Really?

Reparations

The entire concept of racial guilt is of itself racist.  

I am white, and for the record my people were oppressed by white Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Normans starting in 1177 until about 1546 when things took a dramatic turn for the worse.

According to the Transatlantic Slave Database cited in an article in The Root 388,000 slaves were shipped directly to America and another 60-70,000 were subsequently shipped here from the Caribbean in follow-on transactions over the entire course of slavery in the Americas.  Between 1649 and 1653, a span of a mere four years Cromwell killed more of my people than were sold as slaves in the US.

In the years preceding the US Civil War in the 1840's and 1850's between a million and a million and a half were starved by their British overlords. Many of those that didn't starve, fled and a large number of those fled to the US.  

In 1860 census there were 385,000 slave owners out of a population of 31,183,582 or 1.23%, roughly 3,000 of those slave owners were black holding between them some 20,000 slaves. In total those 385,000 people owned around 4 million slaves, none of them were my ancestors.

What did my ancestors do after fleeing famine and coming to the US? They joined the Union Army and fought to free the slaves, not one of them owned slaves. Roughly 150,000 fought in the Union Army and roughly 50,000 died. So before you come to me with your hand out invoking the guilt of my ancestors, get your facts straight and ask yourself what do you owe me for the fact that my ancestors liberated your ancestors.

From a historical perspective your ancestors were in all likelihood taken as slaves by some other black persons ancestors and sold to the British.  Regardless of color or race none of our ancestors are guilt free if you look hard enough or far enough back.  Slavery continued in Africa long after it was outlawed in the white nations of the west.  

We think this trade must go on. That is the verdict of our oracle and the priests. They say that your country, however great, can never stop a trade ordained by God himself. The King of Bonny in present day Nigeria @1807

The slave trade is the ruling principle of my people. It is the source and the glory of their wealth…the mother lulls the child to sleep with notes of triumph over an enemy reduced to slavery… King Gezo of the African Kingdom of Dahomey. @1840's

Here are your reparations

Photo: Andrew Bossi