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Reparations Are Morally Wrong
Reasons Why Reparations Are Morally Wrong And Will Increase Racial Tensions
A LAWSUIT has been filed against several corporations for acts committed more than 138 years ago, and from which they are alleged to have benefited from slavery. Harvard law professor Charles Ogletree, co-chair of the Reparations Coordinating Committee, defends such suits as a means of social healing. But far from repairing the damage of the past, these efforts are calculated to open fresh wounds in the present, promoting new injustices which future generations will be forced to confront.
The Case For Government Reparations Is Based On Selective History.
The reparations claim leaves out the crucial and costly role played by the American government in ending a slave system it did not create and which it paid a heavy price to end, including the loss of hundreds of thousands of American lives to end.
The Claims Against Individual Corporations Are Too Old And The Legitimate Claimants Are Dead.
The legal torts against individual companies are so old that no court will recognize them. When the alleged acts were committed slavery was legal not only in America but in Africa. In addition, some of the companies under siege are only connected to companies that existed during slavery through acquisition and merger. Finally the wealth of a corporation must be constantly recreated. Last year Enron was the 7th largest corporation in America. Today it is bankrupt. The wealth of targeted companies like Aetna Insurance is the creation of executives, employees and shareholders alive today, who are black as well as white, and who have no connection to slavery.
The Reparations Claim Diminishes The Moral Crime Of Slavery.
Slavery, as James Madison wrote, "is the most oppressive dominion of man over man." But the reparations proponents reduce the crime of slavery - a monstrous moral evil - to an economic scam. Will money paid now to people who were never slaves provide justice to slaves who are long deceased?
The Movement For Reparations Is A Shakedown Operation.
The lawyers conducting the reparations suits are well aware they do not have a legal leg to stand on. Their objective is not to adjudicate these issues in a court of law, but to cause a public relations nightmare for the companies under siege - to threaten them with a potential loss of customers and falling stock prices. Only a misguided political correctness prevents us from calling this what it is: legal extortion and an unsavory shakedown.
Reparations Claims Are Destructive To America's Social Fabric.
Reparations claims are destructive to the healing process its proponents say they hope to promote. They are an insult to the memory of Dr. King and the civil rights movement of the 1960s that a majority of Americans supported, and that triggered a profound and far-reaching social revolution in race relations.
Americans' recognition of what they have already generously given to repair damage suffered by African Americans will inevitably foster resentments against claims that they are complicit in crimes they abhor and in which living generations had no involvement. Reparations demanded from diverse ethnic communities, who have no real connection to the historic injustice of slavery, will only serve to embitter relations between African Americans and all other American communities.
Reparations suits are not a movement to repair injustice, as their proponents maintain. They are misguided attempts to punish the guiltless and will only make matters worse.
The Case For Government Reparations Is Based On Selective History.
The reparations claim leaves out the crucial and costly role played by the American government in ending a slave system it did not create and which it paid a heavy price to end, including the loss of hundreds of thousands of American lives to end.
The Claims Against Individual Corporations Are Too Old And The Legitimate Claimants Are Dead.
The legal torts against individual companies are so old that no court will recognize them. When the alleged acts were committed slavery was legal not only in America but in Africa. In addition, some of the companies under siege are only connected to companies that existed during slavery through acquisition and merger. Finally the wealth of a corporation must be constantly recreated. Last year Enron was the 7th largest corporation in America. Today it is bankrupt. The wealth of targeted companies like Aetna Insurance is the creation of executives, employees and shareholders alive today, who are black as well as white, and who have no connection to slavery.
The Reparations Claim Diminishes The Moral Crime Of Slavery.
Slavery, as James Madison wrote, "is the most oppressive dominion of man over man." But the reparations proponents reduce the crime of slavery - a monstrous moral evil - to an economic scam. Will money paid now to people who were never slaves provide justice to slaves who are long deceased?
The Movement For Reparations Is A Shakedown Operation.
The lawyers conducting the reparations suits are well aware they do not have a legal leg to stand on. Their objective is not to adjudicate these issues in a court of law, but to cause a public relations nightmare for the companies under siege - to threaten them with a potential loss of customers and falling stock prices. Only a misguided political correctness prevents us from calling this what it is: legal extortion and an unsavory shakedown.
Reparations Claims Are Destructive To America's Social Fabric.
Reparations claims are destructive to the healing process its proponents say they hope to promote. They are an insult to the memory of Dr. King and the civil rights movement of the 1960s that a majority of Americans supported, and that triggered a profound and far-reaching social revolution in race relations.
Americans' recognition of what they have already generously given to repair damage suffered by African Americans will inevitably foster resentments against claims that they are complicit in crimes they abhor and in which living generations had no involvement. Reparations demanded from diverse ethnic communities, who have no real connection to the historic injustice of slavery, will only serve to embitter relations between African Americans and all other American communities.
Reparations suits are not a movement to repair injustice, as their proponents maintain. They are misguided attempts to punish the guiltless and will only make matters worse.
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> the American government in ending a slave system it did not create and
> which it paid a heavy price to end, including the loss of hundreds of
> thousands of American lives to end.
The US government did not create the slave system only because the system
pre-dated the US Revolution. Slavery was allowed by the US Constitution
and many of the signers of that document and many of the elite throughout
US history were slave-owners.
> The Claims Against Individual Corporations Are Too Old And The
> Legitimate Claimants Are Dead.
How old is too old? Holocaust reparations have gone through.
> The legal torts against individual companies are so old that no court
> will recognize them.
How are you so sure? Let's just wait and see.
> When the alleged acts were committed slavery was legal not only in
> America but in Africa.
I don't know about "legal", but slavery still exists in Africa. It exists
now in the US within the prison system.
> In addition, some of the companies under siege are only connected to
> companies that existed during slavery through acquisition and merger.
I don't see any problem with that.
> Finally the wealth of a corporation must be constantly recreated. Last
> year Enron was the 7th largest corporation in America. Today it is
> bankrupt.
Wow, you know how to pick a bad example. Are you perhaps pro-reparations
in disguise?
> The wealth of targeted companies like Aetna Insurance is the creation
> of executives, employees and shareholders alive today, who are
> black as well as white, and who have no connection to slavery.
Actually, the wealth of Aetna is mostly its policyholders'. But these
companies are based on initial capital, some of which came from the
alleged acts.
> The Reparations Claim Diminishes The Moral Crime Of Slavery.
> Slavery, as James Madison wrote, "is the most oppressive dominion of man
> over man." But the reparations proponents reduce the crime of slavery -
> a monstrous moral evil - to an economic scam. Will money paid now to
> people who were never slaves provide justice to slaves who are long
> deceased?
Do you have a problem with reparations for the Holocaust, on the basis
that it reduces the suffering of the Holocaust to money? If not, why are
you not consistent?
> The Movement For Reparations Is A Shakedown Operation.
> The lawyers conducting the reparations suits are well aware they do not
> have a legal leg to stand on. Their objective is not to adjudicate these
> issues in a court of law, but to cause a public relations nightmare for
> the companies under siege - to threaten them with a potential loss of
> customers and falling stock prices. Only a misguided political
> correctness prevents us from calling this what it is: legal extortion
> and an unsavory shakedown.
Quite possibly. That's pretty much what the Holocaust reparations were
like. But I don't see a problem with a nice open blackmail of companies
for atrocious events in their past. Might actually prevent future
misbehavior.
> Americans' recognition of what they have already generously given to
> repair damage suffered by African Americans will inevitably foster
> resentments against claims that they are complicit in crimes they abhor
> and in which living generations had no involvement. Reparations demanded
> from diverse ethnic communities, who have no real connection to the
> historic injustice of slavery, will only serve to embitter relations
> between African Americans and all other American communities.
Not sure that much has been "generously given to repair damage", etc. The
freed slaves never did get their "forty acres and a mule". Forty acres and
a mule, with interest, amounts to a hell of a lot. Anyways, these
specific suits are not against "diverse ethnic communities" but against
specific corporations.
> Reparations suits are not a movement to repair injustice, as their
> proponents maintain. They are misguided attempts to punish the guiltless
> and will only make matters worse.
I don't think financial reparations are the best course of action, but
this completely fails to be a good explanation of why.
BTW, an article about this suit is at
http://athena.tbwt.com/content/article.asp?articleid=395
The US has yet to come to grips with the extent of its racist past, let alone the present.
=================
acknowledge the past
by anon • Wednesday April 10, 2002 at 03:18 PM
The past is past, but we do need to stop and acknowledge the past, which is I think what is driving this call for reparations - recognition and discussion, not money.
The US has yet to come to grips with the extent of its racist past, let alone the present...
=================
That's what I do not understand about the reparations movement.
By what logic is it going to be easier to get billions of dollars for PAST injuries then for the PRESENT discrimination that is going on right now?
I know, from personal experience as a civil rights activist in three states that we cannot find lawyers with the guts to challenge the evil being done by racist Fortune 500 executives and racist cops right now. Accordingly, I do find it annoying when grandstanding jive-turkeys like Charles Ogletree come running out to show how "militant" they are by pursuing a claim which they surely know has no chance. When he's done he'll go back to his tenured position at Harvard while the rest of us go back to our lives living at the mercy of the corporate bosses!
The problem is NOT what slaveholders did a hundred years ago in the past. What they are doing in the present IS the problem. What American progressives need are lawyers, doctors, journalists, and politicians with the guts and integrity to stand up for what is right here today, and not only for me and my African-American brothers but for everybody getting kicked in the teeth by these pigs.
I do still feel the past needs to be examined in order to understand how we got to where we are today. Why are we still celebrating Thanksgiving, for example? That's a sick joke. Imagine, in a hundred years, when Israel has succeeded in murdering most of the Palestinians and driving the rest into tiny, impoverished "reservations", that Israelis celebrate a day of remembrance for how the first Jewish settlers were taken care of by the natives (not sure if this actually happened - probably on some small scale, but the analogy is clear).
I personally think the best form of reparations would be a revolution destroying all boundaries of class, allowing all CEOs to assume their rightful place working 5 or 10 hours a week on a few menial chores just like everyone else.
Right on, Ellen. At last you got something 100% right. There's hope for you yet.
I think I'm entitled to a sizable check pretty damned soon!
Who counted them? How?