I demand what belongs to me! I demand the land the U.S. Government took from Mexico all those years ago! I demand reparations for my ancestors! In short, I demand what does not belong to me.
I find it grievous that black people are demanding reparations for acts that were not committed against them, but their ancestors. I have no problem whatsoever for the government paying reparations to the actual victims. But I’ve got a big problem giving reparations to their great, great, great, great (you get my point) grandchildren.
If the government is going to give reparations to them, why not every other race that has been victimized over the years? Yes, they may have been promised “a mule and forty acres” to begin their lives as “free men,” but it wasn’t really them. It was their ancestors. Ancestors long dead. Granted, some may be as recent as 100 years ago, but they’re gone nonetheless.
When David Horowitz tried to place an ad called “Ten Reasons Why Reparations for Slavery is a Bad Idea — and Racist Too” in 52 college newspapers, only 27 ran the ad. The newspapers that did were criticized because the ad was said to be racist. Though I may not agree with a lot of what Horowitz has to say, I tend to agree with his reasoning behind this ad. I am in no way racist, but his justifications make sense.
According to Horowitz’s ad, there is no single group clearly responsible for the crime of slavery. Black Africans and Arabs were in part responsible for enslaving the ancestors of today’s black Americans. There were 3,000 black slave owners in the antebellum United States. Why are the ancestors of these people are not paying reparations? I didn’t own a slave nor did my family. Then why should I have to pay a fine for something I had no part in?
Horowitz’s second point is that there is no one group that benefited exclusively from its fruits. I agree — several races benefited from using slave labor, and that includes black Americans. Doesn’t that mean they should be paying as well?
What about the Union soldiers who died during the Civil War trying to free these slaves? Do the descendants of these people deserve reparations?
The reparations payments made to Jewish survivors of the Holocaust, Japanese Americans and victims of syphilis experiments in Tuskegee were to the direct victims of the injury, or their immediate families. The United States should not have to pay reparations to people who are not immediate family or victims themselves of slavery.
When President Bill Clinton was in office, he apologized to Hawaiians for the overthrow of Queen Liliuokalani. Is there going to be a prerequisite for all presidents to apologize for some act done to some culture or race long dead?
Here’s a thought: Why doesn’t our current president just apologize in one big hoorah? He could say, “I apologize for any wrongdoings that may have been done to persons or their races during the interim from the time the world began to now.” I mean, geez, we might as well get it all out of the way.
Slavery was hideous, yes, but there were and are many other people wronged throughout the world. In many African countries, clitoral castration is still practiced. What about during World War I and World War II? What about the people killed?
Do you see what I am saying? If we make reparations for one group what’s to stop, ummm, let’s say, Mexicans from requesting their part of Mexico annexed into the United States in 1848? Stop and think: When will the past remain in the past, and people instead will look to the future?
We need to make things better now and not continuously reopen yesterday’s wounds. But most importantly, people need to stop demanding money for atrocities that didn’t happen directly to them. It doesn’t belong to you.