Should white people pay black people money for unpaid work from slavery?

Viceroy

Would be impossible to quantify.

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Nope.

Original post by nmanvi

Troll, no one is this stupid

Actually quite a few Caribbean's and African Americans say they want reparations for the millions of unpaid hours. It's quite a big issue in race relations in the US.

The logic is that a century of slavery has disadvantaged black people to the extent that it accounts for the disparity between whites and blacks on every single available indicator of well being today. To address this imbalance some claim a lump sum should be paid to black Americans, who are nearly all descendants of slaves.

A conservative estimate for the amount is around $2.5 trillion

In 1988 the US government paid out reparations to all the Japanese-Americans they wrongly detained in the Second World War, of course many had died by this point so the money went to their sons and daughters.
Could the same rational be applied to slavery? With the money going to the descendants of the victims?

Reply 3

zimbo97

Original post by Viceroy

Would be impossible to quantify.

Not really, we know how many slaves there were, we know what the average wage for their work would have been if they were not slaves, and we can estimate the hours worked over the hundred years they were enslaved.

Research has been done on the issue, a conservative estimate is $2.5 trillion

Reply 4

lucaf

And what "white people" should be paying this? Considering we don't all descend from slave owners?

Reply 5

Viceroy

Original post by zimbo97

But how would anyone know the wages that would be appropriate to award a family living today for work done by ancestors they might not know much (or anything) about? What wages were given to a slave for one kind of work vs. another? What if a slave was unwaged? How many slaves might be related to a given person living today? What about conversion rates? Surely wages differed from slave owner to owner, and from slave to slave depending on what they did, how old the were, male/female, etc.? How many years did a particular slave work? There are so many contingencies.

I have no problem with the concept, objectively, but I don't see how it could be carried out responsibly and with any form of accuracy unless anyone who could prove ancestry was awarded the same amount.

Reply 6

Ribbit1234

no they shouldnt and u cant just claim money by being lazy like that. Why should white people of today pay you back becuase of the wrongdoings of their ancestors. just because theyre related it doesnt mean theyre the same . it would be like you serving time in prison say for something your brother did

Reply 7

zimbo97

Original post by Viceroy

Wages would not have differed from one owner to another because of course the nature of slavery is that wages are not paid.
You could take an average of what say, agricultural workers, were paid at the time who were not slaves. So in the present day that might be $25,000 (I have no idea). Then to convert these past wages to present-day value all one would need is to calculate the inflation leading to today (which is frequently done in economic history).

Advocates of the idea do not discriminate on the work done I believe, rather that the lump sum be collected and then distributed equally or perhaps on a means test basis to all black people.

Reply 8

sophie a

this seems like a troll post to me but in all seriousness i think probably the best way to move forward as a society would not be to give individuals money (that's stupid, you can't possibly quantify the amount that would be "due" to each individual with slave ancestors, or the amount that each white person should pay, etc., there are just too many complications), but to put money into social services to help disadvantaged people. in the US forcing white people to "repay" black people for unpaid slave work of the past would cause more racial tension then there already is, and i think it would help people more in the long run anyway to just focus on bettering the country as a whole with social services (esp. education--how the **** is college so expensive here??) rather than a one time pay off.

Reply 9

Howbeit

No, I had nothing to do with it and neither did the people complaining, so why should I pay compensation based on the colour of my skin? Isn't that just as racist as the slave trade?

And if we did this, why shouldn't we compensate everyone who's been wronged in the past? How about all the homosexuals get a payout from the Catholics, the Jews from the Germans etc...?

It would be hard to justify compensating people who were not victims of the activity and victimise those who were not either. If anyone was going to pay something out it would be the respective governments who legalised the activity, not random white people.

(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 10

Cormac Easton

Original post by Viceroy

Would be impossible to quantify.

Original post by Genocidal

Nope.

Original post by WeedCanKill

2/10 needs more Liberals bashing

OP has a point. Countries in Africa are still dealing with the aftermath of the transatlantic slave trade. The West (read: white people) should be ashamed of themselves and should pay reparations.

Reply 11

the bear

English people should be compensated by the Italians after what the Romans did to us. So many Englishmen were used as slaves by the Romans, but no-one wants to open up this can of vermicelli

Reply 12

Cormac Easton

Original post by the bear

English people should be compensated by the Italians after what the Romans did to us. So many Englishmen were used as slaves by the Romans, but no-one wants to open up this can of vermicelli

Trying to make a joke about the discrimination that black people still face is rather bigoted on your part.

Reply 13

the bear

Original post by Cormac Easton

Trying to make a joke about the discrimination that black people still face is rather bigoted on your part.

i was not joking. you trivialise the pain of my ancestor's misery.

Reply 14

Cormac Easton

Original post by A Mysterious Lord

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_slave_trade

So you're denying that white people committed slavery?

Original post by the bear

i was not joking. you trivialise the pain of my ancestor's misery.

oh shut up bare

Reply 15

yo radical one

Original post by Cormac Easton

OP has a point. Countries in Africa are still dealing with the aftermath of the transatlantic slave trade. The West (read: white people) should be ashamed of themselves and should pay reparations.

Many of the slaves were being sold to Europeans by African slavers, so if you want to go down this road, surely West Indian and North American Black people, should receive money both from Europeans and West Africans?

Reply 16

Quady

Original post by MrMango

Dunno how you sleep at night knowing you owe me money that I am entitled to.

Posted from TSR Mobile

Sue me.

Reply 17

Cormac Easton

Original post by yo radical one

Who bought the slaves? White people

Who benefited? White people

Who preyed on the desperateness of Africa as a whole to the point where people used their own as a meal ticket? White people

Who stole africa diamonds? white people

Who stole africa oil? white people

Let's be real the West as a whole used Africa and then spat them back out.

Reply 18

Rakas21

Original post by Cormac Easton

OP has a point. Countries in Africa are still dealing with the aftermath of the transatlantic slave trade. The West (read: white people) should be ashamed of themselves and should pay reparations.

No they don't.

The reason Africa is poor today is because after gaining independence, most of you had the brilliant idea of jumping into bed with the Soviets. Your countries are corrupt with little respect for private property rights and half them are lawless and infested with Islamists or in civil wars over resources. Blaming us is exactly the type of attitude that will keep you poor while the likes of the China, Philippines and South Korea who suffered just as badly at the hands of the Japanese, thrive.

Only now are you even starting to see some stand out candidates for future prosperity (my per capita bet is on Angola to reach western levels first).

Reply 19

Cormac Easton

Original post by Rakas21

I'd sooner we deported you all back to Africa than paid you a single penny for being too weak and primitive to stop us from making you slaves.

We apologise for not being able to defend ourselves against your advanced warfare tactics that rendered our combat efforts obselete and left the women and children exposed and vulnerable and ready to submit. Oh wait you had a gun...

Yeah that's where your strength came from raiding poor villages and threatening families by turning the gun on the kids and women and basically black mailing the men into going with you.

This is what white people did and still do. They murder, they pillage, they destroy and then they run back to their bit of land across that stretch of water and write songs and stories for their fat and pink children about how heroic they were fighting "weak and primitive" beings.

You're pathetic. I just spat at my monitor.