Re: Proper and Justified Reparations Have Yet to be Acknowledged and/or Discussed – News With Views

[S James Strother]

This country is woefully imploding from within, not sure reparations is my primary concern at this time..however, thanks for sharing. 

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On Sunday, October 22, 2023, 5:10 PM, 'Jacob Andoh' via pg_northcounty_education <pg_northcoun...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

Reparations for US Slavery:

https://newswithviews.com/proper-and-justified-reparations-have-yet-to-be-acknowledged-and-or-discussed/

Thanks to Attorney Ernie Quarles for sharing.

----- Forwarded Message -----

From: Ernest Quarles <abtr...@gmail.com>

Sent: Sunday, October 22, 2023 at 02:10:07 PM EDT

Subject: Re: Proper and Justified Reparations Have Yet to be Acknowledged and/or Discussed – News With Views

Thanks Jacob.

This author needs to take my courses.  His analysis is woefully flawed.

"Providing such reparations can only be presented as a moral obligation, because there is no legal or constitutional justification for any such act."

In Tanahisi Coates, “The Case for Reparations” he argues America is responsible not only for the monetary compensation of the African American community, but that it is America’s moral obligation to make amends for the wrong it has done.  So aside from morality, there are indeed a host of reasons for focusing on monetary compensation: Racial inequality in America in a nutshell-. Slavery, the middle passage, Jim Crow laws, sharecroppers, lynching, KKK, burning of churches and homes, Emmett Till, and the complete robbery of every human right.  Two hundred fifty years of slavery. Ninety years of Jim Crow. Sixty years of separate but equal. Thirty-five years of racist housing policy. 

The article author has no basic understanding of systemic oppression and white supremacy:  On February 1, 2023, the College Board announced its finalized curriculum for an AP African American Studies course. It has removed work—present in the pilot program—by writers such as bell hooks, Kimberlé Crenshaw, and Ta-Nehisi Coates.

As recently as 2009, the U.S. Senate passed a resolution belatedly apologizing for this country’s oppression of African Americans: “The Congress (A) acknowledges the fundamental injustice, cruelty, brutality, and inhumanity of slavery and Jim Crow laws; (B) apologizes to African-Americans on behalf of the people of the United States, for the wrongs committed against them and their ancestors who suffered under slavery and Jim Crow laws.”

Sadly, these mostly white senators added a disclaimer explicitly barring African Americans from seeking reparations for the role of the government in this officially recognized oppression.

A legal basis for reparations could rest in the concept of unjust enrichment, an idea traditionally associated with relationships between individuals. Unjust enrichment involves circumstances that “give rise to the obligation of restitution, that is, the receiving and retention of property, money, or benefits which in justice and equity belong to another,” according to Ballentine’s Law Dictionary. One can extend the idea of restitution for unjust enrichment to the conditions of large-scale group oppression.

Implicit in the idea of unjust enrichment is the counterpart idea of unjust impoverishment, the condition of those suffering at the hands of those unfairly enriched. From the 1700s to the mid-1800s, white families and communities were enriched directly, or by means of economic multiplier effects, by slave plantations and related economic enterprises. Economist James Marketti once estimated that the labor stolen from enslaved African Americans from 1790 to 1860 was worth in the range of $2.1 to $4.7 trillion (in 1983 dollars), after taking into account lost interest.

Those who have attacked the idea of owing back wages to African Americans, arguing those are too-distant debts, ignore the huge damages done to African Americans during the century of near-slavery during Jim Crow segregation. Millions alive today suffered severe losses under Jim Crow and can actually name who did much of that discrimination and unjust impoverishing. The current worth of all black labor stolen by whites through the means of slavery, Jim Crow, and discrimination (plus interest) is estimated by some economists in the range of $6 to $24 trillion. And this figure doesn’t include compensation for great physical and mental suffering and millions of untimely deaths.

Best,

Ernie

On Sun, Oct 22, 2023 at 2:55 AM Jacob Andoh <jya...@yahoo.com> wrote:

Proper and Justified Reparations Have Yet to be Acknowledged and/or Discussed


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Proper and Justified Reparations Have Yet to be Acknowledged and/or Disc... By Sidney Secular October 21, 2023 We hopelessly – and helplessly – keep trying to prop up the Blacks in t...

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