Cobb

A really unique idea, Cobb. Not sure what about it makes me a little uncomfortable, tho. For some reason the notion of having "nigger bucks" in circulation makes me knit my brow in worry. I'll have to think about that some more.

I know there's the idea of Native Indian-like tax relief as reparations. You can argue about how long that should go on for, but I think I gravitate toward something that is more likely to prevent waste and/or maximize our mutual benefit for the long haul. I have an idea for that of course (it's probably not too new): free education.

Higher education, that is. For the next twenty years (about one generation), anyone who gets the grades, gets the automatic grant for all fees, tuition, books, necessary living expenses paid for by the gubmint.

Imagine every black kid who wanted higher education from 1985 til now could get it free of charge? Where would we be now? Is that enough time for a depressed ghetto mindset to free itself and start dreaming of possibilities? I think so.

Of course, the real problem in any of these reparations machinations is determining who gets to be black. Do sesquimillaroons (or whatever) count? Who decides? I'd imagine a process where you'd have to apply before some panel or other where they eyeball you, check the degree of kink and apply calipers to the breadth of your nose.

I don't know. It all seems a dreamy mental exercise. What good is a coupon in your back pocket if you can never cash it?

One other thing. If it helps some White folk feel better, mebbe it could be a pro-rated means testing thing. Poorest blacks get 100% coverage, middle-class some middling proportion and rich blacks get squat. Just tryin to get an ounce more realistic ;-)

What I had forgotten about so many of the discussions around the politics of reparations was that if you look at the liberal agenda, it already wants to give these same things away to blacks. So the interesting thing is that you'll hear people say that they don't mind having free education or taxcuts given to the descendants of slaves, but heaven forbid they give them cash.

The answer to the distribution problem is so easy that I wonder why people even bother. Just make the inner city DMV office the place. Staff it with blackfolks, cameras and cops. On any day of the week, there WILL BE two or three hundred blackfolks in line for hours. How many whitefolks do you know are ready to deal with that?

I appreciate the historical outrage, Cobb. The legacy of slavery never completely faded away. You see it every day in the rotting urban core of our cities.

But reparations are a fantasy.

How do you determine who is culpable? Much of my family immigrated after the Civil War. As far as I;ve been able to trace, even the ones who came before Emancipation lived in Free States, and worked as shopkeepers and merchants. I don't feel that my ancestors were any more responsible for slavery than any more than yours were.

How do you determine who has been aggreived? There are plenty of African-Americans in my neighborhood, but many of them are first and second generation immigrants from East Africa. Would they be eligible for reparations? If skin color is the only determinant, I have a real problem. This is bound to be more divisive than healing.

The answer, as I see it, is the resumption of Reconstruction. But it's not just a "Dixie" issue anymore, the real legacy of slavery can be found in our inner cities. We need to reconnect these islands of poverty and hoplessness to the rest of America, through education, infrastructure, and economic development.

Real "equal opportunity" is the answer, not another government handout.

Smash, I have to say that reparations are a fantasy because the political opposition to them is emotional and not logical. The how and who is not the issue, but the why, and the bottom line to the why is why should African Americans get money?

What's wrong with the inner city has nothing to do with slavery, because during the Depression *everybody* was broke. There was sufficient racism in America in 1930 to make the differences between black and white today. Remember that Apartheid in South Africa only started in 1948.

'Divisiveness' is also a phony issue. If two million more blacks became as ghetto fabulous as Snoop Dogg because of Reparations, nobody has to change one thing for the new Snoop Doggs of the America not to be welcome in upscale white America. Snoop Dogg is already not welcome. The reverse is true too; no everybody doesn't love Raymond, and if he were suddenly ghetto poor he still wouldn't move to the black ghetto.

As I said, the healing is done. We are at an equilibrium. It's not necessarily pleasant, but it is stable. I don't think you can go anywhere and find blackfolks who think the political majority is going to give an inch on Affirmative Action despite the fact that it's high on the agenda of most blackfolks. Black politics has already priced white disinterest into the political market. Nobody is going to riot about it. Which is entirely my point, because that's about what it would take to get a white political majority to budge on the issue. The concept is dismissed out of hand by whites who don't even have to presume to be morally or intellectually correct. They simply have to be a majority who doesn't want it and doesn't care.

You say, just like the majority of Americans, hey it's a good idea to help blackfolks out through education, infrastructure and economic development - basically a transfer of wealth, an increase in government and private spending. So long as the reason is not reparations, you're all for it. That's my point.

If tomorrow the right blogosphere discovered that HUD or the Department of the Interior has spent 75 Billion dollars over the past 10 years on urban inner city poor blacks, it would raise eyebrows, but nobody really knows or cares withat HUD or Interior does. But a Reparations program that was half that would never get off the floor of Congress - hell, a 10 million dollar bill to *study* reparations would never get off the floor.

It's not the what or the who. It's the why, and we should all just admit that the politics are impossible.

I like to shoot first and find answers later, but smash couldn't those same arguments been used to deny japanese-americans their reparations for their stress during WWII?

On further reflection, it seems there can't be any perfect reparations when so much time has passed. We can try to put in some filters, checks and so on to avoid abuse of the dole outs, but perhaps the main thing is intent. The INTENT to correct must be attempted or old wounds will never heal.

I have a few more fairly ramdom bits on this topic:

* On Cobb's point about Liberal schemes and so on, I concede that it might be kind of grating to be told, in effect, you must spend it on this. And not to go as far as Chappelle, but we know, cuz we's all human (and that's one of the main points in this exercise innit -- to recognize and redress human failures), that SOME people will waste their slavery dubloons on some stupit blingery or t'other.

I look at the edumacation thing as setting a challenge. "oh, yeah, let's see you do this" and we do it, say thankyouverymuch and go on with our future generations advanced a quantum level over what might be otherwise.

* One other practical note, tho we still dreamin, is that taxes would have to be frozen for black folk during the free your mind sweepstakes. no sense us payin for our own reward.

* Anyway, mebbe all you demand is a full out, damn-the-lawsuits apology. Something stronger than Clinton's. If class-actions are brought, then it can be up to the courts to decide who is eligible and what's a "fair" recompense. Families would have to bring PROOF.

* hmm. along those lines, as far as determining who gets, perhaps we can use some kind of (really) soft proof method. Somebody, somewhere must have documentation of a family member being enslaved. Then we use a six-degrees thing that allows anyone related to the folks with proof to get in on the goodies. A white person will have to marry into the fams to get a piece of the pie. I can live with that.

That idea is stupid, pure idiocy.
you cant just mint money, and you cant just adjust money to slavery days. this is ridiculous.

He seems to be talking out both sides of his neck. saying yes, but, no. But, yes. But , maybe. But - coins. Yeah, thats it, coins!!! LOL

only blacks could buy them?? huh
The money supply would merely adjust. It would have absolutely nothing but symbolic effect.

It must be very frustrating to your world view to find that there are people who don't see everything in black & white.