Slavery Reparations Are Wrong Essays (1285 words) - Slavery, Racism

Slavery Reparations Are Wrong Slavery Reparations Are Wrong Ladies and gentlemen: I don't believe that anyone in this chamber would move to disagree with the idea that slavery was an atrocity, committed from the depths of the darkest parts of the human sole. Cruelty is the readiness to give pain to others or lack of concern for their suffering. Pertaining to exactly what the white man did to the black slaves. Slavery was not an institution of neither economical nor a paternalistic system. It was a brutal, inhumane abuse of mankind. Africans were seized from their native land, and sold into lives of servitude in a foreign land. Indeed, it was a tragedy on such a scale that cannot be measured nor quantified. And it is this very notion of tragedy, which speaks to the matter of reparations for slavery. To be quite blunt, reparations, even if they may be deserved, are not feasible under any system or economic tangent. Not only would such an undertaking not remedy the situation, but it would sink Africa and her people deeper into the cycle of pover ty and oppression that they have so struggled to free themselves from. While the arguments against reparations may seem shallow or self-serving to advocates of such a system, upon examination, the logistics of what to give, and whom to distribute it to, preclude any potential benefits of such a system of indemnity and requite. The point of the following critique is not to say that Africans were not mistreated, nor that they are not worthy of reparations, but that perhaps reparations are not an adequate solution to this situation, and certainly will only serve to worsen. Aside from any philosophical or idea-based arguments against reparations, there exist a number of logistical barriers to repaying blacks for their suffering. Immediate questions arise in the realm of distribution - it is intuitive that such reparations would be difficult to distribute, much less to decide how much, or where to place the funds or assistance. The questions are impossible to answer: who was the most oppressed? Which family or group of people received the cruelest treatment - should they get the most money or assistance? Such questions cannot be decided, nor is it fair to quantify or compare the suffering of different people - if we started to hand out assistance, some would invariably demand more than others. Some of African descent were never taken into slavery, nor were oppressed by whites - even if one believed they are deserved of reparations, it would be impossible for an international body to distinguish or properly disburse the requite among Africans of diverse b ackgrounds. Some Africans have indeed become wealthy within then white world and do not require assistance - yet it would be unfair to slight them their share - did they not also once suffer? It is equally impossible to prove whether or not someone actually was a slave, or how long they had been slaves; no records of such history were ever kept. Also worth of addressing is African involvement in slavery - it ought to be decided whether those Africans deserve reparations. Some historians agree that many early slave traders justified their actions because of African involvement in the trade itself - guns and technology bought these African kings from the Europeans. By this logic, even if they were forced to sell these slaves, they did indeed contribute to the effort -are the nations, which contain these former kingdoms today, deserved of repayment? Positively, it is unfeasible to say who did and who did not, as any logical observer would note. It is equally unworkable to decide whethe r or not they too were victims of the slave trade, the arguments either way would be morally irreparable - for are they responsible for the actions of their ancestors? In total, no governing body can be sure of neither who these reparations ought to be distributed to, nor what form they ought to take. One might argue that just general monetary grants should be given to African nations - but that leaves African Americans out of the process, who formerly suffered as Africans. While perhaps the ideas that Mazuri presents are perhaps worthy of