Slave Reparations sought in Michigan

I believe any person alive today who can prove that they were a slave in the United States between the years 1776-1865 may be entitled to some compensation. No others need apply.

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"I swear to defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemeis domestic or foreign WHOMSOEVER."
 
Could Russian immigrants make US Govt. force Russian govt. to pay them for pain and suffering inflicted before the abolition of serfdom in 1861?
 
Given the amount of miscegenation between slave owners and their descendants and slaves and their descendants over the centuries, I think sorting out the heirs of the oppressors from the heirs of the victims would be quite a challenge. Perhaps Michigan's African-Americans should pay reparations to themselves.

By the way, if there's going to be any ethnically-based compensation for historical grievances, the African-Americans should step aside to let the Aboriginal (Native) Americans get to the head of the line.
 
Hmmm, my wife's ancestors were victims of the Armenian massacres. I wonder if she could sue the government of Turkey for reparations? Sounds like a great little cash cow--except she'd never dream of stooping to such a thing.
 
I'd be willing to do a one time deal if they would swear (and sign a contract
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)to NEVER ask/steal another cent from me EVER AGAIN!!If it would shut up Jesse Jackson/Al sharpton and the like, I'd do it.

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Rob
From the Committee to Use Proffesional Politicians as Lab Animals
 
I discovered the other day why I never became CEO of General Motors. My great, great, great (maybe another great in there) grandfather came to the US just before the revolutionary war as an indentured servent. He had to fight in the war to gain his freedom when everyone else was born a free man! I just never understood the feelings of oppression I have had throughout my life and now I know the reason. Because my ancestor was a slave and I believe my feelings of anger and frustration have been genetically passed on to me from that distant grandfather. Where do I sign up for my compensation? I could suffer out the rest of my miserable life and forgive this country for it's tyrany against my family for a couple million bucks.
 
GDaW. WOW. I'm terribly sorry to hear that tragic story of oppression. Here Ya go $(ka-ching). NOW SHUT UP ABOUT IT!!!
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Rob
From the Committee to Use Proffesional Politicians as Lab Animals
 
He's basing this on a promise of forty acres and a mule that the Government later broke?

Hot damn! Boy, have I got news for him. The Federal Government made a potload of promises to my Comanche, Mohawk and Iroquois ancestors that the Gov't later broke.

Forty acre and a mule, my furry tail end: there's a bunch of people owed their own territory! Just about everything West of the Mississippi, depending on which treaty/promise you read.

Go ahead, make my precedent.

LawDog
 
An indentured servant? Sounds like a guaranteed job to me. One of mine worked his way over from Glasgow in the 1760's at age 10 as a cabin boy. Set out on his own and ended up farming in Virginia. On the topic under consideration, do the families of Yankees who died invading the South, I mean saving the U.S., have to pay reparations too, or are their accounts paid in full? BTW, mine were on the losing side. John
 
Of course, even by the "logic" of the reparations crowd, this is crazy; Michigan wasn't even a slave state, it was the last stop on the underground railroad before arriving in Canada!

So they're going to tax me to pay "reparations" to somebody, because somebody else's ancestors did their ancestors wrong, someplace else? By that reasoning, Bill Gates owes me big time; I was beat up by a bully in elementary school. Sure, Bill didn't even know the bully, and never got near my school, but what's that got to do with it?

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Sic semper tyrannis!
 
They actually ought to pay us. Even an african american living on welfare in the projects has access to a standard of living, education, and the potential for betterment of his/her life than does his/her African Continental counter-part on the Dark Continent.

Also, will they seek reparations from the Zulu Tribes that enslaved the interior tribes to sell them to the white man?

I not a racist, but I don't believe in reparations unless we go all the way back to Cain and Able.
 
Perhaps our Jewish friends will file suit against Egypt next? I think not! It seems that some have born much worse oppression with far more grace and dignity!!!!!

Chris Canis
 
CANIS,

If I read correctly, these reparations were already made and are documented in the Book of Exodus...

Taking an arbitrary point in history as marking "rightful ownership" of real estate or mobile assets is always asking for trouble, as someone may come along and contend that such ownership was gained by conquest (or extortion, bribery, etc.), making it illegal.

Should the people of Greece pay reparations to the descendants of the inhabitants of Troy? Should the Italians pay reparations to the descendants of Carthaginians and diverse near east and european peoples? Should the English pay the decendents of Boers? Or the Iraqis pay the Jews for the destruction of Jerusalem and the forced removal to Babylon?

Which special point in history marks the turning point between conquest as a rightful means of gaining territory and an evil method of injustice? Why?
 
Hum, so I guess my Mom could pay my Dad...this is funny.

Doc Mac says:

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>I'm all for reparations if it includes a one way ticket to Zimbabwe, and renouncing of US citizenship.[/quote]

Uh, that's a bit transparent, don't you think?
 
A bit transparent !? Try crystal clear.

Who cares ? What about that woman who sued McDonalds for spilling her hot coffee ? What about the Japanese internment camp victims and their sons and daughters who received cash from Clinton ? What about the Jewish Holocaust survivors who busted Switzerlands nuts for stolen property ?

Why do you assume these people are projects living, welfare collecting, govnt. cheese eating bums looking to scam a buck ? The effects of slavery lasted for over a hundred years after the civil war. I don't think they are off base trying to collect on the govt.

However, they are asking for way too much, and Michigan ? Please...

[This message has been edited by MTAA (edited April 20, 2000).]
 
When you look at reparations you have to look at collecting from the person who did the harm. If that was my great great granddaddy and if he is deceased, then you might try his estate. If that has already been settled you missed it!

For the record, I am a second generation Native American of German/Irish descent and none of my ancestors owned a slave.

It can be argued that I have profited indirectly from slavery and am thus liable. If that is true, then the greatest beneficiaries of slavery are the current generations of African-Americans. That would make them more liable, wouldn't it.

Eddie Murphy had a quote on that, but I can't find it right now so I cant use it.

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Better days to be,

Ed
 
Slaves were victims, and so to me the really sad thing about such a lawsuit is its assumption that the descendants of slaves are victims in perpetuity. IOW, it assumes that the descendants remain in some sort of spiritual bondage even after 150 years. Whether or not this is true, it's not exactly an effective mindset for functioning on equal terms with the rest of society. Basically, it makes the descendants of victims their own victimizers.

Also, to seek reparations for evils committed over a century ago is, to me, basically to dwell in the past. This is also sad, because people who are locked into the past deny themselves a present and a future.

My two cents.
 
Lawyers have nothing better to do than sit around and think up this fecal matter. The reason they have so much time to think it up is because they're living high on the hog from the last group of lambs they lead to slaughter.

Shakespeare had a better idea.

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Tom Whitman
SSgt, USAF

[This message has been edited by AF Shooter (edited April 20, 2000).]
 
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