4/9/2019 - Reparations

Some, if not all, of the 2020 Democratic candidates are calling for reparations to black people for slavery. Slavery was one of the worst things that the new country did to other people. Slavery was wrong and horrible. I haven't owned slaves. My parents never owned slaves. My grandparents never owned slaves. I don't know any slaves. I'm sure the blacks living in this great country never knew any slaves. I'm sure the parents of the blacks living in this great country never knew any slaves. I'm sure the grandparents of the blacks living in this great country never knew any slaves. Slavery was abolished in this great country 154 years ago. One hundred fifty-four years ago, let that sink in.

Between the years 1525 and 1866, the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database estimates that 12.5 million Africans were shipped to the New World. 10.7 million survived the passage, disembarking in North America, the Caribbean and South America.

Of those 10.7 million 388,000 were shipped directly to North America. Three hundred and eighty-eight thousand, let that sink in.

Now according to census.gov they estimate the population of the United States (as of July 1, 2018) as 327,167,434. Of that amount they estimate the black alone population is 13.4%. (I'm horrible at math or I would tell you the number).

Some questions I would ask these candidates (with the exception of Robert Francis because he's just a parrot):

• How would you determine who would get the reparations?
  
• How much would each individual receive?
  
• Where would this money come from?
  
• Would you go by the "one drop" rule?
  
• How will the black population provide proof that an ancestor was enslaved in the United States?

The time for reparations was 154 years ago when you knew who and where.

Op-ed by Me.