Obama says he opposes slavery reparations, apology
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama opposes offering reparations to the descendants of slaves, putting him at odds with some black groups and leaders. The man with a serious chance to become the nation's first black president argues that government should instead combat the legacy of slavery by improving schools, health care and the economy for all.... "I have said in the past -- and I'll repeat again -- that the best reparations we can provide are good schools in the inner city and jobs for people who are unemployed," the Illinois Democrat said recently.
I've written at some length about the idea of paying reparations for slavery. To say that I find the discussion about paying reparations repulsive wouldn't begin to do justice to the depth of my feelings on the issue. IF there were victims of slavery still alive, I could perhaps be persuaded to compensate those individuals for the suffering inflicted directly upon them by a society and legal system that regarded and treated them as second-class citizens. Given that even the youngest victims of slavery would now be pushing 150 years old, I think it can be safely said that there are no victims of that terrible era in our history currently alive. If I'm wrong...well, mea culpa....
Don't get me wrong; I'm not about to minimize the sheer, unmitigated evil of slavery nor the impact upon millions of innocent people. It's a chapter in our collective history that should occupy significant time and emphasis in our educational system, if for no other reason than to help ensure that nothing similar is ever allowed to happen in this country. America, a country built on freedom and opportunity, somehow managed to rationalize the creation of a system that regarded a class of people as second-class (and only 3/5 of a person). While we can, should, and must ensure that this period in our history is never forgotten, we cannot change the past. Nothing we do now, and no amount of money, can possibly alter the degree of suffering inflicted upon former slaves, whose only crime was in the color of their skin.
What we're left with then are the demands for reparations, which, from what I can see, amount to little more than demands for a lifestyle upgrade balanced on collective White guilt. Will any amount of money paid to African-Americans change a thing? Of course not. Slavery will still be a part of our collective past. Why, then, the demand for reparations? Why do so many in the African-American community view reparations as something akin to a right?
I wish I could answer that question...but there's no good answer available. If we're to make a difference in race relations going forward (for that is really all we can reasonably hope to impact), there are things we can do with significant amounts of public money that will make a noticeable and legitimate difference. Scholarship opportunities, training programs, economic incentives, public works projects...all these things and more can and would do a lot toward improving the collective lot of the African-American community. In point of fact, these programs should be expanded to include ALL minority communities, not just African-Americans, who just happen to be the loudest and most strident.
I'm not going to claim the "some of my best friends are black" argument, because this isn't about me or my White guilt. I, personally, have done nothing to contribute to slavery. What I can, and am certainly willing to do, is to work toward ensuring that, going forward, the color of one's skin is not used as a basis for oppression. Throwing large sums of money at individual African-Americans who missed slavery by well over a hundred years will do NOTHING to assuage any collective guilt or alleviate any collective suffering. The only real impact I can see is that reparations would provide an immediate lifestyle upgrade- a something-for-nothing money grab that some apparently see as their birthright.
My forefathers were Irish, and they weren't exactly welcomed with open arms, nor were they allowed free, fair, and full access to the benefits of America for many, many years. Does that ipso facto mean that I'm due reparations for that suffering? Where's my check? This is not about degrees of past suffering; I am no more deserving of reparations than African-Americans. The absolute worst thing we can do is to throw large amounts of tax dollars at a class of people for alleged suffering they've never endured.
We all can, and should, do whatever we reasonably can to make our world a place in which the color of one's skin is a non-issue. That (priceless) change will only come from within ourselves- not from within our collective wallet. Using public money to pay reparations to a class of people who have not suffered from the mistreatment they're demanding reparations for is one of the worst ideas I've heard in a long time. We can use the same money to better effect by creating programs that better entire communities and create opportunities for ALL people, regardless of the color of their skin...and we should.
Those who agitate for and demand reparations have managed to turn divisiveness based on skin color into a cottage industry, and I would submit that they are now the largest impediment to moving forward. When your economic well-being is rooted is living in the past and highlighting collective suffering that you never personally endured, there's really no way that we can ever hope to move forward as a society. Barack Obama is right; reparations will accomplish nothing of any collective value, and the sooner the advocates of reparations recognize this reality, the sooner we can begin building bridges to the future.
Then again, it really IS all about the Benjamins, isn't it?
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