The United States Government Ought to Pay Reparations to African Americans

Without creating any confusion, I will argue the OP point for point so I can leave a segway in refuting the Op's point of view creating a segway for mine. Arguing on the first contention, I would hardly consider theatlantic.com (commenting on bullet point A) a considerable source of determining whether any living person among the African-American demographic, a descendant of a slave given their political affiliation of the far right (conservative political lean who have had a track record of a racial bias towards African-Americans). But alas, let us assume the opposite that there members today who have who are descendants of slaves. Given the terrible nature of slavery, and the reported incidents of rape and torture we must understand that there is indeed a genetic mixture of descendants of slaves and former masters in the DNA of many African-Americans that exist today. However like the woman who is rape and sues her rapist for justice, the DNA mixture which is the result of a non-consenting human being should not mitigate justice, nor should it prevent someone from financial compensation. According to two economists, William A. Darity Jr. and Dania Frank, "individuals would have to prove that they are descendants of persons formerly as slaves." Of course since there are families who are biracial, I would suppose these genetic tracings would be done either through the matrilineal descent (via mother) or patrilineal descent (father). Danity and Frank also suggest, that prior to the adoption of a reparations program, African-Americans would have to demonstrate for the past 10 years they have considered themselves African-Americans. I would assume based on job applications, school registration, drivers license, identification, birth certificate would suffice as appropriate forms of cultural identification. See:https://newrepublic.com... Bullet point B) states "there are white African-Americans." Just as we can safely assume that the Dutch and any other "white person" that lives in South African are indigenous to South Africa, we can assume that white Americans whether they are Irish, Dutch, German or otherwise are not indigenous to the Americas. With that being said, any South African who is white that happens to come to the United States wouldn't be socially considered African-American, given the historical socialization of the population being "color conscious." Besides, if we are discussing the reparation of the African-American people we have to rule out any foreigner who appears white, and/or is originally from South Africa who migrates to the states. Their migration automatically rules them out of any monetary benefit. If we are referring to people of mixed genes, we only need to go back to the aforementioned reference based on the two economists (regarding individuals proving they have claimed to be African-American for the last 10 years). Regarding bullet point C), I do agree that many Americans do not go back far enough given different family structures, and perhaps some family lack information regarding who they may be related to. I believe the difficulty is even greater with people who are severely impoverished and/or homeless. Which is why I believe genetic testing as one would test ancestral lineage would be an alternative to this. The OP in his second contention states: "it will be difficult to determine who will pay these reparations." Going back to citing Danity and Frank, reparation would be paid by the federal government, however, they would suggest reparation would be in five different form (see:https://newrepublic.com...) so all would not be in the form of direct payment although both would suggest that a lump sum would be one form of payment. According to bullet point B) the OP states "there were many black slave owners" According to theroot.com: "So what do the actual numbers of black slave owners and their slaves tell us? In 1830, the year most carefully studied by Carter G. Woodson, about 13.7 percent (319,599) of the black population was free. Of these, 3,776 free Negroes owned 12,907 slaves, out of a total of 2,009,043 slaves owned in the entire United States, so the numbers of slaves owned by black people over all was quite small by comparison with the number owned by white people. In his essay, " 'The Known World' of Free Black Slaveholders," Thomas J. Pressly, using Woodson's statistics, calculated that 54 (or about 1 percent) of these black slave owners in 1830 owned between 20 and 84 slaves; 172 (about 4 percent) owned between 10 to 19 slaves; and 3,550 (about 94 percent) each owned between 1 and 9 slaves. Crucially, 42 percent owned just one slave." See:http://www.theroot.com... Regarding the OP's bullet point C) "between 80-90% of white Americans never owned slaves." I didn't continue to quote the rest as I found that the last point was redundant and if you look at the above, I believe I addressed that point. According to some statistics if you include the South and the North slave owners approximately 1.6% of whites (plus or minus) owned slaves so yes that statistic may be true. But reparations is not about punishing the people, but making the government(s) accountable for profiting from oppression and the disenfranchisement of African-Americans using systemic racism over the centuries and decades of the U.S existence. Regarding contention point 3 the OP states: "Black Americans are not the only people to have been wronged by the government." I believe nobody is arguing otherwise, but most minorities who have had a historical impact in the formation of the United States knows that many minorities have been abused by the U.S government. Regarding bullet point A) the OP states: " Native Americans lost their land and have received little to no reparations." To put it simply, according to The Washington Post: "The greatest harm done to us was the theft of land " our homeland " often accompanied by forced removals and under the cover of law. To American Indians, land is not simply a property value or a piece of real estate. It is a source of traditions and identities, ones that have emerged from centuries and milennia of relationships with landscapes and seascapes." See:https://www.washingtonpost.com... I believe the mention of other groups continues to not fully acknowledge the atrocities that are in front of us. It is almost like a child who is caught stealing a cookie and the child exclaiming "but, Susy stole a cookie too!" just because someone else has done something does not negate the actions of what YOU do. Regarding bullet point B) the OP states "the US government once legalized the killing of Mormons and have never paid reparations." Is the OP referring to Executive Order 44? Which states in the following: "Executive Order 44 was issued during the 1838 Mormon War, which was caused by friction between the Latter Day Saints and their neighbors due to the economic and electoral growth of the Latter Day Saint community and their Prophet Joseph Smith's vocal opposition to slavery." See:https://en.wikipedia.org... The OP states regarding contention number 4 in the following: "black only scholarships" Actually no because the Center for Equal Opportunity has called on universities to curb racial practices that has benefited minorities. A lot of scholarships that are ethnically based, are usually from private organizations, not necessarily government sanctioned. Scholarships or awards from the governments are usually based on hardships and/or grades or other means. The OP would have to cite specifically where in the government that scholarships are specifically reparations and/or the OP would have to prove that these scholarships is directly from the enslavement of the African peoples and their descendants. Regarding bullet point B) the OP states "Affirmative Actions" Which ironically white people, specifically women, benefit from more than any other minority demographic, so no, there is nothing that is federally funded nor taxpayer funded that specifically is repairing the history of slavery and systemic racism that has given African-Americans monetary awards for historical damages. See:http://www.diversityinc.com... In conclusion, the OP fails severely in the following: 1) Providing a concrete argument as to why reparations ought to not be paid to African Americans and the OP tried to make such an attempt using biased sources. If the OP is going to attempt to make an argument against the awarding of reparation it is best to leave out biased sources as it would skew the opinion in favor of the OP. Rather, it would be best to use other sources preferably scholarly sources. 2) The OP has not offered an alternative to monetary award and in fact, the OP uses black slave owners and other oppressed minority groups as elements to not acknowledge the U.S involvement and benefit of slavery and the following systemic racism (Jim Crow, civil rights etc). 3) The OP is intellectually dishonest using affirmative Action (which came centuries later) and black scholarships (which are not sanctioned by the government as forms of reparations. The payment of reparations must be done an initiated by the federal government as well as state governments who have directly benefited from slavery. Finally, "ethnic scholarships" are done by private organizations not by the federal government, and affirmative action has benefited white women more than minorities. So no, the OP fails in their argument being against reparations. The OP must create a coherent argument that lacks historical redundancy and racial biased source