Obama Reparations – Where does Obama stand on paying reparations for slavery

Well this is the question that has been burning in many people’s minds about Barak Obama since he started his run for president. Where does Barak Obama stand on the subject of reparations for slavery. Lots of people in the African American community believe reparations should be paid while many people of other races do not think it is something the government should do. Personally my stance depends on where the money comes from and in what amount.

Obama spoke to a group of minority journalists a couple of days ago and the subject of reparations came up.  First, Obama was asked about reparations for Native Americans which many people support since this country was basically stolen from the Native Americans from the beginning and the entire race of people where almost exterminated. Obama said about these reparations: “We’ve got some very sad and difficult things to account for” in our nation’s history, Obama said, describing some of the issues plaguing the Native American community. Obama continued on the subject of reparations for slavery.

Obama said he’d want to “not only offer words, but deeds” in dealing with reparations for Black people. The Harvard graduate said he supports reparations in the form of improved inner-city schools and an increase in jobs in the Black community. Apoised and calm Obama said he would support plans and initiatives that work toward “lifting people out of the legacy of slavery.”

So Obama did not specifically say he wanted to support paying a certain amount of money for reparations but alluded to the we need to help with education and jobs type rhetoric. I could support increased educational opportunities of course I think we need enhanced educational opportunities for all people of the United States not just certain ethnic groups. There are more poor white children who come from families that can’t afford to pay for college than there are disadvantaged African Americans. Our entire education system is trailing other parts of the world and if we intend to remain competitive as a country we really need to fix it and bring all our young people to a higher level of education.

Now lifting people out of the legacy of slavery is a fairly loose term and it could very well involve writing checks for reparations. Of course to be any amount that would make any real difference in lifting people out of a legacy then it would require large sums of money. Where would that money come from, taxes? We already pay enough taxes and regardless of what people say the people who are alive today did not practice slavery so why should they pay for it with additional taxes. Slavery was a terrible thing, but trying to pay reparations for it would not work. First thing our economy is hanging on by a thread now and additional taxes is not going to help the economy improve. Second thing is money was paid then there would have to be a method to prove that the people who obtained the money where actually descendants of people who where slaves. This may not be all the easy to determine which would consume the process with fraud. Hell I may have descending from a slave, who knows and can prove without a doubt who slept with who a hundred and fifty years ago.

Then finally you have the fact that a lot of African Americans do not really manage their money correctly now. Anyone in the US can make a meager living and still grow to be wealthy. You just have to save some of your money. This is also true of a lot of White people and other ethnic backgrounds. Without proper education about money management many of these funds would only serve as a short term benefit and after it was gone many people would find themselves in the exact same situation. This reason alone stands to reason that would prevent reparations from accomplishing Obama’s goal.

So it seems the Obama does support reparations and it would seem I do not. I would support reparations as long as it was done properly with the proper oversight and the reparations actually accomplished the task of better educating the people of the United States and was not just a handout.

Since Obama has made these statements about reparations I’m sure we will hear additional comments about it throughout the coming days and reparations is likely to be a hot topic at the Democratic Convention in a few weeks.

 

Welcome back!