Startin' Stuff Week, Day Four
From the comments to the link to that asshole, I draw the following fragment:
Your idea that not only the perpetrator of an injustice but also others who benefited from it should shoulder the burden of repairs has no factual basis in law.
And on a discussion board I frequent a friend asked me to look in on a reparations "discussion" on
another boardWell.
Based on the comment that discussion, I feel I need to say something to white folks.
It ain't personal. The debt owed to Black Americans isn't owed by you, or your ancestors, even if they were slave owners. It is owed by the United States of America and the states that created the more detailed repressions like literacy tests for voting when you provide unequal education.
I understand the argument that reparations made (and I'm using the word "made" rather than "paid" because as I said at the outset I'm not looking for cash unless the
right thing is rejected) by the government are ultimately made by the citizens of the nation. But (and this is where the comment fragment comes in) you know, if you buy shares of General Motors, you acquire its liabilities as well as its assets. Citizenship is much the same…if the government isn't doing the
right thing then you are responsible for taking action somehow, even if its just voting the bastards out. That's a running theme here and in fact all over the left side of the BlogNet (see Bush, Dubya).
The next argument I anticipate is that being born here leaves one no choice but to be a citizen. I read that as "I didn't ask for these benefits, so why should I have to take the liabilities?" which is much like asking "I didn't make the sun shine on my face so why should the back of my head be in shadow?" It's a package.
SOMEone will shoulder those liabilities and so far it's been us. All I ask is a fair distribution.
Another argument questions why should an immigrant bear the liabilities created before their arrival. To this, I refer back to the corporate example.
See, this reparations discussion doesn't take place in isolation, as its opponents would like. I don't need to build a case for shared liability strictly within the confines of the discussion of the ethics of reparations. In the ethical discussion, I need to build a case for the rightness of reversing the effects of oppression.
posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/17/2003 03:36:03 PM |
Posted by P6 at July 17, 2003 03:36 PM
| Trackback URL: http://www.prometheus6.org/mt/mt-tb.cgi/1168
