Should the city of Boston give Black people reparations for slavery?
That’s the question the city council will probe in an upcoming hearing, as called for on Wednesday by City Councilors Julia Mejia and Kenzie Bok.
The idea of reparations — stretching back to the famous proposal of 40 acres and a mule for newly freed slaves right after the Civil War — is the idea that the government owes Black people something for enslaving their ancestors.
The order submitted by Mejia and Bok calls for “a hearing on reparations and their impact on the civil rights of Black Bostonians, in order to both form a common, shared history regarding Boston’s involvement in the enslavement of Black people as well as to explore the possibility of Boston issuing reparations.”
Mejia, speaking to the council on Wednesday, said this would be a way of making up for America’s “original sin” of slavery. She left the concept of what the reparations could be open, from money to simply some dialogue about slavery.
“It could be so much more than just a check in the mail — reparations could be compensation, but it could also take place in the form of providing care and services to descendants of slaves, as well as issuing a public apology,” she said.
She noted the oft-cited Federal Reserve study from six years ago, which said white households have a median net worth of $247,500, as compared to $8 for Black households.
Bok, who’s worked as a historian, said the effects of slavery continue to ripple through the generations.
“The opportunity to kind of look at that history, and then say, what would be meaningful, what would be a motion toward repair, is really a long overdue conversation in our society,” Bok said.
The hearing will take place at a to-be-determined date.
Critics of the idea of monetary reparations have cited the massive cost and logistical effort that would be required to get money to people, and to process applications. Others argue such a thing would no longer be needed so far out from the slavery era.
The idea of reparations is old, but it’s regained traction over the past several years in particular, coming along with the increase of focus on racial issues. There’s currently a bill in the U.S. House of Representatives that would create a commission to look into reparations.
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There are no slaves morons. Slave owners are no longer alive to pay reparations and there are no slaves to pay reparations to. So, it sounds to me like we have some slave wanna-be’s looking for an entitlement.
But the Democrat party is still around. Why not have Democrats fund reparations?
They are the party that fought a civil war for the states rights to own other humans. They are the party of Jim Crowe laws and the ones that erected all the statues of Democrats that fought FOR slavery in the Civil War.
Now the Democrats are going to use the descendants of slaves to increase their power. Paying them off instead of teaching personal responsibility.
They have never, ever known what personal responsibility is. They have had taxpayers funding 80+ programs of welfare to support them and racial grants and special privileges to give them even more and they still cannot do for themselves.They are tired of being “outside” with welfare and they are coming “inside” to where our money is-at least what they have allowed us to keep after we earn it.We are the slaves.
I agree. MAKE EVERYONE who is in the DNC, and everyone related to those who those who were in the DNC pay all reparations. AND ONLY THEM!
Of course and democrats will give them everything we have.No expectation for them to work for themselves, they never have.
Since they missed out on the 40 acres and a mule that is what they should get.
WE paid for an entire nation for them to move to.. SO MAKE THEM ALL MOVE THERE!
BUT, if you want to pay “reparations” to the descendants of former slaves, FINE! As long as the “reparations” are paid ONLY by the descendants of former slave OWNERS (and those who opposed ENDING slavery). In other words: DEMOCRATS should be the ONLY ONES paying those “reparations”!
AND ONLY once proof of someone’s link (VIA ANCESTRAL RECORDS) to a slave owner is confirmed.
No government, local, state. or national, ever owned any slaves so why should they pay anything to anyone? Besides the governments have no money, it the citizens money they are using, shouldn’t they have something to say about how their money is being spent?
Reparations should come from the actual slave holders, and go only to the actual slaves. Most people wouldn’t have a problem with that. Anybody that was not a slave should not get one thin dime.
Actually I have a problem with that. reparations were already paid. Just a tiny bit of the actual history of this nation which has been rewritten by the left.
WE damn well SHOULD have a say in how OUR MONEY is spent..
Have those who want reparations PAY FOR THEM themselves. These righteous idiots want to spend our money on idiotic causes. Maybe I should get paid because my relatives from long ago where discriminated against. Pay the Italians, the Irish, the Jewish people, the Japanese, etc. when does it end with these morons on how to spend OUR money.
Actually we do have slaves. All those illegals who give all the money they earn to the cartels who brought them to the US. From what I heard it takes many years to pay the cartels off.
THEN that’s the cartels treating them like slave chattle..
NOT US
Folks in Boston need to check their history. There were never any slave owners in the state of Massachusetts. Only poor white people who worked their fingers to the bone for generations in a struggle to become middle class. There were also many, many Yankees who died in the Civil War for the right of blacks to be free. Those who want reparations should return to the state of their ancestors and ask about reparations there. Massachusetts owes you nothing.
A very simple solution, have all the White Democrats in Boston give up half of everything they have to be divided equally among ball the black Democrats in Boston. That should even the playing field, they could name it in honor of Crispus Attucks!
That won’t work. Look at forced busing in the south . Started back in the late 60– early 70. Same school, same teacher, same classroom and same textbook and they still fail. Everything is the same and they still cry racism. We lowered standards and they still fail.
Nothing we give them is ever enough.They want everything. What are they Planning to give to the white descendants of the white slaves in Africa that were forcibly taken from their coastal homes and from ships and enslaved and murdered in Africa? Those white slaves were never freed. What are white people in America going to receive as reparations for all those white lives?
WHen you dumb things down, and they STILL WHINE ITS NOT good enough, that should show everyone, NEVER EVER GIVE THEM AN INCH…
Crispus Atticus – credit where credit is due…
I am SO tired of this “Reparation fiasco” ! We DON’T OWE ANYTHING to the Blacks that are alive today. Many groups of people have been treated very poorly over the years. Let’s, start with the Indians, the Japanese, and the Jews, who unfortunately are treated very badly today ! Let us just make a fresh start, and all say we will NEVER be RACIST, or ANTI-SEMITIC, or OWN SLAVES ever again !
They forced blacks into our neighborhoods and into our schools and they will force us to give them everything we have. We already have 80+ programs of welfare and special grants and privileges for them. They have had every opportunity in the world provided but it’s never enough because they want everything.
Don’t forget all the Scholarships that are BLACK ONLY, along with all the HBCUs, that they can get into, YET THEY STILL WHINE “YOU are not giving us a chance”..
There were also black slave owners and white slaves… I’ve never heard the whites screaming for reparations for how they were treated.. they moved on from the past … ENOUGH IS ENOUGH OF THIS GARBAGE… NOT ONE slave owner is alive today and NOT ONE slave is alive today.. NO ONE OWES anyone reparations… They need to drop this insanity…. It will do NOTHING but racially divide this country more and more.. We already got a nightmare administration who is racially dividing our country with their insanity… GOD HELP US ALL AS THESE CRAZY PEOPLE DESTROY AMERICA AND THE AMERICAN PEOPLE!!!
Anyone know if the Japanese Americans who were interred by the Democrats (FDR/Congress) during WWII ever got their rightful property mostly in CA returned to them when somebody figured out they were patriotic American citizens?
OR got paid any form of reparations??
Nobobody alive today was a slave.
Nobody alive today owned any slaves. Nobody in my family tree owned slaves.
I don’t owe nobody nothing.
Thank GOD I don’t live in The People’s Republik of Taxachusetts.
More and more, i’d just like to DIG THAT entire state out of the ground, and send it WHOLE HOCK over to russia/china, and DROP IT ON THEM…
Was Boston a slave city ?
Maybe this is Dixie’s revenge for freeing them.
There are more slaves in the world today then ever before in history, color is irrelevant. they claim the number today is about 30 million. Mostly its children and women. The vast majority are captive in the middle east and Africa. It is also prevalent in the pacific rim. On some cases they are imported as workers but then their passport is taken they are paid a fraction if any at all. Kinda like the company store, they work to survive and hope to escape one day. The same people who were catching slaves and selling them on the Barbary coast in the 19th century are still at it. Of course all infidels deserve to be slaves.
White Europeans were slaves in Africa before there ever was black slavery in America. White European men, women and children were forcibly taken from their coastal homes and number so great that many towns were left devoid of population. They were also taken forcibly from ships and enslaved in Africa And tortured, worked and murdered. Africa never afraid the white European slaves. What is Africa or their descendants going to give to the white European descendants of slavery in Africa?
So true. JUst look at how many whites, through out europe who were used as slaves by the Roman empire and the like…
She’s lying about the stats, of course. “In 2016, white families reported having $171,000 in wealth, or about 10 times the wealth black families reported having ($17,400), according to the most recent Federal Reserve Survey of Consumer Finances.”
There are MANY reasons for this. Blaming whites is outrageous. Blacks are less likely to have 2 parent households, more likely to have children out of wedlock and less likely to graduate. These 3 things alone create massive poverty.
Why are the “inner cities” like they are now? Were they that way 100 years ago?? What is the relationship between poverty and voting democratic and living in these places? Any connection at all ???
BUT WHEN You give them thousands in WIC, Welfare, EBT, Section 8 housing, free schooling, free medical/dental, HOW THE HELL CAN THEY STILL be called as “being in poverty!”
Hell, one study showed, that the AVERAGE welfare mother, with all the govt freebies taken into account, PULLS IN just under 45k a year.. AND THEY HAVE NO TAXES ON THAT….
SO how the hell is that “BEING poor”!
Since when did Boston have any slaves? Secondly, the north freed the slaves. Should the whites in the north get reparations, since the north freed the slaves? There are no slaves today in our Country, so why should anyone get reparations?
Out right, no!
As stated above by some, there are no more slaves living from those times and there are certainly no more slave owners to pay them back. Stop this feeling for people in the past.This is what Martin Luther King and people of my generation tried to eradicate the unfairness and a good job we did. I know more blacks richer than me and I am not complaining nor asking for reparations because I had an Irish relative working on the Erie canal.
Many of us white people had ancestors who were slaves in Africa before there ever was Black slavery in America. White European men, women and children were forcibly taken from ships and from coastal towns in numbers so great that many areas were devoid of population. These innocent white menBlack slavery in America. White European men, women and children were forcibly taken from ships and from coastal towns in numbers so great that many areas were devoid of population. These innocent white People were worked, tortured, and murdered in Africa. What is Africa and its descendants going to give to whites in reparations for the atrocity they committed against these white People were worked, tortured, and murdered in Africa. What is Africa and its descendants going to give to whites in reparations for the atrocity they committed against these white Europeans?
The dying First American Republic is a runaway train, barreling down the track toward civil war and collapse. The forcible confiscation of assets from some present-day Americans simply because they are white and the transfer of these assets to other present-day Americans simply because they are black must be met with resistance and defiance, and if necessary with secession and partition. The only way in which reparations can be accepted is if they are contingent upon immediate renunciation of American citizenship and relocation to Africa with no right of return, leaving all assets and property here and with the penalty of execution on attempted return. Africans should not have been brought here (by the British and the Portuguese and not by Americans) in the first place. This should have been done in 1865, but things are now so bad that it may be time for 40 acres and a mule – in Ghana.
This BS has to stop. Hundreds of thousands of white people fought and died to end slavery. Hundreds of thousands more lost sight and limbs and received no “help” from the government when they returned from war. That blood was blacks reparations and these whiners today have not honored those deaths by striving to be the best they could be. There is NOTHING to stop liberals, progressives and Marxists from setting up a fund to pay reparations (read extortion) money to blacks. This demand for reparations is just another wealth redistribution plan by Marxists looking to create division and strife amongst different people. They are not looking to do anything but take money from whites to give to blacks even if those blacks were not descendants of slaves.
I want reparations from Africa and its descendants for the torture, slavery and murder of all the innocent white European men, women and children who were forcibly taken from their coastal towns and from ships and enslaved in Africa before there ever was black slavery in America. We never hear about these poor innocent white people who were enslaved but we are going to before this is over. If there is going to be reparations for blacks and then we want reparations for whites.
How’s about we get reparations from all the ISLAMIC nations, for DECADES OF ISLAMIC terrorism!
What about the whites who weres slaves… guess they don’t matter… What about all the black slave owners…
these democRATS ARE EVIL… ALL THEY WANT TO DO IS STEAL FROM ONE RACE AND GIVE TO ANOTHER.. THE NIGHTMARE ADMINISTRATION
IS RACIALLY DIVIDING OUR COUNTRY!!! THIS GARBAGE NEEDS TO STOP!!!! ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!!!! There is NOT one slave alive today and NOT one slave owner alive today…. THEY NEED TO DROP THIS INSANITY!!!!
As of 2018, the countries with the most slaves were: India (8 million), China (3.86 million), Pakistan (3.19 million), North Korea (2.64 million), Nigeria (1.39 million), Indonesia (1.22 million), Democratic Republic of the Congo (1 million), Russia (794,000) and the Philippines (784,000).
Why don’t you focus your misplaced anger on these countries that still have slaves.
Since you want to charge all Americans for the reparation payouts, how about also considering how to charge black criminals the cost of their crimes.
I.A.W. U.S. Census & FBI (Table 43a)
Black males make up about 6% of the U.S. population but every year commit ~53% of all the murders and ~55% of all robberies in the U.S… Every year in the U.S. there are ~5,000 African-Americans men, women and children killed and 93% of them were killed by fellow African-Americans.
Damn those pesky facts. The U.S, has spent trillions of dollars on all sorts of programs over the last50 years or so to help black Americans, to little avail. Time to hold blacks accountable for their own, self caused problems, instead of deflecting responsibility on to other innocent Americans.
Any plans for reparations for the descendants of all the white young men who gave their lives to free the slaves?
What are your plans for the descendants of the 3000 blacks that were slave owners in 1860.
Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we try to deceive.
BECAUSE all of thse nations, are not “WHITE”.. Ergo, the blacks can’t whine at them..
seems they were offered reparations when they were freed of slavery, 40 acres and a mule
Correct, but not convenient enough to include in woke history.
AND that is why our nation is going down the toilet.. CAUSE WE have let the left, dictate what is and isn’t taught as history, for decades..
Actually Technically we bought them. their own people Enslaved them. So they need to go after countries in Africa and the Muslim slave traders for Preparations.
I propose that all of our nation’s White Democrats be required to atone for their party’s past support for the inhumane institution of slavery by establishing a reparations fund that taxes all registered, White Democrats to create a revenue stream that can be used to compensate descendants of former slaves. If the Democrat-controlled Confederacy would have won the Civil War, it is almost certain that slavery would still exist in some form in various parts of America today. The party that fought to perpetuate slavery, imposed Jim Crow laws on Blacks after the Civil War ended, and created the KKK to terrorize and murder Blacks is primarily responsible for any emotional and financial harm that contemporary Blacks have suffered. Therefore, the Democrat party is the only entity that is both morally and legally obligated to compensate the descendants of slaves.
American blacks should collect first from the ROOT of their slave history, black African tribes who used vanquished tribes as slaves and sold the excess to Muslim/Arabic slave traders for CENTURIES before whites were involved for a hiccup in time and alone ended the industrial trade using British and American ships. Forever milking the race that ENDED the slave trade that all races participated in is a case of NO GOOD DEED GOES UNPUNISHED.
Obviously Boston Dems are history illiterate and should read Dr. Thomas Sowell instead of redistributing money to people who were never slaves from people most of whom are not even descended from slave owners. Punishing innocents based on the color of their skin is smelly racism no matter what you call it – reparations BS.
Just another lame attempt at Marxist wealth redistribution. The commies will try anything…
AND all too often, unfortunately, their ends seem to work, to appease the masses.
The way I look at it is that three of my ancestors died fighting for the North to free the slaves. The slaves owe me for what my ancestors did. Pandering for money is just black people wanting to be slaves again. As the black people showed in Tulsa before the riot, they could do quite nicely if government just got out of their way. This generation of blacks seems to just want to blame everyone other than themselves for their own failings. Maybe less RAP and b-ball and more chemistry and physics?
Black lives Matter was helping the leftist democrats to accumulate Real Estate in expensive Real Estate holdiings, but those who founded ” BLACK Lives Matter aren’t greedy, When the Black Lives Matter had enriched themselves they did the right thing and let as ONE one else work the con Game…..
How can anyone claim that black people are systemically oppressed when millions of black people have been very successful? There are millions of successful black doctors,black nurses, black engineers, black politicians, black judges, black journalists, black athletes, black IT systems engineers, black teachers, black professors, black lawyers, black entertainers, black police officers and the list can go on and on. How did these millions of black people become successful if they were oppressed? The black people who fail at what they attempt to do blame white people instead of themselves. Along life’s way, they made wrong choices and wrong decisions. And by the way, white people who fail at being successful do the same thing by blaming other people for their failures. Everybody needs to get with it and make good decisions to be successful in life.
ABSOLUTELY NO!!!! THIS IS INSANE.. IT IS NOTHING MORE THAN STEALING FROM ONE RACE TO GIVE TO ANOTHER RACE… A good way to divide this country racially… We already have a nightmare administration racially dividing this country…
There are NO slaves alive today and NO slave owners.. NO ONE TODAY OWES ANYONE REPARATIONS OF ANY KIND!!!! ENOUGH IS ENOUGH OF THIS GARBAGE!!!! There were also black slave owners and white slaves.. I don’t hear any whites screaming for reparations… The whites have moved on from the past… How about the blacks do the same thing… MOVE ON!!!! THE PAST IS OVER AND DONE WITH …LEAVE IT!!!! You want money, WORK FOR IT!!!!
Witnessed liberty2 Response to Momacat, I don’t disagree with your comments at all. Booker T. Washington said say back in the 1800s that” There was a certain class of colored who made it a business of keeping the wrongs, and injustices done to the Colored Race, to paraphrase Booker T. Washington, and he said that these “Race Busters made a good living out of keeping those injustices alive…
Sorry to admit I’m a (now absent) native of this pathetic leftist state. The Council needs to get on its collective knees and ask the Power above for a dose of old-fashioned common sense! i’m ashamed I was ever born in that Marxist hellhole. Where’s the reparations for all the white and yellow slaves in past centuries? OMG, insanity is the new pandemic now.
Sorry can only give you 1 TU.
Well, the Old American Communist Party, aka, Democrat Party that is no more, just want to give more “freebies” to the blacks for their vote! How about the blacks who are stuck in the false narrative about themselves being a enslaved by whites look at the real cause of their ancestors being enslaved and who actually brought about their slavery!!! Wow, it was their African ancestors who sold their own people to various nations around the world. It wasn’t the whites at all. This a farce of a narrative that must be challenged to the end.
A diversionary tactic which the race hucksters accumulate more money from the “woke” dopes so they can buy million dollar mansions like Cullors who beat them to the punch, in the tradition of Adam Clayton Powell, Alcee Hastings, Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, John Lewis, Maxine Waters, Sheila Jackson Lee, Cory Booker, and The Kackling Kamaltoe.
These fools in Boston are going to stir up more trouble than they can handle.
Can you imagine what the founding fathers are thinking, looking down on the nation THEY FOUGHT AND BLED To create??
Reparations and civil war, one and inseparable. The council members for reparations are putting their political designs above the interests and visions of the citizens they were chosen to represent. Everybody’s coming to America (Neil Diamond) from everywhere for opportunity, freedom, and the rule of law. That is not about reparations, which is plunder.
Since you have to tax people to pay for it will you tax legal immigrants who have arrived in the past few years? If you do a good attorney should help them sue. Will you give money to blacks who arrived here 50 years ago or less? BE careful what boxes you open, it could make Pandora’s look like a picnic basket
Very true.
The left, has NEVER EVER CARED if what they do ‘opens a pandora’s box…