Resolved: The USFG ought to pay reparations to African Americans

"If there is a debt, it was created by another generation, another time and place in our history, and in America we do not embrace the notion that I am responsible for my father"s debts," said Ward Connerly, Founder of the Civil Rights Institute. What Connerly is trying to say is that we as a country need to move on from the idea of fixing the past. This year is the 150th anniversary of the abolishment of slavery, this year marks the year we said NO to a wrong. Now we need to move past that wrong. Like Ward Connerly I (as the negative team) know that reparations, as we will prove in our case, detrimental to society. Thus I do not agree with the resolved: The United States Federal Government ought to pay reparations to African American. Forecast: Contention 1: Would prove alienating toward other persons. Contention 2: Determining the recipient of reparations would be impossible. Contention 3: There are already grants in place Contention 1: Would prove alienating toward other persons. According to Peter Flaherty and John Carlisle of the National and Legal Policy Center, "People are demanding government money based on some claim to African American ancestry, even light-skinned people with a trace of African American blood. Others are there to challenge having to pay for the reparations, such as recent immigrants, Latinos, Asian Americans and Caucasian Americans whose ancestors arrived in America long after slavery ended." What Flaherty and Carlisle are trying to say is that although the slavery towards African Americans was bad, reparating them at the expense of these other races would prove alienating. On top of that, many of these races also deserve reparations. For example, colonial America enslaved Irish citizens, never giving reparations toward the Irish Americans (Jane Walsh, IrishCentral.com, March 27, 2015). The Irish deserve it as much as the African Americans. Also, it should not be ignored that Africans were the primary merchants of Africans to the Europeans and Arabs(Why the Reparations Movement Should Fail, Gregory Kane, 2004) Reparationists are ignoring the descendants of the people who put their liberties on the line to help rescue slaves. Also, African Americans would partially be paying for their own reparations, because taxes apply to all races not just a few. Contention 2: Determining the recipient of reparations would be impossible According to David Frum, senior editor at The Atlantic June 13,2014, "Under today"s racial preference rules, a nephew of the King of Spain or the daughter of the chairman of the biggest bank in Chile would both qualify for Hispanic preferences if they resided in the United States. Harvard can (and does) meet its African American diversity requirements with the children of recent African immigrants, whose families never experienced slavery or segregation in this country." What Frum means is that there is no viable way to determine the rightful recipient of the reparations. Furthermore, black Americans today aren"t the same as African Americans were during slavery, as researched by Arvind Suresh of the Genetic Literacy Project on January 7, 2015, on average African Americans are roughly 73.2 percent African, 24 percent European, and 0.8 percent Native American. So in a way, rewarding African Americans would be partially rewarding their captors. Therefore, there is no possible way to determine the rightful recipient of reparations for African Americans. Contention 3: There is already grants in place. The United States Federal Government has already put in place about 10 grants, including Student Loans Relief, Unemployment Aid, Support for Black Colleges, etc. All of these programs are only for black students or adults. The Student Loan Relief program is a program used to help African Americans pay off student loans, their remaining debt is forgiven after 20 years. These programs are already in place for African Americans, so why would give more money and benefits to a culture with several currently standing grants?