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Fast Walker 52

(7,723 posts)
24. huh, I thought this would get a better reception
Tue Aug 25, 2015, 07:20 PM
Aug 2015

I thought the case for reparations was pretty good.

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/06/the-case-for-reparations/361631/

And it would help if the people commenting here read the linked article in the OP:

"Thanks to a compromise between Southern slaveholders who wanted enslaved blacks counted in the population, for the sake of boosting Southern congressional representation, and Northern whites who didn’t, the framers enshrined the three-fifths clause in the Constitution. This agreement set the census value of a slave as 60 percent of the value of a free person. Even after the 13th Amendment neutralized the political (and moral) compromise by abolishing slavery, Jim Crow laws, which contravened the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of equality, stopped blacks from voting. The just answer today is to invert that ratio. If black Americans were once counted as three-fifths of a person, let each African American voter now count as five-thirds.

Reparations in America have come to mean “free” money, so any serious discussion about them also mandates a discussion of how much — an exercise doomed to failure. Other ways of imagining reparations (as the spilled blood of more than half a million Union soldiers during the Civil War; as affirmative action in universities and workplaces; as subsidized education) don’t involve cash payments, but they also don’t do enough to combat the structural disadvantages black Americans face — disadvantages that have gone largely unaddressed by our legislative and executive branches."

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0 members have recommended this reply (displayed in chronological order):

I'd go for that. Also, I'd even say we have black people pay 3/5 of the usual tax rate. When the ... BlueJazz Aug 2015 #1
sounds good to me Fast Walker 52 Aug 2015 #2
Ah, another outrageous person sucking all the oxygen out of the room. The last thing we need! reformist2 Aug 2015 #3
This is idiotic oberliner Aug 2015 #4
Yep 840high Aug 2015 #28
I agree, all living slaves votes should count as 5/3... pipoman Aug 2015 #5
This should have been in The Onion. Ace Rothstein Aug 2015 #6
This belies "Blacks are equal" romanic Aug 2015 #7
I'm of slave decent. You see, I'm part Irish and Irish people were enslaved by British overlords Hoppy Aug 2015 #8
It would foster unprecedented resentment and would splinter the democratic party Orrex Aug 2015 #9
+1 FLPanhandle Aug 2015 #17
Not the first time this silly notion has been trotted out. WillowTree Aug 2015 #10
But Native Americans still would only get a single vote. Nye Bevan Aug 2015 #11
We need to create some sort of registry XemaSab Aug 2015 #12
How do you decide WHICH blacks? brooklynite Aug 2015 #13
Plus. What would be the fraction for people of mixed race? Doingto Aug 2015 #20
Ludicrous proposition IDemo Aug 2015 #14
And what if you're half black? Iggo Aug 2015 #15
No, that would be absurd. Nye Bevan Aug 2015 #21
Ah-ha! I have been mathenated. Iggo Aug 2015 #23
Lmao romanic Aug 2015 #30
Any such proposal would turn the entire country bright red FLPanhandle Aug 2015 #16
It's an interesting thought experiment. hunter Aug 2015 #18
Yeah the responses seem weird to me too gollygee Aug 2015 #31
As revenge for not letting women vote for a long time... Doingto Aug 2015 #19
Would Caitlyn Jenner get to vote? (nt) Nye Bevan Aug 2015 #22
huh, I thought this would get a better reception Fast Walker 52 Aug 2015 #24
Somthing like 90% of folks TeddyR Aug 2015 #26
Would cause a civil war LittleBlue Aug 2015 #25
you can't get to equality with more (albeit different) discrimination Taitertots Aug 2015 #27
Stupid shit when it was posted on Saturday, too. n/t X_Digger Aug 2015 #29
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