A Discussion on Reparations
And America’s Continuing History of Racism
First things first. Define reparations. Reparations are the making of amends for a wrong one has done, by paying money to and/or otherwise helping those who have been wronged.
For this discussion, the focus will be on reparations for Black Americans. Information used here comes from articles and podcast scripts from several sources, one being a study from the Brookings Institute and Wikipedia being another collection of sources.
A History of Racism in the US
From the time the first settlers navigated to North, Central, and South America from Europe, racism has been predominant. It is found within our Constitution to this day providing a value placed upon Blacks as being 3/5ths that of a white person.
Here, in what is now the US, Africans had been sold to slave traders by other Africans to be sold as slaves here and elsewhere. The mistreatment of Blacks was only the beginning of 250+ years of racism. White Anglo-Saxon Europeans didn’t have a fondness for most everyone else it seemed.
The Chinese were mistreated and even enslaved. Native Americans were nearly wiped out through a policy of genocide. Numbering an estimated 10 million with over 270 distinct tribal cultures, they…
