paying off ex-slaves

[Justin Schwartz]

Well, if there were simple justice, we'd give America back to the Indians. 
But we're not gonna. Likewise with reparations. One raeson it's a guilt trip 
is that it calls in a debt that cannot really be denied or paid, this side 
of capitalism. It makes people uncomfortable because the debt is quite real. 
But it is divisive in part for this very reason; and because it's too big. 
Oh, I suppose you might hypothetically try to settle it for a pittance, a 
few thousand for every descendent of the slaves. But that would be like 
trying to make good on the theft of Manahttan by giving back the $24 in 
beads. --jks


>Justin Schwartz:
> > ...
> > The argument against a reparations campaign is that it looks like guilt 
>trip
> > and not a way to revitalize interracial cooperation for justice; it's
> > divisive, zero sum, backwards looking rather than forwards looking, and
> > doesn't address the current racial problems in a clear way. ...
>
>It's not a guilt trip if it's simply a payment for an
>outstanding liability.  And if so, it's not _supposed_ to
>revitalize interracial cooperation for justice, and so on,
>it's supposed to _pay_off_the_debt_, which is what just,
>right-thinking folks are supposed to do and want to do.
>Might as well put it up to all those just, right-thinking
>folks out there in unequivocal terms.
>
>If you want to actually revitalize interracial cooperation
>for justice and address the current racial problems in a clear
>way, you'll probably have to become a anarcho-communist and
>destroy Western civilization.  I think libcap has been taken
>about as far as it can go (hence the present rescissions).
>

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