I have been meaning to write this for a while, but just haven’t got round to it. Also this is probably going to be a bit on the long side so pour a beverage of your choice and hunker down. While everything I’m going to say is accurate to the best I could determine, it’s a good thing I’m not on social media because I’m sure it would be banned. Enjoy and BTW some of what I’m going to say was said quite well by Diamond and Silk on Watter’s World a couple of weeks ago.
First and foremost, let me be clear — slavery is, always was and always will be wrong. But let’s also be clear that slavery has virtually always existed and is still rampant in parts of Africa and the Middle East. It’s in the Bible and the Koran. You can’t pretend otherwise.
Now let’s review the slave trade. Black African tribal leaders captured and enslaved blacks from other African tribes and then sold them to European slavers who then sold them all over including the Middle East and Europe — not just in the new world. So if we’re going to be really serious about reparations then we ought to start with the African countries who are responsible.
It’s also important to remember that slavery didn’t just exist in the US. It existed in virtually all of North, Central and South America, as well as the entire British empire.
Now before I get into the subject of the issue of the legitimacy of this country because of slavery, I first want you to consider the question of just why are we supposed to pay reparations. I know the knee jerk leftist response is because these folks who can trace their roots to African slaves brought to the US deserve money because their ancestors were slaves. But I want you to consider two bigger questions.
First, if your slave ancestors hadn’t been brought here would you even exist? There’s a really good chance that your ancestors would have died as slaves in Africa and you would never have been born, or if you were, you would be living in some third world country in Africa. Name the country in Africa that you would rather be living in instead of here. And before you make something up, remember that nothing is stopping you from moving there. There is a reason that millions of people in Africa are trying to get here and very few if any are trying to get there from here.
The second question I want you to consider is whether your ancestors were better off being brought over here or staying as slaves to another tribe in Africa? My guess, because no matter how I tried to phrase it every inquiry came back about how slaves were treated here, is that they were treated much better here than there. Clearly the standard of living was much better here than there and I suggest that it was better for slaves here than there.
Thus, the ultimate question becomes, why are you owed anything for being way better off than you could have ever hoped for if your ancestors hadn’t been brought here as slaves?
And just to keep reinforcing a favorite theme of mine, remember that all the people who are pushing for this are Dems. The party of slavery, segregation, Jim Crow and the KKK. The party that opposed and filibustered the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act. They are trying to make the rest of us pay for their sins.
Because this is longer than most of your attention spans, I will address the legitimacy of this country in my next rant.