"Practicalities" of Reparations (was Re: Defacing Websites, "Stealing" Free Papers)

Justin Schwartz jkschw at hotmail.com
Thu Mar 29 14:42:22 PST 2001



>Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
>
>>Mat & Justin have already made an argument that practicalities are
>>not the problem. What's your objection to them?
>
>1) Defining race.

Elibigity has to be on the basis of descent from a slave, not on the basis of race.

> 2) Defining eligibility after defining race.

Not a big deal. Anyone who can show to some reasonable standard that she or he had at least some % of slave ancestry, something like that. You wouldn't have to require that people produce papers; race might be a presumptive indicator.


>3)
>Defining the mechanism of reparation (America's plan reinforces
>capitalist logic; you want to undermine it.

Send out a check to the eligible.

> 4) Deciding whom
>to
>exclude - if you include the descendants of slaves, why not Indians?
>Why not the Latin Americans we've bled for eons?

Because reparations for slavery is not intended to right all wrongs.


> 5) Deciding how to
>fund them - should working class whites be taxed, or just bourgeois
>whites?
>

In the real world, obviously yes.

This is just a dodge for avoiding _political_ discussion, Doug.

--jks _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com



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