Comment on How are slavery reparations fair?
Gsus4@feddit.nl 1 year agoIf entity A is the UK and entity B is those hunted and sold to slavery by entity C, why does A have to pay C for stealing labour from B? Pay B for stolen work.
Comment on How are slavery reparations fair?
Gsus4@feddit.nl 1 year agoIf entity A is the UK and entity B is those hunted and sold to slavery by entity C, why does A have to pay C for stealing labour from B? Pay B for stolen work.
NoneOfUrBusiness@kbin.social 1 year ago
Because:
1-Supply and demand. The transatlantic slave trade created demand for slaves much higher than what existed before that point. That creates an environment where being a slaver is rewarded, and therefore not being a slaver was punished. If, for example, a republican billionaire says "I'll give 10000$ to anyone who kills a democrat" they can't just claim they're innocent when democrats get systematically killed.
ArcaneSlime@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 year ago
Idk about this line of reasoning. One thing being rewarded doesn’t necessarily mean the absence of the thing is punished. An olympic race has a winner and the winner is rewarded with a medal, but the losers aren’t typically punished, they simply “aren’t rewarded.” It isn’t like you get put in the boo box for coming in 4th, and I wasn’t there but I doubt they put anyone in the boo box (or any “punishment”) for being “a doctor not a slaver.” (Dammit Jim. Couldn’t resist.) At best some slaver dad got mad his kid wanted to be a composer instead of take up the family slaving business, but what else is new?
ZodiacSF1969@sh.itjust.works 1 year ago
They have a warped view of supply and demand.
NoneOfUrBusiness@kbin.social 1 year ago
That's true in general, but we're talking geopolitics here. States that participated in the slave trade would conquer their neighbors and sell them as slaves. That's the punishment I was talking about.
Gsus4@feddit.nl 1 year ago
Yes, a lucrative market for a hideous crime was created, and the guys who hunted other groups in order to get paid in that market wronged the enslaved too. (I’m not sure it was all like this all over Africa too, but in the Congo, it seemed to be the case)
NoneOfUrBusiness@kbin.social 1 year ago
Yes, but the thing is: The states that actually sold slaves basically don't exist anymore thanks to colonialism, and even those that still do lost any wealth they had to colonialism. Can't really accumulate generational wealth when you're busy farming rubbers or whatever for your colonial overlords.
Gsus4@feddit.nl 1 year ago
Yea, colonialism is yet another compensation for yet another historic crime (invasion, to start with) But, I think all this is going to be peanuts compared to compensation for global warming, this one is going to break every bank and nobody can agree on anything…it’s like these debates times 1000.
ZodiacSF1969@sh.itjust.works 1 year ago
I have no idea why you made that idiotic comment about Republicans considering the involvement if Democrats in slavery.
FooBarrington@lemmy.world 1 year ago
I have no idea why you made that idiotic comment considering they never talked about Republican slave owners?