I’d vote for him over 95% of the useless whites who run.
A boon to the economy of of working people;; like mana from heaven, free money from fools with a guarantee from the government.
to Anonymous:
While we’re on a Biblical kick:
I sympathize with blacks who were enslaved 200 years ago. But I couldn’t care less about those trying to extort money for it today. In fact, the more they try to extort money the less I care about them.
Still, if reparations ever passes then I’m buying stock in whatever company makes Champale! hehe
although we have all been brainwashed since birth to believe that blacks are always “oppressed” by whites, huge numbers of whites in the US have suffered terrible violence at the hands of blacks.
I would propose an online clearinghouse for Euro-Americans who want to share their experiences without being vilified as “racists” or “white supremacists.”
This might go a long way toward launching the public “discussion on race” that Mr. Holder and President Obama claim they want to have, but which they shut down immediately when it begins on the grounds that hate “hate speech must be criminalized.”
At the same time that we have been subject to a reign of terror from coast to coast and from north to south at the hands of blacks in the formerly great cities of our nation, we have paid out millions if not trillions of dollars in various forms of assistance to the black community.
It might go a long way toward healing the rift between blacks and whites in the United States if blacks would admit that whites have meant enormous sacrifices to improve the socioeconomic status of blacks, and that our thanks so far has been a reign of terror.
It might go a long way toward healing the rift if blacks would thank us for the former, and apologize for the latter.
After all of the debates of the preparations and formal apologies for slavery and discrimination, why is it that there is no discussion about the apology that is owed white Americans for all of our sacrifices on behalf of the black community??
“There is no carry over involved with slavery. No black today has been affected by it. Blacks like to say they fail and score low academically because of the after effects of slavery, which is absolute nonsense. They fail, because they have little or no abilities and very low group intelligence. The proof of this can be found all over the world. It’s no secret. Every nation on earth knows this.”
These apologies do nothing to help anyone. Their purpose is to remind Whites how bad they are because of the color of their skin, and that no matter what they do, they can never erase their White Guilt.
Perhaps the reparations can be paid off in an appropriate manner.I suggest genuine Confederate currency.
I think that allowing descendants of slaves to live and participate in american society on equal terms with whites should be considered reparation.
Southern people continue to bare the brunt of guilt, discrimination, and vilification by liberal media. Generally, people of the South are now and were then very devout Christian. To stray from Jesus’s teaching would be to invite the disdain of ones’ peers of the community. As before metioned by another poster to mistreat a slave, or later Blacks was looked down upon by the Church. What is promoted as rampant by Southerners was actually the exception, not the rule.
What about the slave trade that africans practiced against the Europeans until the mid 1820s? I am sure the Italians, Spanish, Portuguese, Greeks and southern French would like an apology and reparations - that is before their own territory is taken over by the descendants of the very same african slave masters.
If we have to pay reparations for slavery, then what should blacks have to pay for the destruction of our once great cities?
Detroit was once the wealthiest city in America. It is now in ruins and chaos, despite billions of tax dollars spent trying to mitigate and repair the damage done by blacks.
Add to the list every single city in America where blacks moved in.
“It goes without saying that slavery was a gross violation of human rights.”
I think we can all agree on that. As bad as slavery is there is one thing that is worse. It is called genocide. In slavery one is sold into an uncertain future, but there is still a future. With genocide there is no future, no tomorrows.
Today in Africa more Africans are being killed by their fellows Africans than were every sold into slavery. Wouldn’t these victims of genocide have been better off to be sold as slaves, rather than being turned in to rotting corpses? Isn’t an uncertain future better than no future?
Many of our ancestors faced the same uncertain future when they were taken out of prison and shipped off to the penal colonies of Georgia and Australia. Most didn’t want to go, but had no choice. As bad as slavery is, slaves had worth, prisoners do not.
‘Reparations’ The first time I heard this word and found out what it meant, I have to admit that I thought it was the silliest thing I ever heard. The very idea that I and my kind would have to give more than we already give the these ferel beings was beyond belief. That was a few years ago. Now, it’s not so silly given all the recent events.
How can so few that give little demand so much? If we could ever summate all the contributions of the American black race from slavery to now, the results would be interesting. That’s including whatever inventions, contributions to the arts, sciences and pholosophies etc. and add that to the damage/deaths of the Civil War, crime, social services used (WIC, welfare, etc) incompetence in undeserved jobs, degradation of professions that had to include them etc,. I think the result would be a giant negative number and we would be owed the reparations.
I can promise this much, I’ll either stop paying taxes or move to another country before I give one dollar more than what’s already being stolen from me to give to this ‘race’. Racist? Nah, I not anti-black, just pro-White.
The world’s on fire and we had better wake up soon while we still have the power. The fact that we are still hearing this term in higher volumes is an indicator that we are losing ground.
To poster #16…….That is true. Jesus never did. But you will never hear a pastor today ever speak that truth. They continually preach how slavery and racism is a sin….really? Where is that in the Bible? I am beginning to believe that the Christianity taught today is on a suicide mission.
The idea that the U.S became rich off the backs of slave labor is preposterous! People should learn something about economics before they make such a statement. A slave nation will, of course, have a very different DISTRIBUTION of income from that of a free nation but slavery will not, of itself, make a nation rich. A nation becomes rich through increasing worker productivity, which is accomplished by division of labor, free trade and productivity-enhancing machinery. Free labor is also more productive than slave labor because of the work/reward incentives that exist under a free system.
This bill if passes it could in fact be the spark that sets off the second civil war in this country.
to Anonymous:
While we’re on a Biblical kick:
“Reparations advocates make the foolish unchallenged pronouncement that United States became rich on the backs of free black labor.”
How come Africa is not as rich as the United States? After all, if the slaves made America rich surely the source of the slaves (Africa) should have become even richer with all the available “free” labour…
I thought that one of the tenets of the kind of justice and legal systems we have in the West, is that no person is responsible for the crimes of their parents.
I don’t think Whites owe anything to Blacks. Besides, they have become some sort of a priviledged class, with all this affirmative action stuff!
Here’s what the movie “Barbershop” had to say about it:
— Bilbo wrote: “The idea that the U.S became rich off the backs of slave labor is preposterous!”
Of course it is. It’s completely absurd, and the notion is easily refuted by anyone with with a little knowledge.
But people tend to believe what they WANT to believe. This is true of all races. But especially, blacks are by far the most gullible and most illogical of all the races. So they will believe whatever makes them feel good or works to their advantage — especially if there’s MONEY in it for them.
“It goes without saying that slavery was a gross violation of human rights.”
There is no such thing as “human rights” and the concept is ridiculous. Simply being human grants no rights whatsoever, nor should it. Rights are established through struggle, written in blood and preserved through vigilance and resolve Our rights as Americans for example are vested in our Constitution. So-called “human rights” are vested in nothing more than the hot air emanating from the mouths of self-serving political gasbags…
