Understand the Racist Arguments Against Reparations

June 20, 2023 — Jt Spratley
Reparations Now

Some RallyPoint members (RP) recently praised arguments in an article titled "Ten Reasons Why Reparations for Blacks is a Bad Idea for Blacks [And racist too]." I replied to the post in detail but wanted to also write it here for a few reasons:

  1. Native Black Americans need to understand the importance, the requirement, of reparations for Blacks.
  2. Blacks need to understand how to combat the arguments that anti-Black racists and ignorant others, especially politicians, will use to defend their stance
  3. Months before the original thread in question was created, I created a thread asking "To those applicable, why do you not support a Black-owned business if it openly advertises as 'Black-owned?'" A RallyPoint moderator removed it. I then created a new thread asking the moderator "Why did you delete my question, which is very tame compared to threads pissing on POTUS, gays, and political parties?" I was told that the post was "geared to specifically elicit an adversarial racial discussion" and a "trolling post who's sole purpose was not informational, but confrontational." After asking the question in a YouTube video and posting that in a new thread, the moderator stated "I don't see any issue with it with the context amplifying comments you added. To summarize, this blog post serves as a public record in case someone decides to alter or remove my response.
  4. I've asked Twitter, Mastodon (no longer on there), and YouTube why people wouldn't support Black-owned businesses, and I've received no responses as of writing this. No, I wasn't expecting a lot of responses, but I have to make the attempt in case someone asks me why I didn't just ask the internet

Opposing Reparations for Blacks with Lies

Interesting perspective. I'm not surprised by the comments I've read below [in the RallyPoint thread] and who wrote them. This article is written on basis of "6" and "8," which have been proven to be wrong.

"Unfounded Claim" of Systemic Racism

"[6] The Reparations Argument Is Based On The Unfounded Claim That All African-American Descendants of Slaves Suffer From The Economic Consequences Of Slavery And Discrimination."

This section lumps Indians in with Blacks. Indians get reparations, health benefits, and [some] land back. It also ignores the long history of racist laws to put Blacks in prison, steal Blacks land including Black-owned farms, and Black Wall Streets which were destroyed (drowned towns) like Rosewood, Florida, and Tulsa, Oklahoma, for parks and highways. Most of those families weren't compensated after the fact.

The family of Henrietta Lacks, whose body was illegally used to treat cancers, was only recently compensated

Watch 13TH Netflix documentary.

Read this Rosewood memorial, Florida.

Whites corrupted and destroyed a lot of Blacks' finances in the Freedman's bank, and never repaid that money.

A "Black Towns Destroyed" video by Arcaze.

Reparations Have Not Been Paid to African Americans

"[8] Reparations To African Americans Have Already Been Paid."
"...welfare benefits and racial preferences (in contracts, job placements and educational admissions"

Most welfare recipients are White.

Affirmative Action has helped White women more than anyone.

Meanwhile, Japanese and Indians got reparations. Whites got reparations in the form of the GI Bill well before Blacks. Recently, Germany marked 70 years of compensating Holocaust survivors. Tulsa's mayor is trying to side-step the issue by encouraging reconciliation, a fancy word for forgiveness, without reparative action.

Even the slave owners got reparations. One-off cases like Henrietta Wood isn't the same.

Gaslighting to Derail the Conversation

"7," "9," and "10" are gaslighting arguments.

Victimhood or Deflection?

"[7] The Reparations Claim Is One More Attempt To Turn African-Americans Into Victims. It Sends A Damaging Message To The African-American Community."
"How are the millions of refugees from tyranny and genocide who are now living in America going to receive these claims" "because some blacks can’t seem to locate the ladder of opportunity within reach of others — many less privileged than themselves..."

I don't care how refugees see it. Many are getting assistance to come here to replace us. See the "Making Hispanics" book and how they're being pulled in illegally without push-back. Don't want to think about any of that? Watch this short video on social inequalities:

Blacks Owe Nothing to America

"[9] What About The Debt Blacks Owe To America?"

I owe nothing to a country which was built from enslaving my ancestors, and anti-Black slavery only evolved from Jim Crow, Black codes, segregation, and now anti-Black racist laws.

For context, Black military members have amazing historical accomplishments despite overt racism and being under-resourced. Sergeant Henry Johnson was awarded France's highest award for valor, the French Croix de Guerre avec Palme, during World War I (WWI). Then he returned to the USA, to being denied his disability pension and unable to maintain a job, an issue Black veterans still face today. It's less shocking when you learn that the Red Summer of 1919 happened because Black vets were "seen as a particular threat to Jim Crow and racial subordination." During World War II (WWII), Major Charity E. Adams and the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion sorted and delivered a backlog of mail to seven million people, boasting the motto "no mail, no morale." As Dr. Claud "PowerNomics" Anderson has stated often, Blacks have fought in and for every US war, and for less in return. What do we owe?

Thanks for "Freeing" Those You Enslaved? What?

"[10] The Reparations Claim Is A Separatist Idea That Sets African-Americans Against The Nation That Gave Them Freedom." "For the African-American community to isolate itself even further from America is to embark on a course whose implications are troubling."

Blacks are currently "isolated" in the fact that a lot of you prefer to simply blame Blacks for our issues, though you benefit from our contributions to society daily, and the fact that none of you acknowledge anything I've written here.

Ignorance or Mental Gymnastics to Support Anti-Black Racism?

A lot of you are simply ignorant to how these issues actually affect Blacks, and/or White supremacists too cowardly to simply say that.

This same cowardice is why it's beneficial for Blacks to understand obscure, racist "dog whistles" (coded slang) used in lieu of racial slurs such as hate symbols in media and tattoos.

"if you against reparations [...] you're anti-Black racist because you ain't said nothing about anybody else that your tax dollars is going to. You only said that because you don't want Black people to have nothing." - 9:51

As Yvette Carnell has stated, "reparations equals wealth and its protection."

Responses to Other Comments on the Thread

This section lists notable response that I've commented on and believe deserve mentioning here, particularly in the case that someone removes or modifies their response.

"We Can Do Nothing about Historic Wrong-Doing" - False

"we can do nothing about historic wrong-doing."

False, that's what reparations can solve.

"We know that access to education which leads to good job opportunities is always a basic winner in that respect."

This sounds good until you see that stats which show how much more difficult it is for Blacks (especially males) to graduate grade school and get a chance in college. Black men are a drastic minority even in HBCUs.

She replied to me, and I replied to that.

You wrote a lot, but it is a simple "yes" per my longer response in this thread. I don't need to look into healthcare. I've lived it and written about it here.

"'Black Lives Matter' person" doesn't specify anything. There's the "BLM" organization, phrase itself, and movement as a whole. I explained that in a very detailed blog post on racism (RallyPoint thread).

HBCUs are severely underfunded, which is why Maryland HBCUs' winning that funding case recently was such a big deal. I've experienced and wrote about that as well (RP thread).

A lot of people here are unwilling to actually read such content that challenges what they want to believe.

She has yet to respond.

Gaslighting About Lineage

Victim mentality and everybody has been wronged. Doubtful any have any idea of who in the family was affected, when slavery was still practiced or where the alleged relative even lived. Just a redistribution of wealth program that will solve nothing and they will still complain.

This argument is why we need to talk more about Black Genealogy. We must learn our family trees, not only to build better bonds but to prove that we come from slaves who originated from West Africa. Take advantage of info from ancestry sites, Archives.gov, and knowledge from your elders who are still here. DNA testing companies have mixed reviews, and Blackstone quietly acquired Ancestry.com in 2020. AfricanAncestry.com seems interesting but again, I can't speak to their effectiveness. As Yvette Carnell of the American Descendants of Slavery (ADOS) movement stated in a video title, the Supreme Court has called for the the end of race & rise of lineage.

Focusing on the Minority of the Minority While Ignoring the "Why"

I think reparations is a way for the liberals, who were the slave owners, to feel good about themselves. just like tearing down the confederate statues. I hate to say it but if reparations are given, there will be a lot of blacks overdosing, buying guns to kill each other, doing home invasions, etc. etc. This might sound racist but it is what it is.

This is how a lot of non-Blacks see us, only as our most impoverished and least overall unfortunate, and mainstream media (MSM) pushes this isolated part of the [native] "Black experience" worldwide to make Blacks look like barbaric savages incapable of anything positive, especially Black men.

Sarcasm aside, Blacks should buy guns and other tactical gear, not "tacti-cool" crap with no functional value. I did see the short trend of governments removing confederate monuments and memorials as insincere virtue signaling. The same applies to the renaming of military installations like Louisiana's Fort Polk to Fort Johnson. Overall, all of these short-sighted views about Blacks stem from intentional international psychological warfare (psyops) against Black Americans.

The "People of Color" (PoC) Nonsense

Somewhat related, I saw a RallyPoint thread about why "people of color" are drawn to white supremacy. Why is it mentioned here? I want to remind you that "people of color" (and "black and brown") is a catch-all term for non-Whites:

  • Mexicans
  • Asians
  • Blacks, usually

There are issues with each of those three groups being in one category which is considered synonymous with native Black Americans - that includes the ADOS and Foundational Black Americans (FBA) communities.

Black Americans are treated worse legally and otherwise than Africans. This illuminates the issues with "flat blackness," the belief that Blacks from USA, South America, the Caribbeans, United Kingdom, Africa, etc. all share the same experience at least in the US. That's false. This is another reason as to why my posts about Black-owned businesses are primarily about Native Black American-owned businesses. Some business owners don't share their lineage, though, so it is difficult to be sure.

Mexicans, Latin people, Latinx, Hispanics, take your pick. In summer 2023, the Black community heard John Leguizamo claim that they built the US. Disney's Black Panther sequel entertained this idea that discrimination against immigrates and Blacks are the same. I remember random New Rockstars Marvel video explaining the issue with this, and they don't go in-depth on such controversial issues (in the video below at 20:08).

There's a rarely discussed history of Asians disliking Blacks. I've experienced it some, but not enough to warrant a blog post about it. I do remember that #StopAsianHate got results fairly quickly. The raw data link I shared above and undeniable Black American history show how long Blacks have been talking about police brutality. That's not going to change for the better with this new Atlanta Cop City mess going on.

Learn more about reparations plans by ADOS and Caribbean Community (CARICOM).

If you want to discuss something, my social links are below.

Tags: black-community, money, IT

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