Barack Obama And The R-Word
When Alan Keyes ran for United States Senate against Barack Obama, he shocked many when he pledge for some sort of reparations for black people. Obviously he must have known what the "core" constituency wanted.
It appears a core constituency now has the ear of President-Elect Barack Obama and he may be listening…
A group called the Los Angeles Reparations NOW-Promissory Note Coalition seeks to get President Obama’s attention by an open letter which invokes Dr. Martin Luther Kings’s speech in 1963. The letter says in part: “Being the First African-American or Black-adopted ‘son of the slaves’ in the White House as the Chief Executive of this nation, you can, after your inauguration, immediately by Executive Order implement the mechanism that will complete the unfinished business of all Congressional Civil Rights Acts, including Reparations, that the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. called the Promissory Note.
It will be very interesting to watch the debate ensue should Obama decide to bail out blacks, which will again bring up many dicey issues. For example, will Barack Obama himself only be eligible for half reparations as his mother was white, and if so, will his white half have to pay the black half, thus he gets nothing?
Very interesting indeed….
January 6th, 2009 at 7:45 am
He would get none, since he is not from any slaves. His 'black' side came from Africa after slavery was abolished. But to beat a dead horse, wasn't it the democrats that stopped the reparations?
January 6th, 2009 at 10:49 am
If reparations are given, then those who have been released from bondage should give it all to the families of the soldiers who provided the very freedom they enjoy.
Dave Chappell's take on this: http://www.comedycentral.com/videos/index.jhtml?videoId=24406
January 6th, 2009 at 11:31 am
Dr. King's "Promisory Note" had nothing whatsoever to do with monetary reparations.
The "bad check" MLK referred to had to do with promises of equal rights, which were constantly and consistently blocked by Democrats for over 100 years.
As usual, lefties twist things out of context.
January 6th, 2009 at 11:56 am
The big problem is, where would we get 30 million Mules?
And how many urban blacks would even know what to DO with a mule?
January 6th, 2009 at 12:05 pm
Actually, since BO's father was from Kenya, and not descended from American owned slaves, he should receive nothing. Since his mother was white does he not have to pay? Exploring further, only a minority of the confederacy's citizens were actually slave owners. Further complicating the matter is that mass immigration by whites into the US continued into the 1930s and there have been the absorption of the former Spanish territories and the recent immigrants from Asia. Since those who immigrated to America after 1865 are not involved they should be excluded.
I think the only fair way would be to find all those who are descendants of slave owners and traders, deduct the loss of their ancestors' lands and properties (excluding slaves) that were seized in the Civil war and give them the bill. Then the descendants of the Union taxpayers and soldiers should be compensated for their monetary expenditures (war taxes) and the loss of life and limb. After all, if you are to place a monetary value on freedom or lack thereof, should you not compensate those who purchased it with their blood and treasure for total strangers? It would be very unfair if not immoral to tax the descendant of a Union soldier to pay for something that soldier died to overthrow. This is just scratching the surface, of course.
January 6th, 2009 at 1:24 pm
will his white half have to pay the black half, thus he gets nothing?
the last part of this para. is extremely funny.
hussein is from chicago.
he will get something.
January 6th, 2009 at 3:24 pm
the irony is amazing if he'll invoke Dr. King at all, somebody who was NOT racist, in sharp contrast to Obama, somebody who IS
January 6th, 2009 at 7:24 pm
Another irony is that Obama's mother was descended from slave owners.
January 6th, 2009 at 8:36 pm
To expand on jagbimmer's point, how about blacks who owned slaves themselves? How would you handle that? Better still, how about the blacks who bore arms against the Union?
January 6th, 2009 at 9:39 pm
Only those who have harmed others need to pay reparations and only to those they hurt. Both groups in this case are all now dead.