i think that they should get them only if the want them but you must proove that you are a decendant

emong...its repARations

vote kerry but Bush won sorry

there is already reperation in the form of affermative action. the african americans who are in poverty and who feel that they can never succeed are miseducated. the program of affermative action was installed to give different races, in specific aferican americans benefits in education so they can better their lives by going to a good school and getting a good job

Dear Justice Talking,

In contrast to Wareham’s words stating “…People’s opposition or indifference to reparations is that they lack the understanding of it,” I have investigated the pro’s and con’s of reparations to American Slavery in United States and in my own opinion I see reparations as an illogical ideal at the moment or in the future. I agree with Robert Sedler in saying that we should focus on bringing an end to racial poverty, discrimination and increasing incomes through these focuses.

Adjoa Aiyetoro, in her debate on Justice Talking (2000), argued that discrimination is linked to slavery and also that poverty is a continuation of slavery in the U.S. today. I argue that you can neither prove nor deny that discrimination and racism was caused by slavery. The way I view Reparations for Slavery is as one who has never experienced it first hand. Most like the rest of the country at present. And because most of us have never experienced it, it would be hard to determine who is a direct descendent of slavery. A. Aiyetoro states that poverty is a continuation of slavery from the 1800’s but to determine the people directly affected by slavery and those who contributed to slavery, such as slave owner descendents would be a long process that would eventually lead to huge expenses by the country. Not only that, but some families may find reparations to be offensive such as the article by Shelby Steele saying how reparations would be dishonoring to their ancestors. Arguments against reparation also state that these reparations may have already been paid, in white man’s blood during the civil war to end slavery. Although there never was an apology, an apology nowadays would seem insufficient and insincere because we were not directly associated with slavery. The most we can do is acknowledge it and recognize those who were abused and involved with slavery.

In conclusion, reparations should have been done in the past, but since the past is over, there isn’t much we can do to pay reparations for slavery since we are so far gone from our ancestors two centuries later. But for the present it is more than important to focus on improving racial segregation and poverty in the states and helping to achieve fairness and higher income for those experiencing discrimination in our country.

Sincerely,

Sara Itzkovics

Dear Justice Talking,

I had listened to your debate on whether or not it would be acceptable to give reparations to the African Americans who have been affected by the slavery laws back in the 1800’s. I personally do not believe we should give reparations in the future. I believe this for numerous reasons. First off I believe it is just too late to give reparations for what was done before our generation. I do not believe our generations should pay for something we all have disagreed with and do not want any part of. In addition, as whole we can not figure out how we would give them reparations. We could do so many things that either way people will become angry. Furthermore, people who don’t receive reparations will be very angered by the fact that they may be in more need of reparations then the next but will receive nothing. Moreover, with the war going on at the moment giving away more money will not help us pay for the war. It will hurt us in the time being.

I would also like to comment on what Adjoa’s comments on the topic of reparations. I believe that she was pulling in irrelevant facts that have nothing to do with the reparations for African Americans. She had said that people are racist and because of that the poor communities have broken books and have broken down building and things like this. In reality this is because the poor communities happen to be poor and do not have enough money to pay for these things. In addition she had also stated that money will close the gaps between white people and the African American citizens. In reality this will not work. Money does not solve problems from the past nor does it make everyone more equal. White people in general are loosing their money and giving it away so they become less wealthy as they were before. I do not think wealth is the issue, I think its just the African Americans wanting to gain more respect, money is not going to do that. Moreover, racism will always be around, as long as people are different, racism will always be around. Personally I do not believe we can prevent racism or make it less of a topic. Only society can change this. From what I had picked up on Adjoa only wants money, anything less than money she does not want because it is not going directly into her pocket.

Dear Justice Talking,

This issue is a highly disputed topic. You could possibly argue for both sides because of the ethical wrongs done by the people of America. People can argue for reparations because of the ethical and moral wrongs committed by slave owners. All the labor without pay and hardships they went through. Why haven’t African Americans received reparations, because it is just not what needs to be done.

I believe that reparations should not be given to African Americans for a number of reasons. First of all the people living today had no wrongs committed against them from slavery. They were also not affected from slavery today and have suffered nothing because of it. You may argue that Jewish people got reparations for the wrongs done to them. These people are still alive though and were affected by those wrongs unlike the African Americans who are living today. Another reason for not giving reparations is that it would be nearly unattainable to trace the blood lines of people who were slaves in there life. Also giving out that much money to a group of people could cause the country to go bankrupt. Also a reason for not giving reparations is that it was legal then and therefore should not be given this. You could argue that some reparations need to be given to the African Americans who were enslaved and had wrongs committed against them, but what about free African Americans that owned slaves isn’t that just showing that it was legal then and even if we know its wrong we cant do anything about it know except make sure it doesn’t happen again. Another point I want to make is the reparations could come from taxes. This could cause people who didn’t even have relatives who participated in slave owning or trading to pay money to these people.

These reasons I’ve listed above show that reparations should not be given and they are an eccentric idea. People should not be given benefits for something that happened so long ago without being affected since it was practiced legally and not seen as something wrong. If you look at it in a logical way it just doesn’t make since to give reparations to African Americans. Even though we know it was wrong and hopefully will never happen again American citizens should not give reparations to these people who were not affected by this happening.

Sincerely,

John Nordstrom

Dear Justice Talk,

The issue of reparations has been a dilemma in the U.S. for many years now with Native Americans received reparations for the land taken from them. Also Japanese Americans were granted reparations for being put into camps during WW2. At this time African Americans still take the issue of reparations to court, for the years of free labor and the torture slaves endured. Why haven’t African Americans received reparations for their ancestors? Why are reparations such a debated issue?

The reason is that African Americans feel they deserve reparations for what their ancestors had to go through, but what they don’t understand is that it’s not easy to distribute the money. Adjoa Aiyetoro said it could be put in a fund for education but I believe that won’t work because every African American will feel entitled to a piece of the pie. I myself as a Black/White mix see both sides of the story. The fact is that the Government has already helped many minorities find jobs and also help them financially with Welfare. I’m pretty sure that most Caucasians in America are against reparations and most African Americans are for it.

I agree with Robert Sedler very much, with his proposal of not focusing on reparations for the past and focus on the discrimination of today. Adjoa Aiyetoro said that discrimination is a cause from slavery and that is why African Americans are entitled to reparations today. I don’t think Adjoa is right because regardless of slavery Caucasians believed they were superior to any other race. Also why should African Americans receive money for something that ended so long ago.

Sincerely,

Levy Morehead

December 17th, 2004

Dear Justice Talking,

In listening to the debate concerning reparations for slavery, I noticed that most issues involved what the reparations were for, and what really caused the issue. Robert Sedler had the suggestion that we shouldn’t be considering reparations for slaves because they are no longer living, and that even though African-Americans have been discriminated against, it involves an entirely different subject: racism and segregation. Adjoa Aiyetoro believed that segregation and racial discrimination arose from slavery, and therefore slavery was the chief issue because it was the core of all resulting problems. Basically it would be impossible to decide if slavery really led to segregation without actual facts.

Imagine finding the tons of families with ancestors that were forced into slavery living in America today. Now imagine finding all of the African-American families in poverty in America today. How many overlap? If we knew how many African-American families today that are stuck in poverty that had slaves as ancestors, and we could take that number and compare it to the other families that have no slave ancestors or compare it to the number of people of all races that live in poverty today, we would be able to estimate how slavery relates to today’s African-American poverty. Until the time we are certain that there is a relationship between the two issues, our country shouldn’t assume anything about either of them. We cannot simply guess that the majority of African-Americans living in poverty are in that situation because of the slavery their relatives were forced into slavery over 100 years ago. Without this sort of information, neither Robert nor Adjoa have the right to presume that either slavery caused racism and should be made up for in payments, or that the issue on slavery should be forgotten and the issue on past acts of specific discrimination should be taken up more seriously.

Considering this, I myself am uncertain as to whether or not reparations should be made to the families of slaves. If it was proven to me that slavery indeed led to the poverty of many African-Americans, I would be convinced that reparations should be made. Until the day these statistics are proven, I will continue to feel that no reparations should be made.

Sincerely,

Lauren Rastetter

Dear Justice Talking,

I found the debate between Adjoa Aiyetoro and Robert Sedler to be very interesting. Before hearing this debate I was not sure whether or not I thought reparations were a good idea, but now I don’t believe reparations will help much. I found that Robert Sedlers arguments for why reparations should not be given were very convincing and well thought out. I definitely agree with the point he makes that slavery should not be the root of our focus but instead we should be focusing on the differences in racial poverty and the topic of poverty itself.

Though Adjoa Aiyetoro made some powerful arguments as well, it seemed like she kept digging herself into a deeper whole. It seemed like her underlying point was really just poverty in general, even though she tried to make it sound like her main focus was the effects of slavery on African Americans today. I don’t think that we should give reparations to African American descendants of slaves because it will defeat our goal of equality among all races. By giving money to the African Americans in apology for the wrongs done to them and their ancestors, we will be acknowledging them differently, making it hard to achieve equality. Even though people today know that slavery was wrong and should have never happened, Robert Sedler points out that our Constitution legitimized slavery for 20 years and made it legal in our country.

Even though 82 percent of Americans oppose reparations, Adjoa Aiyetoro still thinks that reparations should be paid in order to make up for all of the unpaid labor that occurred in the years of slavery. Though I do not agree with her opinion in favor of reparations, I agree with her reasoning for reparations because like any educated and civil person I too believe that slavery was the worst thing our country has ever done. Slavery was probably one of the lowest points of our country, but I do not think that paying back African Americans today will change the fact that slavery happened. Finding any living slaves today or tracing back lines of descendants of former slaves would be virtually impossible, and then who would we pay the money too? I think throwing our country into an even deeper debt of money would be worse than not paying any reparations. However, Adjoa Aiyetoro argues that she does not believe our country will go bankrupt from the trillions of dollars she proposes we pay in reparations because we spend billions of dollars a day fighting wars.

Well, I may not be a politician or may not even know that much about how our government works, but I think I am educated enough to know that our efforts could be spent somewhere else. I am not saying that we shouldn’t acknowledge the effects of slavery today, but I am saying that our money and focus should go towards a greater more general topic; poverty. I’m not proposing or even suggesting that we will be able to solve the worlds poverty problems any time soon, I am merely saying that we can’t, as a country, just say that we are going to help only the poor black people because of what slavery has done to them. We can not hold on to the idea that slavery is really the issue here, because even though slavery was the beginning of a long terrible pattern of racism and hate crimes toward people of different races, poverty is what has resulted and it is effecting more that just the African American population.

This debate really created a picture in my head of how powerful our country really is. We had the power to enslave millions of innocent people and we had the power to free them and realize we should all be treated as equals. Yes, our country is very powerful, so now lets use our power and put all of our effort in helping everyone in need and maybe one day we can finally call ourselves equal.

Sincerely,

Miss Broadway

December 17, 04

Dear Justice Talking,

Every time I hear about reparations it makes me mad, especially when I hear Adjoa talk about them. There is no logical reason for reparations. It’s unbelievable that anyone would even consider giving them reparations. Holocaust survivors and Japanese victims of internment camps deserve them, but not African Americans. Here are my reasons why.

First off, any African American asking for reparations would be asking money for something that didn’t even happen to them. Were they ever slaves? No. Were their parents ever slaves? No. Why should our economy, which is struggling right now, throw away money to someone who was never directly affected by slavery . Second of all, reparations, in my opinion were already given to the blacks. I agree that slavery was a horrible thing, but more than 600,000 Americans gave their lives in the Civil War, more than half which were fighting to stop slavery. In my eyes those are reparations enough. Slavery was legal, how can someone be held responsible or punished for something that wasn’t even against the law. The people of America don’t participate in slavery, the majority doesn’t believe in it, and were supposed to throw away money because our ancestors practiced it legally. And for my last reason, how could we find out if the people asking for reparations were even descendents of slaves. The descendents could have been of free slaves, and some blacks owned slaves themselves. Therefore, unqualified people would be getting money for the “horrible effects” that slavery had on them. There are more negative reasons than positive reasons for reparations, so why support them?

I will conclude my letter by saying I feel bad for everyone who was enslaved in the 1800’s, but I cannot be held responsible for something our government and our people did a long time ago. Its time to move out of the past, slavery is over, we should focus on stopping racism and poverty in the black community, this is happening in the present, and we don’t want it to happen in the future.

Sincerely,

American Citizen

Dear Justice Talking,

When asked if reparations for slavery is a bad idea, or simply overdue justice it would be unfair to judge quickly. Both sides contain fair arguments that try to pin point what’s morally correct and fair. In simple context, this issue is a highly debated topic for good reason. After listening to the debate between Adjoa Aiyetoro and Robert Sedler I do partially agree with both parties but I disagree more with Adjoa for various reasons. Although there are good points for both sides, I tend to side with believing that reparations are simply a bad idea.

First of all, I get the feeling that America has already paid for the sin of slavery. More than 620,000 Americans died to end slavery during the Civil War. Does this translate into giving reparations for the families of those killed in this war? Secondly, it is now impossible to say who would pay and who would receive the money. On the other hand, it’s smart to continue funding the affirmative action program along with several others. In fact, the American people have already targeted the black underclass with more than $6.1 trillion in antipoverty spending. This is important figuring that 1/3 of the black community is at or below the poverty level. African Americans have made a lot of progress and will continue to do so without pity money from people that aren’t responsible in the first place. It will have a more positive and lasting impact if money is given to community funding and antipoverty groups rather than giving it directly to individuals who won’t necessarily spend it in the right fashion.

In conclusion, I will continue to pursuit this topic and have an open outlook. This is such an interesting topic to debate about because there are good reasons for both sides, making it controversial. Support the topic, abort reparations.

Sincerely,

Erik Monger

December 17, 2004

Dear Justice Talking,

There is an enormous controversy over the matter of reparations for the wrongs committed by slavery. This issue is a highly debated topic and because of the constitutional and ethical issues; there is not a clear solution. Although slavery was a malicious and heinous crime committed hundreds of years ago, the idea of reparations today is outlandish. The thought of reparations is outlandish due to the logistics and constitutional rights involved with this situation.

Why should we have to pay for something that was legal? During the time of slavery it was legal to own a slave. Slavery was a malignant practice, but when looking at this issue constitutionally; Americans were not committing a crime. Until the 13th amendment was passed, the constitution legitimized slavery.

Reparations for slavery are not logical. It is impossible to identify every former slave. There aren’t accurate enough records of former slaves to give out reparations. Also, why should people who didn’t have any direct connection to slavery be paying money for reparations? It wasn’t today’s generations who owned slaves and we’ll be paying for it. That’s ridiculous. Not only will the older generations be paying for what they did not commit, but also the younger generations of American society. Reparations diverts attention away from the real issues of racism, segregation and improving inner city living. Slavery shouldn’t be the focal issue. That was over 350 years ago. Focus needs to be on the future. Money needs to go toward what will help today’s society of racism and segregation in the black communities. Money going towards wrongs done by slavery will be money going to waste.

Sincerely,

Brian Mayer

Dear Justice Talking,

I feel that reparations are unnecessary in today’s society. Maybe if we were to have tried giving compensation years ago when there were still living slaves it would be another story but now it is too late, there aren’t any accurate documents of who are the relatives of slaves so we wouldn’t know who to give the money to. There is always the option of just putting money into a government fund that would provide African Americans with money for college, housing, etc. but in some cases that would just further the problem of racism because blacks are being segregated. There were poor whites that were included in slavery as well but they don’t care about getting paid back for labor their ancestors did over a hundred years ago. This could just pull the races further apart because black people are getting money that some whites deserve as well.

During the civil war 650,000 people lost their lives fighting for slavery, for it or against it, it doesn’t matter because American blood was still shed and in my opinion that’s enough of a reimbursement. After the civil war ended the 13th and 14th Amendments were made to the constitution stating that slavery is no longer and will never be legal and that all people born in the U.S. are citizens with all the rights of any white person. These two amendments had a huge affect on black segregation because it forever made slavery in America illegal and gave blacks (born in the U.S.) the same rights as whites, for example the right to vote.

African Americans living in today’s society aren’t suffering from the effects of slavery they are suffering because of current problems. There’s the possibility that today’s problems are a result of slavery but we don’t know that it is true. There is no direct connection between slavery and racial discrimination, although it is assumed. Slavery made whites feel superior to blacks because they owned them and that feeling of superiority could’ve been passed down from generation to generation but the likelihood of that happening is small because the American culture has changed so much since then that views from back then wouldn’t fit into society today.

One thing that I feel should be done today is to change the future because we can’t do anything to change what our ancestors did in the past. Giving out money, in any form, won’t help solve anything. The only appropriate thing to do now is work harder towards making a more equal culture.

Sincerely,

JRUSS

December 17, 2004

Dear Justice Talk,

Recently I have listened to a debate regarding reparations for slaves. Both sides have equally strong arguments with supporting evidence, but in terms of having an ultimatum, its basis derives from personal opinion. There are no strict guidelines in deciding whether or not reparations are mandatory for the government. However, the only person or people who have say in this matter are those who take affirmative action. There is no doubt that a verbal apology is not enough, but in turn distributing large amounts of cash is not a solution either.

It was ironic how Adjoa, who is in favor of reparations, was African-American and her opposing side, Robert Sedler, who was not in favor of reparations, is Caucasian. Adjoa is a persistent opponent who thinks reparations are necessary and Sedler uses an argument that states other races should be entitled to funds as well. Sedler states that we need to rebuild our bad areas and should not segregate blacks to the entitlement of funds and other aids for people with financial difficulties. This is true that the government needs to fix bad neighborhoods. I personally believe that rebuilding bad neighborhoods is a good form of reparations, yet the government does little to no progress of these “ghetto” areas. In areas of white folk, the government is constantly rebuilding roads adding new and updated buildings and maintaining a safe aura in these areas. I feel that stereotypes for most African-Americans come from having to live in a poverty infested area. If ghetto areas where rebuilt the people in poverty will be able to have an equal opportunity to have a job other than rolling the streets selling dope and killing each other. If and when we rebuild our bad neighborhoods, the stereotype of a black man would disappear. First impressions are vital to outside communication. If a black man were to walk in a store, he probably would have someone watching him the whole time to make sure he is not there to steal. Thus, I strongly feel that the government should have the decency to help out the unfortunate. I see the president doing public speeches in safe areas, when is he going to take a stand and have a public speech in the ghetto about what he is going to accomplish for those in poverty.

Yes! I believe that the government owes reparations for blacks and at the same time help those in poverty. It does not necessarily have to be checks handed out but something that underprivileged people can utilize in order to succeed in the future.

Sincerely,

JinJin Yuan