(Native Americans and Nozick) (Was RE: [lbo-talk] Germans should stop feeling Holocaust guilt:

[Dennis Claxton]

Justin wrote:


>Don't be childish. It doesn't matter what "reparations" minorities 
>demand; these are merely symbolic statements. There's no serious 
>possibility of any legal; basis for their winning excessive or 
>indeed any reparations for things that happened over 100 years ago. 
>So I don'tthink there's any such fear, even if people know the 
>details, Which they don't.


How big the fear is and how many people know details I can't 
say.  But there is such fear.  This is a press release from today:

NLPC Rips Wachovia Slavery Apology

Date: June 2, 2005
Contact: Peter Flaherty 703-237-1970
Website: www.nlpc.org

Peter Flaherty, President of the National Legal and Policy Center 
(NLPC), criticized Wachovia, the nation's fourth largest bank, for 
yesterday making an apology for its predecessor banks' links to 
slavery. The apology accompanied a report that Wachovia commissioned 
in response to municipal ordinances in cities like Chicago and Philadelphia.

According to the report, Wachovia merged with, acquired or absorbed 
some 400 banks since 1781. A total of two banks were identified as 
having transactions involving slaves prior to the Civil War, which 
ended 140 years ago. The Georgia Railroad and Banking Company owned 
162 slaves and the Bank of Charleston accepted 529 slaves as 
collateral on loans.

The Wachovia statement reads, in part, "We are deeply saddened by 
these findings. We apologize to all Americans, and especially to 
African Americans and people of African descent."

Flaherty said, "Wachovia may have had to compile this report in order 
to comply with ordinances in cities where it does business, but 
nothing required this groveling in the form of an apology. Wachovia 
should instead apologize to its customers and shareholders for caving 
into the reparations activists who are not interested in racial 
justice, but in money."

"Forcing Wachovia to ransack old records for links to slavery is 
nothing but a prelude to a shakedown. These municipal ordinances were 
passed at the behest of activists who seek slave reparations. By 
trying to appease these hustlers, Wachovia only encourages greater demands."

"Ironically, the big city politicians who have passed these 
ordinances are virtually all Democrats. Of course, in the 19th 
century the Democratic Party was pro-slavery. If Wachovia were 
responsible for slavery, wouldn't the Democratic Party be even more 
responsible? The answer is, of course, that the Democratic Party has 
changed and that Democrats today were not around in the 19th century. 
The same applies to corporations. Not one officer or shareholder of 
Wachovia was alive during slavery. This concept of cross-generational 
responsibility is an absurdity."

http://www.nlpc.org/view.asp?action=viewArticle&aid=927