Essay On Reparations For African Americans

When it comes to reparations it can be a touchy subject, due to the fact that people have so many different opinions on this. Although there are many opinions a vast majority of the population believes that black people should be given reparations. Not even just reparations for slavery but, reparations for decades of inequality and civil abuse. Reparations should be given to many races not just African Americans. African Americans have went through a mass amount of suffering for centuries, mental and physical stress. African Americans have suffered for centuries prior to “freedom” and were continued to be treated with extreme prejudice and a mast amount of inequality. It isn’t just about reparations for African Americans, it’s far much
Many people have fought and are fighting for reparations because they feel like it is owed to blacks. Due to all the wrongs and slavery and problems that have been fabricated from it, far as mental, physical and psychological damage and many other things. In the eyes of those who are for reparations its only right that reparations should be given honestly. A reparations activist by the name of Randall Robinson had something to say about reparations that caught my eye. He stated that “For wasn’t the practice of slavery at least as serious a system of human rights wrong as the Nazi Holocaust? Did not the holocaust of slavery last longer indeed, but 234 years? Did it not claim as twice as many lives, did it not savagely deprive a whole race of people on three separate continents.” Obviously slaves were not paid for their labor, but the descendants of these slaves were not rightfully given their inheritance and other things past down. Of course the slave masters kept the belongings for
Some strongly believe the slavery was something from the past and the people who caused the wrongful deeds are long dead the more than likely the generations after them are too. People feel like if reparations are given it should only be to those who were directly wronged and by the ones who did it to them. A man named Henry Hyde states “The notion of collective guilt for what people did 200 plus years ago, and that this generation should pay debut for that generation is obscure.” Hyde also says this “I never owned a slave. I have never oppressed anybody. I don’t know that I should have to pay for someone who owned slaves generations before me”. Now I can completely understand where he is coming from and it makes perfect sense actually. For example say you go into a store and a five hundred dollar was knocked off the wall. Now you didn’t do because when you walked in it was already on the ground. But the store clerk wants you to pay for it. You would obviously not want to pay for that and would more than likely refuse to pay it. Same thing goes for people who disagree with the fact reparations should be