For slave reparations

[b]California Considering Slave Reparations[/b]
Friday, May 03, 2002
By Claudia Cowan
Fox News

SAN FRANCISCO — California never allowed slaves, but it may become the first state in the nation to make slave reparations a reality.

The possibility has supporters and opponents arguing over whether the time for reparations has come.

"It's a demand, I think, whose time has come. It's a demand that's a just demand," said Earl Hutchinson, an author and political commentator.

"To bring it up now, 150 years later almost, it makes no sense. But it reinforces the point that for some the issue of race will never go away," said Ward Connerly, chairman of the American Civil Rights Institute.

Two years ago, Democratic Gov. Gray Davis signed a law forcing insurance companies to disclose policies they wrote for slave owners more than a century ago. This week, the state's Department of Insurance released that information. None of the half dozen insurance companies are based in California, but they all did business in the state.

"It's smoking gun proof that a lot of insurance companies, insurance companies in this case, made money off slavery. They wrote the policies, and especially, they cashed in on those policies," Hutchinson said.

In an event last week, Davis said he would be interested in making amends if insurance companies did profit from slavery.

"Clearly, we want to right any wrongs and do justice to people who were taken advantage of," he told an audience at the Digital Connections Conference, a small business gathering sponsored by civil rights activist Jesse Jackson's Rainbow/PUSH Coalition.

The issue is extremely divisive, in large part because Davis appears to have endorsed the controversial plan being pushed by Jackson to give payments not to slave descendants, but to non-profit groups like Jackson's that serve the black community.

Connerly, who is in the midst of a fight to remove racial data from government records, is wary of Jackson's motive.

"I think it's not only convenient, it's probably orchestrated that way so the organizations that Mr. Jackson represents and others that represent, allegedly represent, the victims of slavery would be unduly enriched by this," he said.

The suggestion that companies may be forced to pay has political analysts wondering what is behind Davis' comment. He is running comfortably ahead in statewide election polls, leading one analyst to suggest that for Davis, it is a matter of principle, not politics.

"If Gray Davis needed the African-American vote in this state, then supporting reparations might help him, but the truth of the matter is that there is no constituency more loyal to Democrats than African-Americans," political analyst Susan Estrich said.

Since Gov. Davis and Rev. Jackson stood together in support of the idea last week, they have been less willing to talk about reparations. Soon after Fox News called about the issue, Davis and Jackson cancelled a scheduled joint press conference.

Others are talking, however, especially minority rights activists who expect a flurry of lawsuits, and Republicans who say they may have just written their first ad for the fall gubernatorial campaign.

here is an idea...
pay them reprations, but subtract the cost of 1) Transportation (had to boat them over) 2) housing (had to put a roof over their heads) 3) food (had to feed them)
4) education (had to teach them English, and ALOT of slave owners tagugh them more than that) 5) health care (had to keep them healthy and tend to them when they were injured and pregnant).

After recouping those costs, I figgure that teh amount owed would be about the price for a ONE WAY TICKET BACK TO AFRICA.
The people that don't want reprations can stay here in the U.S.

I think I would refuse to pay taxes after that.

This could ultimately turn out to be a good thing. Imagine you are a [@:D] and are looking to get say 150 grand in reparations money.
However, Brother Jackson steps in and instead the money goes to his "charities." Maybe blacks would finally see Jesse for the shakedown artist he really is.
That wouldn't be so bad would it?

Edited because my bord code is not yet perfect!

Reparations is an issue the Democratic party would like to see go away...

White Dems don't support it.  If this issue moves to the front burner, we just might see a few Dems putting an "X" in the Republican box on the ballot.

Edited to add the following:

It would be funny if a few folks could go over to DU and really talk up this issue.  Ya know - make sure that it becomes a campaign issue for them.  Hehehehehe....

Now you know why the governments want to take your firearms first.