Thread: H.R. 40 explores paying reparations to African-Americans

Congressional Legislation

H.R. 40 explores paying reparations to African-Americans

'To acknowledge the fundamental injustice, cruelty, brutality, and inhumanity of slavery in the United States and the 13 American colonies between 1619 and 1865 and to establish a commission to examine the institution of slavery, subsequently de jure and de facto racial and economic discrimination against African-Americans, and the impact of these forces on living African-Americans, to make recommendations to the Congress on appropriate remedies, and for other purposes. '
Bill # H.R.40

Original Sponsor:
John Conyers (D-MI 14th)

Cosponsor Total: 4
(last sponsor added 01/14/2009)
4 Democrats

About This Legislation:

1/6/2009--Introduced.
Commission to Study Reparation Proposals for African Americans Act - Establishes the Commission to Study Reparation Proposals for African Americans to examine slavery and discrimination in the colonies and the United States from 1619 to the present and recommend appropriate remedies.

http://www.congress.org/congressorg/iss ... ngress=111

I still don't get this. When will the Irish, women and who knows who else gets their reperations?

We already paid it in full with giving them freedom and a chance to lead us.

Originally Posted by Matthewcloseborders

We already paid it in full with giving them freedom and a chance to lead us.

I thought that it was paid with the 40 acres and a mule payment.

Originally Posted by JohnDoe2

Originally Posted by Matthewcloseborders

We already paid it in full with giving them freedom and a chance to lead us.

I thought that it was paid with the 40 acres and a mule payment.

They want lawyer controlled reparations. Reparations will be stored in the form of huge bank accounts controlled by rich Black lawyers. Poor Blacks who want money will have to beg rich Black lawyers for the money.

I have read about this and it is another form of humiliation and oppression our country does not need.

It depends on the details, I am ineligible in any case my Black ancestors were West Indian.

'To acknowledge the fundamental injustice, cruelty, brutality, and inhumanity of slavery in the United States and the 13 American colonies between 1619 and 1865

Are any of the folks that were effected between 1619 and 1865 still living? If so, I'm all for it.

If you were to look at a Black Who is Who for 1964 and compare it to the descendants of Free Blacks as of 1864 you would find that most of the leading figures in 1964 were descendants of those Blacks free before the Emancipation Proclamation. The determining factors of freedom before Emancipation were good masters and the Free Black family attitudes. It took a long time for the effect of bad masters to wear off and some of the legacy remains even now. There is a book by WEB duBois on the Black Community of Philadelphia as of the end of the 1800s and the European immigrants were clearly treated better by the urban political machines. The reason for the high immigration rate between 1880 and 1920 was the shortage of labor as compared with Norrthern infrastructure caused by the deaths in the Civil War and the loss of fertility among the surviving women. The opportunity for the incoming Europeans was caused by the mortality of Americans especially Blacks caused by casualty in War and the dislocation which increased death by disease and malnutrition. The form of reparations is what is at issue more than whether the obligation has been discharged it has not.

Richard, I suppose what does bother me the most is that although the effects, just as in a broken family, can last to other generations, just handing out money, which has been paid into by many Americans, of a great deal had little to do with owning slaves or encouraging slavery.

I also know, that in order for my mothers family to be able to move forward, they had to give up who they were, the language that they spoke, and had to lie about their race in order to even work (Acadian and Mi'qmak, but they passed themselves off as simply being "French"). Where are the reparations for that from Canada and America (those families had farms, churches and communities that were taken and given to more "preferred settlers")?

What about all of the native peoples of America, whom are yet still suffering? Where does the payouts, in our modern era, stop?

It is opening a can of worms. Once the handouts start, just as we're seeing with the bank bailouts, it would likely be so with disenfranchised groups of peoples.

The solution could not be just a money patch. It needs to be something that will actually be effective, towards better futures for all who have ancestors who had been wronged.

Originally Posted by MW

'To acknowledge the fundamental injustice, cruelty, brutality, and inhumanity of slavery in the United States and the 13 American colonies between 1619 and 1865

Are any of the folks that were effected between 1619 and 1865 still living? If so, I'm all for it.

But its true. Reparations for people who are dead? Why should whites of today be responsible for something that happened to black people hundreds of years ago?