How would reparations be funded?
Conservative writer Michael Medved estimates that only 5% of whites in America “bear any authentic sort of generational guilt for the exploitation of slave labor.”
Why should anyone but Democrats pay?
Scholar Dinesh D’Souza notes that all but a “handful” of slave owners were Democrats. The Ku Klux Klan, at its height of power and popularity, was known by the NAACP as the “terror wing” of the Democratic Party. The KKK was founded by Democrats; I did not say by the Democratic Party, but by Democrats. As a percentage of their party, more House Republicans voted for the Civil Rights Act of 1964 than did House Democrats. As a percentage of their party, more Senate Republicans voted for the Civil Rights Act of 1964 than did Senate Democrats.
I recently reread Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1963 “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” in which he takes fellow clergymen to task for asking him to wait. King wrote:
“Perhaps it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging darts of segregation to say, ‘Wait.’ But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate filled policemen curse, kick and even kill your black brothers and sisters. … When you are harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro, living constantly at tiptoe stance, never quite knowing what to expect next, and are plagued with inner fears and outer resentments; when you are forever fighting a degenerating sense of ‘nobodiness’ — then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait.”
We no longer live in that America.
In 1964, King gave an interview to the BBC where he predicted there could be a Black president in “less than 40 years. I would think that this can come in 25 years or less.” Just about right on the 40-year schedule, America elected Barack Obama.
King did not say that in less than 40 years’ time, there will have been a Black female president of an Ivy League college — which we have had. He did not say in 40 years, they’ll be a Black CEO of a Fortune 500 company; there have been several, including the former CEO of McDonald’s. King didn’t say in 40 years, there will be a Black governor of a state like Virginia, the capital state of the Confederacy — which has happened. He didn’t say when 80% of Blacks will no longer be poor, which is now the case.
No, King suggested that we will have reached the promised land when America elects a Black president. Why? Because in the privacy of the voting booth or the mail-in ballot, one can vote however one wants. If a voter is racist, he or she can vote accordingly. King felt when Americans became fair-minded enough to elect a Black person whom they felt qualified for the presidency, we then have reached a point where we are evaluating each other based on content of our character, rather than color of skin, to the fullest degree realistically possible.
Far more important than the issue of reparations is this: Why has the rate of out-of-wedlock births in the Black community nearly tripled from 1965 until now, when America is clearly less racist now than 56 years ago? Even during slavery, a Black child was more likely to live under a roof with his or her biological mother and biological father than today. This makes linking today’s problems to slavery and Jim Crow all the more difficult.
In 1965, 24% of Black children were born outside of wedlock. In 2018 — the latest year available — that number was 69%. On Father’s Day in 2008, Barack Obama said: “We know the statistics — that children who grow up without a father are five times more likely to live in poverty and commit crime; nine times more likely to drop out of schools and 20 times more likely to end up in prison.”
Finally, Obama, when asked about reparations in 2016, said:
“It is easy to make that theoretical argument. But as a practical matter, it is hard to think of any society in human history in which a majority population has said that as a consequence of historic wrongs, we are now going to take a big chunk of the nation’s resources over a long period of time to make that right.”
He was right.
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GOPUSA Editor’s Note: This is the third in a series of articles on the topic of reparations by Larry Elder. The first two are listed below.
The Case Against Reparations
Reparations: Who Pays? Who Collects?
Larry Elder is a bestselling author and nationally syndicated radio talk show host. His latest book, “The New Trump Standard,” is available in paperback from Amazon.com and for Nook, Kindle, iBooks and GooglePlay. To find out more about Larry Elder, or become an “Elderado,” visit www.LarryElder.com. Follow Larry on Twitter @LarryElder. To read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.
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This content is published through a licensing agreement with Acquire Media using its NewsEdge technology.
Larry Elder, Great commentary. You make so much sense, you are going to send the Democrats into their safe spaces, with a “gender neutral” Barbie Doll and Tinker Toys named “it”.
IF the black population as a whole, even had 1.10th the intelligence and wisdom of Larry, the world would be a better place.
Let all who register and vote Democrat pony up the reparations,,,and make them pay big time. Even blacks who vote Democrat today included. They certainly contribute heavily to the continuance of the racial division and hatred. How about Southern newspapers still in existence?
I.A.W. U.S. Census & FBI (Table 43a) Black males make up about 6% of the U.S. population but commit 53% of all the murders and 55% of all robberies in the U.S… Every year there are ~6,000 African-Americans men, women and children killed and 94% of them were killed by fellow African-Americans.
Now who do you think is the greatest threat to the black race??
How many of these ~6,000 black murdered by other blacks are on the national news for weeks??
How many bodies do you have to step over to get to the one that you think is important only because a White police officer was involved?
Isn’t the Covid-19 assistance that congress voted in tantamount to reparations. Why non-white farmers are being bailed out while white farmers get nothing. That smacks of reparations if I have ever seen.
To me, that smacks of REVERSE RACISM !
Racism is racism. No such thing as reverse racism.
This is all part of the problem of creating confusion and divisions everywhere. Divide your enemies forces then attack the weakest to gain an overall advantage. They have done that well with the Christian churches.
ITS racism, period. There’s no thing as reverse racism.
Reverse racism is perfectly fine when you play for Team-Left.
Any talks of reparations must include returning them to africa. If you have stolen property, you must return it to the owner. Since they claim they were stolen, then we must return them. Lincoln wanted to return the slaves.
I’m good with reparations.
I DEMAND REPARATIONS FOR EVERY RIOT WHERE BLACKS DESTROYED THEIR COMMUNITIES …
We, The People PAID to rebuild those communities and 99.9998% had no hand in the destruction.
At the same time, I do have a FINGER TO POINT TO THE DIRECT CAUSE of those riots.
The mainstream media WILLFULLY, DELIBERATELY AND INTENTIONALLY INCITED THE RIOTS FOR FINANCIAL REWARDS!
They also profited from the INCREASED POWER OVER THE POLITICIANS and their newfound ability to jerk the easily corrupted politicians TO DO THEIR BIDDING!
It all started when the FCC altered the original rule of “News Shall be Presented WITHOUT advertising AS A PUBLIC SERVICE”
to
SELLING AD TIME DURING THE NEWS.
Prior to that, the networks presented the FACTUAL NEWS in as short a format as possible.
To ensure the advertisers would buy time, they pushed RACISM and within 3 years THEY INCITED RACE RIOTS COAST TO COAST!
Not just the media, but EVERY hollywood schmuck, musician and politician WHO FUNDED THE BAIL for those rioters.. THEY should all be forced to pay OUT OF THEIR OWN pockets, reparations to all those businesses and homes that got looted, vandalized or burned down.