A Telling Quote on Slavery Reparations

If you want to know what the ultimate goal is of those that want reparations for the American slave trade, you have to look no farther than a telling quote that appeared in the Memphis Commercial Appeal on September 25.

For slavery reparation advocates, the ultimate desire is not contrition, no apology will do, no memorial statues or finger wagging in Congress is satisfactory. Nothing less than punitive sanctions against living Americans for an institution that is 150 years dead is what these people want.

The article in question details the efforts of Memphis Congressman Steve Cohen (D, Tenn.) who has been spearheading a resolution that would see Congress launching a commission that would study reparation proposals.

The quote in question comes from Detroit City Council member JoAnne Watson. She said that an apology is just the first step in the reparations process. (my bold)

She said the second step is investigation, the third step is compensation and the fourth step is consequences for wrongdoing… “We are worth it,” Watson said. “We’re not begging. It’s ours.”

Read that quote closely. Not only does this woman want an apology and financial awards, she wants some sort of “consequences” to be brought down on the heads of people unknown, folks that she deems to be criminals. And who who would these criminals be 150 years after slavery was ended in the U.S.A.?

The only people left that could be assigned any blame no matter how tenuous are corporations. And it is these corporations that these slavery reparation supporters want to destroy by punitive sanctions for a crime that was not only not an official crime at the time, but wasn’t even unique in the world then.

Should the U.S. apologize for its part in the slave trade? It certainly couldn’t hurt anything to make that apology. But beyond that it is extraordinary silliness to do anything more.

Slavery was not exclusive to the U.S. It was everywhere in the world at the time this nation was founded. Additionally, this nation lost over 600,000 citizens in a war that ultimately ended this great evil. Certainly it is true that we struggled with race relations for well over another 100 years. But even with that long road to equality this nation has led the world in making all races, all sexes, all religions equal in the eyes of the law.

Apologizing will do no harm. Anything else is in itself a crime against society. And certainly criminalizing people that had no part in something that has been dead for 150 years is idiotic.

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