Reparations simplified

Long time lurker of imgflip but this meme was enough to make me create an account. This is perhaps one of the dumbest arguments for reparations that has yet to be made. As other commenters have said wages are part of an agreement made by an employer and employee. Because there was no agreement there can be no back wages. But let's say that doesn't matter as it obviously doesn't to you. What wage would you base that on? Would you use today's minimum wage? Would you use the minimum wage of the day? Oh wait the minimum wage was not instituted until the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, 75 years after the Emancipation Proclamation.

Another huge blow to the idea of reparations is the basic legal tenant of the statute of limitations. The statute of limitations for unpaid back wages is two years. How are you going to make a legal argument for something that happened most recently at 157 years ago? If you are going to ask for reparations you would have to stick with that timeline as that is when slavery was outlawed. You are about 155 years late on the statute of limitations on that front.

Who are you seeking reparations from? Ignoring the fact that there was no agreement who would you say owes the back wages. The U.S. Government? If it is the U.S. Government that you seek reparations from you would have to prove that the U.S. Government owned slaves which I cannot find but maybe someone else on this thread can.

So to sum this up, you want to make a legal case for reparations against the government that owned no slaves, that had no agreement with slaves and for a perceived crime that happened 155 years after the statute of limitations ran out?

That is your legal case, now let’s talk about the morality of your request. What price are you willing to put on the years of suffering that slaves endured? What price are you willing to put on a human life? What dollar amount are you willing to say will make the suffering of the past no longer relevant? What dollar amount are you, a modern person of privilege, willing to say is enough to make it okay to rip a human being away from their family, force them to ride in the cramped bowels of a disease ridden ship amongst yours and others filth and turned over to a master who beat you for pleasure? What will you buy with your reparation money that will make that suffering okay in your mind? Tell me I would love to know the limit of your greed that makes that okay...

Omg you're joking? I am laughing out loud.

The concept of reparations to slaves has a long history.

Smart people at the end of the Civil War discussed the need to give ex-slaves a bit of property (“40 acres and a mule”), to give them some standing in the world, but they never got around to doing it.

Then Reconstruction energy faded, and blacks continued to be shut out of other federal land giveaways like the Homestead Act as a practical matter despite being “allowed” on paper.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homestead_Acts

Tl;dr —Much land was indeed given away by the federal government, but blacks never got it.

And the debt we owe them and their descendants never went away.

A long history? Do us all a favor and go read any book on this subject please.

By "smart people" I assume you mean William Tecumseh Sherman, (a Republican if you didn't already know) because he made that order in 1865.

It was to be NO MORE than 40 acres of the land they had previously worked as a slave before being freed, IF they wanted to stay and try running a plot of land on their own. The mules were to be LENT by the army to help with all of the farmwork.

They actually did get around to doing it, and many freed slaves that took initiative gained land all across the lower east coast, and continued to do so until a bit after Lincoln was assassinated. Andrew Johnson (a Democrat, of course) reversed these orders along with the Freedmens Bureau Bills and others.

Blacks did not get "shut out" of land giveaways such as the Homestead Act, they simply did not qualify. At that point in time they were not citizens, they were considered freedmen. In 1868 and 1870 the 14th and 15th amendments gave freedmen citizenship and the right to vote, giving access to federal programs.

If you would like to talk about free land being given away, let's remember that by 1860 thousands of black Americans were settled by their own choice in Liberia by the American Colonization Society, which was a bi-partisan group.

While this project was overall a massive failure, it can show us something. Even a majority of first generation former slaves (living in an actually racist world of the 1800s, who literally wore chains, and got beaten over nothing) STILL seen past the horrible sin that brought them here and chose to stay and fight for a better life.

Millions of living human beings (of all colors, and even worst of all ages) are still enslaved today all over the world. Being an American and knowing freedom makes you the most privileged of our race. And by that I mean the HUMAN RACE!

Please dont feed into this victim mentality. We should be so proud of our history! Not because of 300 years of slavery but because we had the moral obligation to stop it, and we succeeded. We owe a debt to no one. If anything we as individuals owe our country our lives!

Tl;dr - Our govt. (mostly republican) has done more for African Americans than any other in the world. It's time to come together and stop acting like entitled children. Please remember that this isn't what any of our ancestors died for, at all.

Well if this isn’t a long-winded treatise that paints a tremendously rosy picture of race-relations post-Civil War, overlooking manifold injustices inflicted upon black Americans apart from slavery including state-backed injustices (Jim Crow, etc.) and vigilante injustice (the KKK, other white nationalist groups).

The one thing I’ll echo is that slavery continues to this day. Yeah, I know. See map.

That needs to end too and is worth its own discussion. But right now we’re talking about something else: policies (pre- and post-independence) on American soil that permitted slavery out in the open and on a massive scale.

It’s not a victim mentality to identify institutionalized injustice and insist on justice on an institutional scale.

We’ve had 50+ years after the Civil Rights Act is 1964 to experiment with a hands-off approach to racial equality and it simply hasn’t worked on a grand scale. In some ways, race relations and economic inequality (racial and otherwise) have gone backwards.

“Don’t worry, be happy” ain’t gonna cut it, chief.

Please point out what I said that was false or misleading...? Alrighty. That is the exact definition of a victim mentality. You were never a slave. You're parents were never slaves. Stop placing blame on the mistakes of the past for your challenges in the present; if you want to see a better future. Yes the civil rights movement did take a long time to accomplish, and yes many disgusting things took place in the time after slavery was abolished. We still have small steps to take in all sorts of communities. There will always be improvements to make, but what is the alternative? Where is the gratitude for living in a free country? It makes me sick to hear so many people have this mindset. Unpaid back wages is when your employer fails to pay you the agreed amount after a job was completed. Sorry if you didnt know but Africans were bought from other Africans as slaves, not as contracted seasonal workers. We fought a war that almost ripped this nation in half, was that ever a part of the original deal? Hmm, hows that for reparations? I'm over this, but you know that your thinking process is flawed. Trump2020, peace!

You are remarkably erudite and adept in English for a paid Russian troll

I’m still pondering whether to delete these comments because the dude’s profile history is super sus

It’s less than two months until the election, and presumably whatever country or countries trying to interfere are “sending their best” now

However, he’s behaving himself and offering more cogent commentary than the vast majority of ImgFlip’s conservatives are capable of actually

I think imma leave it but other stream Mods feel free to make your own call

And you wonder why people consider you a tyrant.

Yup pretty typical stuff, gets called out and immediately comes back with "RUSSIAN!" because common sense and basic history make brain go brrrrrrr!
Now I cant even reply to any of his comments... when I was really looking forward to comparing a hundred and fifty five years of freedom to seconds on the time clock during a football game.
At least not everyone is brainwashed here, thanks for speaking up!
Oh, and Kamikaze. --- The paranoia will destroy ya!
I'm USA all day! 🇺🇸

Yeah, that's par for the course for Kamikaze. Just see what happens if you dare speak anything but praise about Kylie Minogue, he goes ballistic. You should be able to reply to a previous comment from him, that's what we do when we hit red comments. Oh, and welcome to Imgflip, comrade :)

Oh thanks so much, I am definitely still learning but I will figure it out! You just earned my first follow!

Vell played sir

Your demonstration of humor and knowledge of pop culture terms such as brony have successfully lowered the suspicion levels of the doge

What brings you to PoliticsTOO, you conservative (maybe Russian, maybe not) newb?

Are you someone’s alt?

Just going to leave this here. Was hoping for an intelligent answer or even a halfway decent reply as to why you think theft is alright, but when OP runs out of lies to spew and starts accusing everyone who disagrees of being a Russian bot, I'm out. If the mod mob takes this down, my heart will remain intact I promise. Libs are fine to go and flood politics with bs but get mad when someone comes on politicsTOO and has any kind of original thought that goes against the narrative. Im just another rando memester trying to make people think or at least bring a smile. ✌

To briefly address the argument in your meme: No, American history is not a football game and injustice isn’t erased by stalling out the clock.

The unpaid back wages of slavery are owed and interest will continue to accrue until the debt is paid.

You lie, cheat, and attack everyone who challenges you. The downtrodden and oppressed will revolt. You recruit children which is f**ked up, I am unable to see why anyone would like you on imgflip. OP, I'm gonna be honest with Kamikazi here so bear with me. You need to stop crying like a 5 year old everytime you get challenged on the site. It appears we need more than 3 community mods and less of you on here Kamikazi. If you wish to retaliate, don't try, it'll end badly.

I was just thinking of you man and how I tried my best to broker an end to your war with Ship-Shap

How’s that coming along?

Last I heard, you made a RoddyRicchSUCKS stream (inspired no doubt by other memers’ activity in this respect) but deleted it in an act of self-awareness

Disheartening to see you following in the footsteps of your superiors, but what can we expect from a Trump supporter after all.

You’ll grow up. Or not.

We all know you love war, so why try to survive on Imgflip.

You allowed him to harass both me and my bro. You BARELY tried. As for my political opinion, the First Amendment protects it.

You are an example of wasted energy on Imgflip, where you try and become a hierarch. Oh, an unknown band of rebels attack.