Will an Obama Presidency Have Us Paying Reparations?
My daughter’s religion teacher was discussing Native Americans around Thanksgiving and how “we” treated them so horribly. While not negating the wrongness of some of the European-Native American relations during our country’s founding, my daughter asked, “What do you mean ‘we’? I’m nice to everyone I meet, regardless of their color or heritage.” She has a darned good point.
So take a look at this interesting column from Holly Robichaud at the Boston Herald. Will an Obama presidency have us paying trillions of dollars in reparations?
The African World Reparations and Repatriation Truth Commission is demanding that the United States pay $777 trillion in slavery reparations. Could our next President possibly support paying such a large amount for the crimes against humanity?
In 2001 Barack’s church, Trinity United Church of Christ, submitted a resolution calling for slavery reparations. Clearly Barack and his wife had to know something that was being said or approved in the church. In 2006 they donated $22,500 to the church.
Dr. Iva Carruthers, who is a member of Barack’s church and has worked with Rev. Wright on the Illinois Transatlantic Slave Trade Commission, is an outspoken advocate for reparations. In 2003 she was the Chuch’s representative at a summit on reparations.
It would be too harsh to hold Barack responsible for members of his church. (However, Oprah did have the good sense to walk away this church.) But Carruthers is a maxed our donor to Obama’s Presidential campaign and she gave him $500 for his senate campaign.
Will the United States be paying reparations under an Obama administration?
Good day, Sharilee!
Your daughter does have a point. And, it it great that she is nice to everyone she meets. No one can deny that she has not – personally – been involved in oppressing any group of people. Likewise, no one can deny that she has benefited from the results of that oppression.
Now, I do not expect nor do I request the government pay me (or Black people) any reparations. That would be too easy a “fix,” that really would fix nothing. The hard work comes in having open discussions on race and the impact of racism. The hard work comes in removing the cognitive dissonance that numbs us to the issues. The hard work comes in building vehicles for self-sufficiency.
White people need reparations too! All of us have been broken by the experience of slavery…master and slave. And, both of us need healing. Reparations is an expression of Christian love. Come and get your reparations!
Comment by Reparations PAC — May 17, 2008 @ 3:56 pm
I’m all for open discussions, but here’s an interesting story. I grew up in the Adirondacks in a small town (@5000 people). We didn’t have a lot of ethnic diversity, but what people of color we did have were all treated with respect. In fact, I didn’t even know racism was still an issue until I moved to Boston. I started watching the news and was appalled at how much talk there was that served only to divide the races, not unite them.
I grew up not seeing color in others, I just saw them for the people that they were based on their values and their behaviors. Then I moved here and way too much of the talk was about racial differences. Wouldn’t we be better off if people stopped seeing color and just treated each other as they would want to be treated themselves?
Comment by sharilee — May 17, 2008 @ 11:40 pm