In California there’s been a commissioned study underway to determine how much money should be paid to the descendants of the victims of slavery and discrimination in America’s distant past. Figures as high as five million dollars each have been suggested as an appropriate amount necessary to compensate black Americans. Apparently discounting all that has already been done to help lift up black Americans since at least the Great Society and War on Poverty programs of the 1960’s, created by then President Lyndon B. Johnson.
But there has been much, much more in the years since Johnson’s presidency that has been done to offer opportunity and a helping hand to those disadvantaged black Americans. In a sense a very real form of reparations, already paid out to the tune of billions, if not trillions of dollars since the Johnson Administration.
Yes, countless dollars have already been spent, and much of it misspent by the very people it was intended to help, in order to try to even the playing field for those who had been discriminated against in the post-Civil War era, and right up until the Johnson Administration’s sweeping legislative efforts. Much of that money going into the pockets of corrupt black politicians and self-appointed black ‘leaders’ and community activists.
So let’s take a look at the reparations that have already been paid to black Americans starting back from the time of the War Between the States.
From 1861 until the Civil War ended in 1865, 110,100 Union Army soldiers were killed in battle. This does not count those who died of disease, or those wounded and severely maimed for life in combat action.
There are those who will argue that Union soldiers weren’t really fighting to end slavery, but if that were the case then why wasn’t there a mass exodus of Union soldiers after President Lincoln issued his Emancipation Proclamation in January of 1863? One would think that if Union soldiers weren’t willing to continue fighting for two more years to end slavery, they all would have laid down their arms and gone home. Hundreds of thousands of Union soldiers served, were killed and wounded continuing the fight which had indeed become a war to end slavery.
Reparations? Paid in full with the flesh and blood of our ancestors, including this writer’s great grandfather Henry Wilber who was wounded at Antietam and again at Gettysburg fighting to restore the Union, and to end slavery.
In 1875, President Ulysses Grant signed into law the Enforcement Acts, protecting the voting rights of blacks in the former Confederacy. This official act was a central initiative of Reconstruction. President Grant expressed sincere concern about the welfare of black citizens, and he offered unprecedented White House access to black politicians and civic and community leaders. “I have done all I could to advance the best interests of the citizens of our country, without regard to color, and I shall endeavor to do in the future what I have done in the past” were not just spoken words, President Grant worked hard to follow through. Reparations? Paid in full.
In 1965 ‘Affirmative Action’ prohibited employment discrimination, particularly on behalf of black Americans. This carried over into education, business opportunities and loans, government set-asides, the list is very long. All done in order to help black Americans gain a foothold into the American dream. Reparations? Paid in full.
Is there still much to do? Absolutely, there are still pockets of black poverty in both rural and inner city areas all around America. Throwing money either through government programs, or now the call for reparations has had and will have little effect on the problems experienced by the black community.
Oh there will be some in the black community who will be enriched, including the usual suspects like race hustler Al Sharpton. Sharpton and others of his ilk show up every time they see an opportunity to make a buck off of a tragedy involving anyone in the black community. Do they accomplish anything? Not really, once the TV cameras move on, so do they, and usually with a few more dollars in their pockets. Sadly those they supposedly came to help end up no better off than they were before.
The best form of reparations will come from within the black community themselves. A return to the era of responsible parenting and supervision of young black adolescents, of an appreciation for bettering oneself through educational excellence, and promoting more positive role models for young black Americans to emulate.
These are the ‘reparations’ that will best serve black Americans, not another government check paid for by other American taxpayers who never owned a slave, nor discriminated against people of color. Their support through their tax dollars over many decades has paid any reparations possibly owed in full.