I’m a white guy in the Northeast US. My family came from Canada in the early 20th century. None of my grandparents ever owned land. They all were either homemakers or menial laborers. My family didn’t own anything until the 70s. Should I pay reparations?
Comment on How are slavery reparations fair?
ristoril_zip@lemmy.zip 1 year ago
Let’s say that 5 generations ago, your great-great-great grandfather had a farm. It was highly productive and had a great location.
Let’s say that my great-great-great grandfather went to the local government and paid bribes and maybe did some light killing and stole that farm. No matter who your g-g-g grandfather talked to, they all pointed to the new deed and told him to suck eggs. Your g-g-g grandfather fell into despair and poverty. His children grew up poor but also worked hard and climbed up the wealth ladder a little. So too did their children, and so on, until your generation. Let’s say you’re lower middle class or so. No generational wealth to speak of but not in poverty.
Meanwhile my family has developed that farmland, partitioned it and sold or leased pieces of it for business and industry. We have phenomenal generational wealth all built on that initial theft of land.
But hey, you never had land stolen directly from you, and I never directly stole the land. Everyone in the area knows exactly what happened. Everyone in the area knows that my generational wealth is built on theft. Nowadays everyone talks openly about it, including me.
Now, from the outside looking in, I say that the absolutely morally right thing to do is restore the ownership of the land to the descendants of the person who owned it. But from the inside, the living descendants of the thief say hey, WE didn’t steal the land. We just benefit every day from the original theft. Why should we do anything to make amends for that theft, which we don’t dispute but don’t want to be accountable for either.
tinyVoltron@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Ya_Boy_Skinny_Penis@lemmy.world 1 year ago
No, you should not pay reparations.
The government that was responsible should, though. It’s its own, independent entity.
dmonzel@lemmy.world 1 year ago
No one is asking to deduct a reparations payment from your paycheck. It’s merely a line item in the existing budget. Sheesh.
kmkz_ninja@lemmy.world 1 year ago
They’re still his taxes that he paid. But it’s still a better use than bombs.
Illegal_Prime@dmv.social 1 year ago
This is a decent analogy, but ignores the practicality of the situation.
How exactly do you get the UK electorate to support this, there really isn’t any benefit to them, it’s just like throwing money into a bonfire. Besides it’s not like the UK economy is currently doing that well, and given that, it’s unrealistic for anyone to support the government just taking more money away intentionally. You’re basically begging for a far-right populist to come in just because they say this is a terrible idea, which is in and of itself the primary reason why it’s a terrible idea.
pbbananaman@lemmy.world 1 year ago
This is a fact of life for all people around the world. I promise you’ll go circles paying retribution if you look for these links of “who stole what”.
Heavybell@lemmy.world 1 year ago
This is a good analogy for the reparation argument, nice work.
letsgo@lemm.ee 1 year ago
Only partially. Those two gggf’s had their spat; I’m the descendent of neither, yet it’s me who has to pay the bill.