Slavery Reparations...a critic speaks out
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Slavery Reparations .......by Fred Reed

For those of you unfamiliar with Fred Reed, he's a police reporter for one of the large Washington newspapers.......

Anyway, Fred publishes (published) a weekly online column in which he got to say the things his editors would never, ever have let him write in the paper. His stuff is iconoclastic and various articles have probably offended everyone regardless of political orientation.

So, with the warning that "This is definitely not politically correct", here comes Fred.

The following is an essay regarding the failings of a system and a culture. Please note that he elegantly describes the mood of many Americans and he does so without prejudice.



Slavery Reparations .......by Fred Reed

On the Web I find that Henry Louis Gates Jr., the chairman of Afro- American Studies at Harvard, is demanding that whites pay reparations to blacks. It's because of slavery, see. He is joined in this endeavor by a gaggle of other professional blacks. I guess he'll send me a bill, huh?

I feel like saying, "Let me get this straight, Hank. I'm slow. Be patient. You want free money because of slavery, right? I don't blame you." I'd like free money too. Tell you what. I believe in justice. I'll give you a million dollars for every slave I own, and another million for every year you were a slave. Fair enough? But tell me, how many slaves do you suppose I have? In round numbers, I mean...Say to the nearest dozen. And how long were you a slave?

Oh. In other words, I owe you reparations for something that I didn't do and didn't happen to you. That makes sense. Like lug nuts on a birthday cake.

Personally, I think you owe me reparations for things you didn't do and never happened to me. I've never been coated in Dutch chocolate and thrown from the Eiffel Tower. I'll bet you've never done it to anyone. I want reparations. Kinda silly, isn't it?

But if we're going to talk about reparations, that's a street that runs in two directions. You want money from me for what some other whites did to some other blacks in another century. How about you guys paying whites reparations for current expenses caused by blacks? Not long ago blacks burned down half of Los Angeles, a city in my country. Cities are expensive, Hank. Build one sometime and you'll see what I mean. Whites had to pay taxes to repair Los Angeles for you. You can send me a check.

Now, yes, I know you burned LA because you didn't like the verdict in the trial of those police officers. Well, I didn't like the verdict in the Simpson trial. But I didn't burn my house and loot Korean grocers Over the years blacks have burned a lot of American cities: Newark, Detroit, Watts, on and on. Now add in the fantastic cost over the years of welfare in all its forms, of large police forces and jails and security systems in department stores.

I can't live in the capital city of my own country because of crime committed by blacks. Toss in the cultural cost of lowering standards in everything for the benefit of blacks. See what I mean?

Now, I'd view things differently if you said, "Fred, blacks can't get anywhere in a modern country without education. We know that. We need better schools, smarter teachers, harder courses, books with smaller pictures and bigger words. Can you help us?" I'd say, "Hallelujah! Hoo-ahh! Not just yes, but hell yes. Let's sell an aircraft carrier and get these folks some real schools and get them into the economic mainstream." I'd say it partly because it would be the right thing to do, and partly, because I'd like to add you guys to the tax base.

The current custodial state is expensive. I'd just love for blacks to study and learn to compete and stop burning places. But is it going to happen? You may not believe it, but I, and most whites, don't like seeing blacks as miserable and screwed up as they are. I spend a fair amount of time in the projects. Those places are ugly. It's no fun watching perfectly good kids turn into semiliterate dope dealers who barely speak English. It just plain ain't right. But, Hank, what am I supposed to do about it? I can't do your children's homework.. At some point, people have to do things for themselves, or they don't get done.

Maybe it's time.

I'll tell you what I see out in the world, Hank.. I think blacks are too accustomed to getting anything they want by just demanding it. True, it has worked for over half a century. Get a few hundred people in the street, implicitly threaten to loot and burn, holler about slavery, and the Great White Cash Spigot turns on. Thing is, whites don't much buy it any longer. Most recognize that what once was a civil-rights movement has become a shakedown game. Few people still feel responsible for the failings and inadequacies of blacks. Political correctness keeps the lid on -- but everyone knows the score. Which scares me, Hank.

On one hand, blacks hate whites and incline toward looting and burning. (The whites you hate are the ones who marched in the civil-rights movement. Ever think about that?)

On the other hand, whites quietly grow wearier and wearier of it. Not good.

On the third hand (allow me three hands, for rhetorical convenience), blacks keep demanding things. As I write, you demand reparations for slavery. Blacks in Oklahoma (I think it was) want money for some ancient race riot. Other blacks reject the Declaration of Independence, blacks in New York hint broadly at burning and looting over a trial, yet more demand the elimination of the Confederate flag, and the federal equal opportunity apparatus, which means blacks, wants to sue Silicon Valley for not hiring nonexistent black engineers.

That's a lot of demanding for one month, Hank. What happens if whites ever say, "No"?

Now, how about you? You've got a cushy job up there at Harvard, and you can hoot and holler about what swine and bandits whites are. I guess it's lots of fun, and you get a salary for it. But don't you think you might do blacks more good if you told them to complain less and study more?

For example, if you want blacks to work in Silicon Gulch, the best approach might be to find some really smart black guys, and get them to study digital design, not Black Studies. That's how everybody else does it. It works. Then blacks wouldn't feel left out, and racial tension would decline.

Sound like a plan?

Just out of curiosity, how many hours a week do professors of Afro-American Studies spend in the projects, encouraging poor black kids to study real life sho-nuf subjects?

Fred

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*Google "Fred Reed Police Reporter" for more info on the author. He's an ex-Marine combat vet, police reporter and journalist. Interesting man and stories to be read there.

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**Subject of the article, Professor Gates

This post gets my stamp of approval.

" In other words, I owe you reparations for something that I didn't do and didn't happen to you. That makes sense. Like lug nuts on a birthday cake. "

taggity!

I would've worded it differently, but I approve nonetheless.

The option of relocating to the Shangri-la like paradise known as Africa is always available...

One of the most tagable subjects all week.

Thanks maddog.

This is very tagged!

There's some good stuff in there, but he needs to tone it down a bit.

Lo, it was tagged, and it was good.

I dislike the (probably unintentional) implication that the vast majority of blacks are like this, but frankly this article hit it spot on. I'm sick of the culture of thugs and professional victims these people are perpetuating. Like Bill Cosby said, the only one holding you down is YOU. Get out of the gutter and join the rest of the nation in being productive and quit your bitching about things you've brought on yourselves.

I never even had a CONCEPT of race until I was about fourteen or fifteen. To me, differences in skin color or whatever were just the same as people having differently colored hair or eyes. It was people shoving racist shit like this down my throat that shattered that color-blind view of the world I had, the same world Martin Luther King dreamed of. I demand reparations from this professor the article is ranting about, Jesse Jackson, and every inner city black who has ever uttered the words "bling", "nigga", "whitey", "cracka", "po-po", or "rizzle".

wont get jackshit from me, my ancestors came to USA as legal immigrants in the early 1900's.

Just say 'no.'

Quoted: wont get jackshit from me, my ancestors came to USA as legal immigrants in the early 1900's.

Mine never owned slaves.

Wow.

I'm descended from Russian Jews, who legally immagrated here in the early 1900's. What do I get?

Quoted: Quoted: wont get jackshit from me, my ancestors came to USA as legal immigrants in the early 1900's. Mine never owned slaves.

Mine were too poor so they just had many children to work the fields.

Quoted: Wow.

The man himself.
Fred Reed is a badass.

Oh that's good!

This is the kind of thing I've been wanting to say for a long time but couldn't put it into the right words.  

I'd like a tack on this one, but barring that I think I'll save it for my own reference.  I'll need this in the future to help beat back the ignorance.  

I had two great-great grandfathers in the 141st Pennsylvania Infantry in the Civil War.

I can't comprehend why I, or my family, owe reparations.

Heck, wasn't the 40 acres & a mule deal reparations?

Quoted: I never even had a CONCEPT of race until I was about fourteen or fifteen. To me, differences in skin color or whatever were just the same as people having differently colored hair or eyes. It was people shoving racist shit like this down my throat that shattered that color-blind view of the world I had, the same world Martin Luther King dreamed of. I demand reparations from this professor the article is ranting about, Jesse Jackson, and every inner city black who has ever uttered the words "bling", "nigga", "whitey", "cracka", "po-po", or "rizzle".

+1   I don't remember ever even considering the race of another person until around the same age, just never mattered in the slightest

Fred's the shit. Speaks logically in an educated manner exactly what's on his mind in a pleasently suprising non-pc no-holds-barred accurate manner.

fredoneverything

i'm american indian. what do i get...?

nevermind, i'll just build a casino...

My family did own slaves, BFD. Want to talk about reparations? I want reparations for legal property stolen from my family's estate. You're going to outlaw slavery? Fine I expect some remuneration for my farm equipment. This reparations BS pisses me off so bad I can't hardly spit.




96Ag


Oh yeah BTW

All of which is very true.  And why, if you're not reading this book  


The REDNECK MANIFESTO: HOW HILLBILLIES HICKS AND WHITE TRASH BECAME AMERICAS SCAPEGOATS by Jim Goad


You're missing out on some serious knowledge.

I say any former slave that is still alive  should be the first in line

FACT: Whites did not take slaves from Africa, they BOUGHT slaves from black African slavers who sold them into bondage. The same (black) slavers who took ships to Europe and took WHITE SLAVES to Libya forcing Thomas Jafferson to send our US Marines to release the white slaves a repatriate them. ("From the halls of Montezuma, to the shores of Tripoli...")

My white European ancestors were taken into slavery by black African slavers, now gimme my damn money!

Sometimes the truth hurts and this is definantly dead on

You what- This is totally 180 degrees from the way I think but I would give it to them. I f it worked it would save us billions in the long run and could even payout with the income taxes it would generate.

Thats right, here ya go. - $100,000.00 in a 12 month payout. Sorry your family were slaves 200 years ago.


But there is a catch.

The taxpayers that have to cough up your $100 "G's" want something to show for their investment. They are tired of the BILLIONS that is spent on welfare in the inner cities each year. Mr. and Mrs Taxpayer are concerned that if you are just handed this money that the only entities who will benefit from it is the Cadillac dealership, the liquor store, and the company who makes purple velvet hats to go with red suits.

So in order to receive your reparation you're going to have to qualifiy for it. That means:

1) a four year undergraduate degree. In something, basketweaving, whatever. But you have to get it. You can borrow against your money to pay for it and if you graduate, we will even let you pay it out in a low intrest loan rather than just deducting it from you cash allotment.

2) Show a tax return for a job, any job. Since you have a college degree, you will probably get a decent job and realize that the $100K is only a small amout of money you will now earn over your career by just going to work on a daily basis.

3) Stay out of trouble. During the course of the payout year, any criminal activites that are deemed serious (Class A misdemeanor or worse in Texas) will void any remaining payments. You have an education, you have a career, you have money. Just buy the shit you want for change. YOu don't have to steal it. Pride in ownership is better for your ego than a stolen set of 22" spinning wheels you carjacked some rich white kid for.

ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS GO TO COLLEGE, GRADUATE, AND BE A PRODUCTIVE MEMBER OF SOCIETY. Now many of you will attempt to find a way to circumvent the requirements. Fake degrees, Fake schools, whatever. If you are caught, you will lose any chance of your reparations. There will be no appeal, like your last brush with the law, no second chance like your probation officer gives you, no circumventing the SPIRIT of the conditions of the program. Thats right, you're not stupid, you know exactly what we want, not some BS way around. In order to get the money you are going to have to do something that you never thought you would have to do.  EARN IT FROM THE TAXPAYERS.

Good luck!

Why aren't they demanding reperations from the original slave traders ?  The British , Dutch,
and Portuguese were dealing in the slave trade LONG before the U.S. even existed .

As long as being educated, hard-working, and successful, is negatively attributed to "acting white", things will never improve.

My family owned hundreds of slaves before they were forced to free then then hire them back to work the timber/lumber operation in Louisiana.  So what?  You'll have to kill me before I give one cent to any strongarm bandit.

Quoted: There's some good stuff in there, but he needs to tone it down a bit.

I thought that article is remarkably restrained.

Quoted: FACT: Whites did not take slaves from Africa, they BOUGHT slaves from black African slavers who sold them into bondage. The same (black) slavers who took ships to Europe and took WHITE SLAVES to Libya forcing Thomas Jafferson to send our US Marines to release the white slaves a repatriate them. ("From the halls of Montezuma, to the shores of Tripoli...") My white European ancestors were taken into slavery by black African slavers, now gimme my damn money!

Got a source for that?

BTW, that is not what they teach in the military about the  War with the Barbary Pirates...

Quoted: My family owned hundreds of slaves before they were forced to free then then hire them back to work the timber/lumber operation in Louisiana.  So what?  You'll have to kill me before I give one cent to any strongarm bandit.

Ha Ha.  What a joke.  You're already paying up the wazzu for them and illegal mexican parasites.  Future payments will increase and will be drained from you (and I) through the regular channels.  

Quoted: Quoted: wont get jackshit from me, my ancestors came to USA as legal immigrants in the early 1900's. Mine never owned slaves.

Mine did

I gave at the office.
Every pay day I am FORCED to give to this cause.

Quoted: Quoted: My family owned hundreds of slaves before they were forced to free then then hire them back to work the timber/lumber operation in Louisiana.  So what?  You'll have to kill me before I give one cent to any strongarm bandit. Ha Ha.  What a joke.  You're already paying up the wazzu for them and illegal mexican parasites.  Future payments will increase and will be drained from you (and I) through the regular channels.

I get all of mine back by stealing road signs and selling them for scrap.

This issue has been discussed in my family on more than one occasion.  I am commonly referred to as a "white guy" and I am married to a woman who is commonly referred to as a "black woman".  So whenever this issue comes up on the news we discuss it home.  My wife and I have also discussed this with my wife’s extended family.  Sometimes these conversations become quite animated and are always fun to have.  

For my wife and I, we have come to the conclusion if this ever becomes a law of any sort, I will just hand her the checkbook and call it good.  We will film the handing over of the checkbook and send a copy to whoever writes the law so they know we are in compliance.

My wife’s family and my wife all find this to be extremely stupid, and they are all descendants of slaves.  Their ancestors slave master was also my wife’s great-great grandfather would roll over in his grave if he ever heard of such a thing as reparations, according to my wife’s grandmother.  After the Civil War was over, he freed his slaves and married one of them.  He was already married to a white woman and had kids with her.  So before he died, he had 2 families, a white one and a black one.  He would spend a month with each in separate homes.  The second wedding was illegal, but he did not care whatsoever.  So he ended up with 18 or 19 kids from 2 different women.  He made sure all the kids could read and write and that they all went to school.  It is quite an interesting story.  

As for my personal beliefs, I think this is an absolutely stupid idea.  

Quoted: This issue has been discussed in my family on more than one occasion.  I am commonly referred to as a "white guy" and I am married to a woman who is commonly referred to as a "black woman".  So whenever this issue comes up on the news we discuss it home.  My wife and I have also discussed this with my wife’s extended family.  Sometimes these conversations become quite animated and are always fun to have.   For my wife and I, we have come to the conclusion if this ever becomes a law of any sort, I will just hand her the checkbook and call it good.  We will film the handing over of the checkbook and send a copy to whoever writes the law so they know we are in compliance. My wife’s family and my wife all find this to be extremely stupid, and they are all descendants of slaves.  Their ancestors slave master was also my wife’s great-great grandfather would roll over in his grave if he ever heard of such a thing as reparations, according to my wife’s grandmother.  After the Civil War was over, he freed his slaves and married one of them.  He was already married to a white woman and had kids with her.  So before he died, he had 2 families, a white one and a black one.  He would spend a month with each in separate homes.  The second wedding was illegal, but he did not care whatsoever.  So he ended up with 18 or 19 kids from 2 different women.  He made sure all the kids could read and write and that they all went to school.  It is quite an interesting story.   As for my personal beliefs, I think this is an absolutely stupid idea.

You're right; that *is* an interesting story.

The bill for slavery was signed "paid in full" with the blood of 600,000 Americans in 1861-1865. Now,get over it.

Blacks make up about 15% of the population and commit about 50% of the crimes.

The cost of black crime is not paid by blacks, but by taxpayers.  Blacks pay very little 'effective' tax or none at all, on the average, because as a group they receive more benefit money than they pay in.

Blacks should pay reparations to non blacks for the damage their high crime rates do to society as a whole and reparations for the direct cost of their crimes and for the cost of keeping so many of them incarcerated.  Of course they should pay reparations for the extra cost of policeing them and the extra cost of prosecuting them.  

Blacks should bear the future extra cost of policeing, prosecuting and incarcerating their own kind.  And the previous extra expendatures, because of their bad behavior, should be repayed, with interest in the form of reparations.

Blacks receive a disproportionate share of social services and benefits.  They must bear the future cost of their own benefits and services  and pay reparations, with interest, for the past extra cost of their social benefits and social services.  

Reparations, lots of em.............it's about time.

One more thing.  Blacks should pay reparations to the descendants of union soilders who liberated them.  In turn, they can collect reparations from the west african nations that sold them into slavery.

So far I have received no money from them and have not even gotten a thank you.

We want SOCIAL--JUSTICE.  

We want Blacks to carry the burden of their own future extra expenses and to pay reparations for the past extra expense they have caused to our society.

"I look forward to a time when people are judged by the content of their character and not the color of their skin"     Be careful what you wish for, Martin, it just might come true.

Tag for tomorrow

Quoted: I say any former slave that is still alive  should be the first only ones in line

Fixed it for ya...

Quoted: i'm american indian. what do i get...? nevermind, i'll just build a casino...

That is american indian reparations isn't it??

I picked this up off the net a while back. I don't remember who wrote it. maybe it was the same guy. Anyway, I thought it was pretty good.

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I see by the papers in the Yankee Capital that Johnny Cochran, and of course Jesse and Al, are wheezing and blowing like a county-fair calliope with a leaky boiler. They always are. This time it was about the need to pay reparations for the ravages trala of slavery. It got me to thinking.
I hate it when that happens.

Now, I know I’m hard-hearted, and mean-spirited, and no damn good. It’s probably my only virtue. But on consideration, I realized that they might be right. The ravages of slavery do run deep, and cause motingator trouble, with no end in sight. I decided that compensation was only reasonable. Sometimes you don’t like a conclusion, but you have to reach it. All right. I’ll be a man about it.
You can pay me reparations, Johnny.

To start with, I figure you owe me for three bicycles. Maybe it’s a small thing, but I’m tired of losing bicycles. Are we talking market value or replacement? What I really want to be paid for is having to keep my latest two-wheeler in my living room. Do you know how many times I’ve knocked the fool thing over? And, oh, the scratch in my granddad’s antique desk that the brake lever made. What’s that worth? Call it three grand. OK? Direct deposit would be nice.

But . . . how do we dollarize cultural retrogression? God knows I appreciate your offer of reparations, but I’m having trouble with the arithmetic. Help me.
A few years back, my middle-school daughter brought home a horrendously misspelled science hand-out. Now, Johnny: You and I both know that it’s easy to make a typo, and write “phenylkeetone” instead of “phenylketone.” But “feemelkeebome” is stretching it. The errors were of this sort. An understanding of chemistry clearly had never rippled the serene surface of the woman’s mind.

Without thinking, I asked, “What color is your teacher?” (If I had thought carefully, I would have asked, “What color is your teacher?”) My daughter responded with an anguished, “Da-d-d-d-y!” She had made the connection, but knew she wasn’t supposed to.
I’ve got no problem with black teachers, if they are competent. No problem at all. But a teacher who is too ignorant to spell her subject, and too lazy to use a dictionary, ought to be flipping burgers. Simple burgers, with no moving parts. Thing is, we can’t fire ignorant teachers, Johnny, because of the lingering effects of slavery. I can yell at an ignorant white teacher, but not at a black one. To expect blacks to meet standards is racist. You can send me the price of four years of tuition in a private school outside the country.

What’s the cost of permanent welfare? Subsidized everything? Enormous police departments? What do you figure? Just add it to your tab. Have you thought about setting up an endowment?
But here’s a large ravage of slavery, Johnny: Fear.
What price do we put on looking over our shoulders? On watching to be sure we don’t go one subway stop too far? Warning our girlfriends not to drive on certain streets? Checking the clientele of Seven-Eleven before going in at night?
People in, say, Switzerland can walk their streets after dark. We can’t. Why? What have we got that they don’t, that might cause fear?
Elvis impersonators, Johnny. Yep. Switzerland doesn’t have any Elvis impersonators. Check for yourself.

What’s fear worth? Is it a minimum-wage job? Forty-hour week or twenty-four hours a day? Benefits? Seniority pay as people grow older, weaker, and less able to defend themselves? You see the actuarial difficulty. Accounting is a more difficult trade than you might think.
The white guy beaten to death 100 yards from my door last year – they never caught the killers, but – what you reckon, Johnny? Do you figure it was white Presbyterian women from the old-ladies’ home? That’s my guess. That’s who usually does it. Anyway, you can send me $540 for the Sig 9mm pistol I bought after blacks started moving into the neighborhood and crime went up. And ammo, carry permit, Hydra-Shock rounds.

Now, millions of honest blacks might write and say, “Fred, we aren’t criminals. Why should we pay for what other blacks do?” Splendid question. But of course whites say, “We don’t have any slaves. Why should we pay for what some other whites did?” If it is a reasonable question for blacks to ask, as indeed it is, why isn’t it a reasonable question for whites to ask?
But while you are in a mood to pay up, Johnny, let me introduce a useful concept: Civilizational rent. You’ll like this. It’s such a good idea.

A culture is essentially software. No? Sure, there are physical embodiments: positron-emission scanners, high-bypass turbofans, radar with Doppler beam-sharpening. Yet basically a culture is a body of knowledge, like Microsoft Word. (All right, throw in values. But I don’t want to make this too difficult.)

White guys invented these things at considerable cost. We had to. Europe doesn’t have much low-hanging fruit, and it gets cold in the north. So generations of people that I’m sure you’re familiar with – Newton, Leibniz, Galois, Gauss, Carnot, Dirac – did work that led to all kinds of useful . . . you know . . stuff.  Western civilization, it’s called.

As a result of slavery, you have been using our civilization without a license. (I know: You’re having trouble with the idea of implied retroactive acceptance of a license I invented five minutes ago. Microsoft would grasp it in a heartbeat. Anyway, I’m writing the column.)
Further, you’ve been using it for a long time, Johnny. Air-conditioning. Roads. Writing. The wheel. Complicated stuff like that. Medicine. Tractors. Shoes. Houses. I’ve spent time in Africa, where people live in stick things that look as if a Cub Scout had built a campfire and forgotten to light it. You’re getting a deal here, Johnny.

I don’t wish stick houses on anyone. I’m glad you have the benefits of electricity, clothes, and daytime TV. I’d love to see blacks study, earn degrees on their merits, prosper. Think of the trouble it would save. But – as suggested by your manly desire to pay reparations -- you owe us licensing fees. Granted, it’s hard to set a price on a culture. But if Microsoft Office goes for $250 at fire-sale prices, I guess a whole civilization is cheap at $100K a copy.

I believe we can do business, Johnny.
I hope so. I can use the money.

Anymore, I wonder who is slaving for who...

patsue

I wish I had some slaves.

I expect him to be jobless in a couple days.

Smo fo buttah layin' to da bone...jackin' me up tightly!

You cut me deep Shrek.

Welfare + Affirmative action = Reparations

Quoted: Welfare + Affirmative action = Reparations

Yeah, welfare was created for blacks because of slavery!!!
Yeah, affirmative action  was created for blacks because of slavery!!! (sidenote: white women have gained alot because of AA)

Reparations=BS