Black People Who Oppose Reparations

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I was on Facebook earlier talking with this dude I know and this dude sent me a screenshot from some friend of his who tagged him a post which was one of those MoveOn.org petitions.  This petition was titled REPARATIONS FOR BLACKS IN AMERICA.  So I asked my friend who this dude was because I assumed he thought I knew the guy and my friend said he’s a friend of his, but he’s not about to sign that petition because he believes that black people are always looking for some kind of handout.  And when he said that, our whole conversation damn near began to spiral out of control to the point where I’m even more convinced now than ever that black people are just all the way screwed up from every direction imaginable.

I told this dude that I’m in favor of reparations and I don’t see reparations as a handout simply because every other group of people who are not American descendants of slaves (DOS) have had some form of a reparation to a degree.  Native Americans have been given land which is damn near sovereign territory in this country in addition to where a lot of them can go to college for free if they are just one quarter of Native American.  Now I’m not about to venture down the whole discussion of the Dawes Roll where it is believed that a bunch of white people were pretending to be Native American in order to get some of those Native American reparation benefits, but I’m just highlighting how Native Americans have been given some form of reparations.  Then you got the Japanese who were given some form of reparations where in 1988 President Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act to compensate more than 100 thousand Japanese descendants who were incarcerated in interment camps during World War 2.  In case you didn’t know, that piece of legistlation paid out $20k in compensation to each surviving victim.  Then you have the Jewish people who essentially got an entire country in addition to the US state department paying something like $11M to World War 2 prisoners who survived the Holocaust who just happened to be currently living in the US.  Add into the mix, I just read an article recently to where this article is talking about how illegals who crossed the border should get some form of reparations.  It’s unbelievable who all is either getting reparations or putting up an argument for reparations and nobody is telling these people that they don’t deserve some form of reparations.  But when it comes to an American DOS, we’re told constantly that we need to stop crying and complaining and pull ourselves up by our bootstraps.  Even black Americans who are American DOS say this, like my friend.  It’s unbelievable.

Now you all know I’m a pretty staunch advocate of black people getting their stuff together so that black people as a whole can progress and I’m also a staunch advocate of cutting loose the dead weight of black society.  So on one end, to some it would appear I am of the “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” type of person, but on the other end, I believe American DOS need to be paid reparations period point black.  Because no matter how hard some of us try to make it, the reality is, most of us will struggle like hell because as we all should know by now, since the first slave ship arrived this country has been against black people.  If you want to be totally honest about it, black people have only been “free” for the last 50 years or so.  American slavery started in 1619 and ended in 1865.  From 1865 – 1877 we entered the Reconstruction period, after that we entered the Jim Crow period which lasted up until 1965.  The Civil Rights Act went into effect a year earlier in 1964.  So if you want to be technical, from 1965 to 2018, we’re talking about only 53 years where black people who are descendants of slaves have been “free”, just 53 years.  Matter of fact, I’m the second oldest living cousin on my mom’s side of the family and the oldest on my dad’s side.  I’m actually the first member of a my generation post Jim Crow that was actually born “free”.  So when I hear American DOS’s going against something like reparations is absolutely ridiculous in my opinion.  It just makes absolutely no sense considering how everybody else has either gotten some form of reparations or they are fighting to get some form of reparations now.  But then these same black people will be like “black people get Affirmative Action and welfare” to which we all know is a bunch of crap.  We all know welfare is not a form of reparations and that more white people rely on welfare than black people.  And we all know that affirmative Action benefits more non-American DOS (in particular white women) than it does American DOS.  Affirmative Action was created specifically for American DOS but the language it was written by stating “minorities” instead of specifically identifying American DOS has been problematic to the point where anybody who is not a white American male is a minority and can benefit from Affirmative Action.  Even Africans who immigrate over here can benefit off of Affirmative Action because all they got to do is check the “black” box when they get here and they are pretty much good to go.  But let you try to immigrate to a country like Nigeria and just check the “Nigerian” box and see how fast they toss your black ass back on the boat to ship you back to the US.  It’s so crazy when you think about.  To prove how crazy it is, I read another article posted in the NY times where Asian American applicants are suing Harvard University for discrimination and they are essentially trying to use Affirmative Action to slide up into Harvard, but yet how many American DOS’s do you know of who are getting accepted in to Harvard?  I personally only know of one black person who went to Harvard and he went to their business school for his master degree, but he also just happened to be from one of those islands in the Caribbean as well.  He is not an American DOS.  This whole pull yourself up by your bootstraps philosophy is pure nonsense considering everybody else isn’t thinking about any bootstraps.  Instead, they are focused on using benefits either the government is providing them or benefits originally created for American DOS to get by.  Yet, American DOS get criticized for advocating on our behalf to access to those benefits.

To make this even more crazy as it relates to this psychosis some black people have about reparations, my friend was going on and on about how these other groups immigrate here and they are basically leaving American blacks in the dust.  I tried to explain to this dude that the reason they are able to leave American blacks in the dust is because they are coming over here without a legacy of systemic oppression being imposed upon them.  I’m told this dude that he and I are both descendants of slaves which means our ancestors started off slaves in this country which legalized American slavery lasted for 246 years.  Then our ancestors went through another almost 100 years of Jim Crow which was basically the light version of slavery to a degree and like I said earlier, Jim Crow didn’t officially end until 53 years ago.  We can throw mass incarceration into the mix, but I’m choosing to specifically leave that out because I want to exclusively focus on stuff that was directly created to oppress black people.  Mass incarceration disproportionately affects black people of course, but a lot of hispanics and whites deal with it too, but slavery and Jim Crow, that was all for black people only.  So I’m telling this dude, from 1619 – 1965 which is 346 years, black people have been purposely systemically oppressed and kept out of economic progression but he wants to sit around and honestly pretend like he doesn’t know why these other immigrants and these Africans can come over here and leave us in the dust as if he doesn’t understand that these immigrants are coming over here without a 346 year history of being purposely kept out by design.  I just don’t understand how some black people fail to grasp this concept.  Let’s just take African immigrants; Nigeria sends the most immigrants over to the US, followed Ethipoia and then Egypt.  Nigerians who immigrate over here, 62% of them of have 4 year degrees while I believe around 25% of all American DOS have a degree.  So more than half the Nigerian immigrants coming over here are already educated, which means they are literally hitting the ground running faster than you over here.  In addition to that, they can just check the “black” box and start soaking up those Affirmative Action benefits that were initially entitled for American DOS.  But let you try to emigrate to Nigeria to become a nNigerian citizen and apply for benefits specifically designed for Nigerian born natives…good luck with that.

Now understand, I’m obviously not the most well versed person on this particular subject surrounding reparations and whatnot, but at least on the most elementary level I can understand how American DOS have been purposely getting shitted on and why American DOS should be the only people getting Affirmative Action and why American DOS should be getting reparations due to our group being so far behind compared to everybody else economically.  Even for the people who like to say, “But if you give black people reparations some money, they’ll just trick it off on Jordans, rims, weave & Newport cigarettes”.  And I’m like…so what, let them trick it off.  The whole point is not to police how they would utilize their reparations under the assumption that reparations would come in the form of a check.  The whole point is dish out the reparations in the first damn place that are rightfully owed thanks to the unfortunate blood shed by our ancestors who were enslaved and by our ancestors who were born under Jim Crow (which a whole bunch of them born under Jim Crow are still alive mind you).  The whole point is to cut the check and let me figure out what I want to do with my portion of the reparations.  That’s the point.  Now, am I personally in favor of a check being cut in the literal sense, not necessarily due to the various reasons of tricking off I just named, but I am in favor American DOS being granted free college tuition just like the Native Americans, or free tuition to attend a trade school to learn a trade (in particular STEM of course).  I am in favor of American DOS being exempt from paying property taxes considering so many American DOS were purposely the victims of redlining.  These are just a few ideas I can rattle off the top of my head, because like I said, I’m not an expert in this area, but I do believe reparations need to be paid to American DOS only.  I know I got some Africans who read my website and y’all rock with me on a few subjects I discuss, but when it comes to you all getting affirmative action, y’all can kick rocks.  As a matter of fact, the African nations that rounded up and sold Africans into slavery need to pay American DOS reparations as well because regardless of the story we’ve all been fed about white people running up into Africa snatching bodies up left and right, we all know that to be a flat out lie.  Slavery was big business in Africa before the white man arrived.  So those of you from countries that had ports to extract some number upwards of like 20 million africans to be sold & shipped off to the Americas with about half a million Africans ending up in the US, your home country needs to cut a check too.  But I definitely don’t want to hear any black person who is not an American DOS crying about affirmative Action.  I’m not interested in hearing it from white women, Chinese, latinos…so I’m definitely not interested in hearing it from an African just because you are black.

Now if you all want an in depth education on this subject, I suggest you go subscribe to Yvette Carnell’s YouTube channel.  She stays dropping knowledge way better than me on this subject.  I may not agree with a lot of her other talking points on certain subjects, but when it comes to this particular subject concerning American DOS, I fully support her views 100%.  And for those you who are American DOS who oppose reparations, I really need for you to honestly explain to me why you truly believe that black people don’t need reparations in addition to why you feel like reparations are just another handout considering every other group in this country has gotten some type of reparations or they are benefitting off of social policies that were originally designed only for American DOS or these other groups are getting some other type of handout.  Yet when it comes to black American DOS trying to get access to the same things, all of a sudden it’s a bad thing.