General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: A fundamental misunderstanding of the relationship between economic and social justice. [View all]Bernardo de La Paz
(48,789 posts)There is a historic wrong that needs to be corrected due to harms done to African-Americans, Native Americans, and Hispanic Americans.
Reparations is the wrong thing to do. It will not work and will not correct the ongoing fundamental problems.
The ongoing problems are fundamentally a lack of justice and a lack of economic support. Fix those and American society will become an even stronger society than it already is.
1) Reconciliation is completely overlooked but very important as the experience in South Africa and Canada shows.
1a) People have to be heard in official public hearings around the country, extensively and widely held.
1b) "The powers that be" (essentially elected government) have to apologize publicly and on the record for past wrongs, sincerely and meaningfully. Meaningfully means putting real legal power and real money behind points 2 and 3.
2) Truly equal justice means access to the courts by real legal subsidies, real justice for people shot by police, equal enforcement across all districts, federal true oversight, civic education for all students, and much more.
It also means elimination of voter suppression and a permanent end to gerrymandering by placing redistricting in the hands of independent impartial commissions permanently taking it out of the hands of partial legislatures.
3) Economic support is much more effective and much more just than reparations.
It helps people directly.
It is not a one time lump sum, so it is not frittered away and gone.
It is provided for as long as is necessary.
It does not perpetuate a racial divide.
It helps all who need it: poor blacks, native Americans, hispanics, unemployed coal miners, etc.
It does not go to people who don't need it as reparations would be given to.
It does not take from other people who would carry it as a racial grievance.
It does not leave an unresolved reverse grievance used to hammer disadvantaged people.
It levels the playing field by raising the low sections.
It can be organized to largely benefit children rather than adults who are less likely to see much change from money.
To be blunt, if reparations are given out on the basis of race, then many whites would forever after say "We fixed it. You poor blacks have no excuse for lagging behind and you aren't getting another penny from us." It would be used as an excuse to strangle welfare. It would perpetuate racial divisions, not solve them.
By creating national economic support for school districts, for example, the effects of income disparity on children would be much reduced, regardless of race or class.
Ultimately the USA has a class problem, which has been in part created by racism but not entirely. Attacking the economic problem on a color blind class basis almost entirely eliminates the racial excuses the upper classes (predominantly white) use to perpetuate their inherited greater opportunities. Attacking the social justice problem will require a more direct address of the racial biases and must be done.