History
Robinson is the author of "The Debt: What America Owes To Blacks," where he lays out his case for government payments to black Americans. Conyers has repeatedly attempted to get legislation put into play that would set the stage for reparative payments to the descendents of slaves in the US. Both Robinson and Conyers try to hang their hat on the concept of "40 Acres and a Mule," which is the idea of giving each freed slave forty acres of land and a mule with which to plow it after the abolition of slavery in the late 19th Century. This was a notion championed by General William Sherman after the Civil War. The notion was vetoed more than once by then President Andrew Johnson. Yet the misconception of a "promise" by the government to give forty acres of land to every emancipated slave persists today. On talk shows from coast to coast, people attempt to sell the sizzle of a payment in the form of land or money or both to the "oppressed black man" in America. Some have gone as far as to set up scams where they promise to go together to create a massive class action l
Moreover, we, as a people, should forgive and move on. That if the government were going to give money to every descendent of every slave that remains alive, that the government would go completely bankrupt -- quickly. And as we all know, there ain't no such thing as a free lunch. You don't see the government apologizing for not granting women the legal right to vote prior to 1920. They are told that they have forgotten who they are and that they only want to help the "White Devils" keep the black man down. From the reaction that I get when I tell people that, you would think that I had suggested that it was right and proper to beat your children or your dog with a sharp stick. In the rare instances where the US has payed out reparative monies to ethinc groups for injustices, they have paid them to the individuals to whom the injustices were visited. awsuit to force the government to "enforce their own promise," if only you were to pay in $49. 95 or some other fee, "to help defray legal costs. All I am asking people to do is to think rationally, and get away from the emotionalism that the so-called black leaders are using to rabble-rouse the masses. There is not a single slave left alive to be able to benefit from any monies paid by the government for allowing slavery to remain legal for a period of less than 100 years. But no, they should not apologize for the fact that at that time that the practice was legal.
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Acceptance Essays
