In the spirit of Black History Month...

[SatCong]

Should we just forward the repayments billing to the Dutch slavers who introduced the heinous practice in New Amsterdam?
SatCong

[DaRkWoLf]

This is actually a tough topic.

Even though I wish that the govt would enforce and properly administer its social services (not add new ones, just make the current ones work), I do not believe in affirmative action or "reperations" to the African American populace. In the present, it would do more harm than good by giving minorities an excuse to fail, and a backdoor to hurt the pocketbooks of other ethnic groups. During reconstruction, it wouldve been a different story.

[John in AR]

How about this one for a race question…

Premise:

There are decent white people and scumbag white people.
There are decent black people and scumbag black people.
There are decent asian people and scumbag asian people.

and on and on…

Assuming we can agree on the above, how many here would make the blanket statement that “making a decision based on the color of a person’s skin is a bad idea”…?

I would. (And I wish those in public office would also.)

[Half elf]

In response to the cry for reperation's I have only one real question? Who pays them, Who gets them, and Who makes the desicion's. Will we come out with a special "White-Boy Cracker"tax to build a trust fund for it, or will we suceed a portion of the US as a new homeland? If so can I get a "Rent To Own " franchise in the new territory.

[Aslan]

The homeland experiment was tried and it pretty much failed. What do you think the nation of Liberia is/was?

It never got the economic prosperity the US has. The standard of living there is in many cases, lower than that of the inner cities.

While the treatment of minorities in the past has been nothing short of horrific, I have a real problem paying reparations.

Particularly since most of those demanding reparations, probably can trace their ancestors arrival to the US to post CIVIL WAR times.

So, no to reparations, no to affirmative action. Penalize people for not choosing the qualified candidate, independent of their race, religion, etc. A level playing field means there will be losers and winners.

Quotas, mean you believe that people cannot compete on a level playing field, that you need to help an "inferior group". I don't buy into the inferior theory.

:devil:

[41mag]

Aslans right.The percentage of Civil War area slave decendants is supposedly in the single digits-even after 150 years.Finding those select few & reparating only them would be both impossable & cause chaos in the inner cities.

OTOH,it might be fun to just sit back & watch the fallout.

[Chippathingy]

I have found that blacks that are decent people dont give a **** about any of it.
Those that do need to get over it and quit playing the martyr role.

Through out history there have been more white slaves, or slaves other than the black persuasion than there have been black ones. That’s not even counting those that might as well be called slaves, those who live or have lived in oppressive countries.

I think that if your culture is still in grass skirts with spears living in adobe huts when the rest of the world is starting to break into the industrial revolution...you need to "figure it out."

African blacks don’t act like American blacks.
I have talked to many people that have visited Africa and they always tell the same story about how the African blacks hate it when an American black visits their store or etc because they don’t like the way they act and the ebonics confuses them.

I think they need to get over it and the reparations crap and the affirmative action (reverse discrimination enforced by government) needs to stop.

100% equality as provided by the Constitution is enough.

Acting or talking stupid unfortunately is not a crime.

[Ratsinthegravyredux]

How do we handle the topic of black slave owners?

Umm, by the way, that 100% equality clause in the Constitution, could you show it to me? I seem to recall that when that little paper was written, regardless of the words used in it, blacks were in slavery, women had almost no rights outside of marriage and damn little in marriage and if you weren't part of the establsihed theocracy you were sort of screwed....but, hey, the myths of a country are far more important than the realities, right?

[Rich Z]

Several years ago, I worked to the Florida Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission. So happens that near my desk was a posted that said something to the effect of "No one in state government can discriminate in any manner based on race, religion, creed, national origin, sex.... blah, blah, blah...". Well one day my boss came to me and asked me to locate some computer equipment we needed. He then handed me a list of minority owned businesses for me to call. I looked at him, waiting for the punch line, but he was serious. So I pointed to that poster. I told him, I will do this exactly in a non biased manner. First I will find out who has what we need, then I will find, out of that subset, has it for the cheapest price. I REALLY don't care who owns the business. He just said HIS boss told him how to do it, and I could do it whatever way I wanted as long as I didn't tell him.

Come to find out later that this was some form of "reparation" (as in "repair") that they were involved in years ago. Basically this was their own form of "affirmative action".

Be that as it may, "affirmative action" is just discrimination looked at through the other side of the mirror. If you disciminate in ANY manner, then it is discrimination, by definition. Saying that you need a black woman in a wheel chair to fille the position is no better then saying that you will take anyone BUT a black woman in a wheel chair.

When I hire people for my own business, I don't care if they are white, black, brown, yellow, green, or blue. All I care about is if they can do the job. THAT is being non-discriminatory. Do you meet the qualifications or not? Unless there is something about the job that the color of someone's skin is pertinent to the qualifications, then it is completely irrelevant.

Now with that out of the way, why is "Black History Month" ok, but something like "White History Month" would NOT be ok? Why is "Black Miss America Pageant" ok, but a "White Miss America Pageant" would NOT be ok?

Do you ever get the feeling that our government just likes to stir the pot? Gives us something to fight with other then them, now doesn't it? ;) How many laws that get passed wind up pitting some of us against others?