Should the US provide reparations for slavery and Jim Crow?

[Glassunion]

138. Therein lies the rub, and most why likely nothing will be done.

One of the big issues, is that when trying to address our history, folks end up having sad, so we try to bury the past, and forget it. But there is a lot of truth in the statement: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

To some, the African people who were brought here against their will, were simply slaves. A horrible truth, and a despicable existence for these people. But that's where it ends. It is an icky part of our past, and folks try to brush it off as ancient history, and we should simply move on. But its larger than that.

Here in America, we receive tons of education on American history. Our founding fathers, the wars we've been a part of, our Constitution and what it meant back then, and what it means today. How the views of those founders meant in the context of their time, and how they can be applied today, to their great courage and sacrifices they made to give birth to this nation.

The slave trade here in the US is mentioned, but rarely in it's broad context. What impact did the African slaves have on not just the southern states, but also the northern? What happened post Civil War? How did the entire union, not just the south treat its own citizens in a post-slavery era? Why did it take until well into the 20th century for civil rights for the African American movement to gain traction? What were the lasting and still lingering effects? These question are rarely (if ever), mentioned in our public schools.

We have states that fly a flag, on the very ground where all the people are supposed to be represented. A flag, under which marched those who fought for slavery, who fought to deny the very rights outlined in our nation's founding documents. Those same grounds where a monument to the "great" treasonous generals stands. The very same grounds where tens of thousands of citizens petitioned to remove another monument, but this one was of the African slaves. Because it gives them a sad.

As long as white people have a sad, there will be nothing done. Racial subordination will continue, as we are doomed to continue repeating the past we struggle ever so hard to forget.