(NAME-MCE) Slavery Reparations ..........by Fred Reed!

[KispokoT at aol.com]

This crossed my desktop. The actual article appears on: 
_http://www.fredoneverything.net/Slavery.shtml_ (http://www.fredoneverything.net/Slavery.shtml) 
 
Gina Boltz
Director, Native Village Publications
Director, Youth Forum for International Council of 13 Indigenous  
Grandmothers
_http://www.nativevillage.org_ (http://www.nativevillage.org) 
Secretary, Link Center Foundation
_http://linkcenterfoundation.org_ (http://linkcenterfoundation.org) 
 
 
 
 
 
How many slaves do  you own?

As you will  recall, Henry Louis Gates, Jr. is the Harvard  professor who  
got
arrested by Cambridge Police just recently.

Fred Reed was a police  reporter for one of the large Washington newspapers.
He now writes a column  which  can be googled  ~ "Fred on Everything."

Fred published a  weekly online column in which he got to say the things his
editors would  never, ever have let him write in the paper.  His stuff is  
iconoclastic and various  articles have probably offended  everyone..
regardless of political  orientation.  So, with the  warning that "This is
definitely not politically  correct," here comes  Fred.....

The following is an essay regarding the failings of a system  and a 
culture. 

Please note that he elegantly describes the mood of many  Americans and he
does so without   prejudice.


Slavery  Reparations  ..........by  Fred Reed!

On the Web I find that Henry  Louis Gates Jr., the  chairman of 
Afro-American
Studies at Harvard, is demanding that whites pay  reparations to blacks.  
It's
because of slavery, see. He is  joined  in this endeavor by a gaggle of 
other
professional blacks. I guess   he'll send me a bill, huh?

I feel like saying, "Let me get  this  straight, Hank.  I'm slow.  Be 
patient.

You want free money  because of  slavery, right?  I don't blame you." I'd 
like
free  money too. Tell you what.  I believe in justice.  I'll give you a  
million
dollars for every slave I own,  and another million for every  year you 
were a 
slave..  Fair enough?  But tell  me, how many  slaves do you suppose I 
have? 
In round numbers,  I mean...say to the  nearest dozen.  And how long were 
you
a slave?

Oh. In other  words, I owe you reparations for something that I didn't do 
and
didn't happen  to you. That  makes sense.  Like lug nuts on a birthday  
cake.

Personally, I think you owe me reparations for things you didn't do  and
never happened to me.  I've never been coated in Dutch chocolate  and
thrown from the Eiffel Tower.  I'll  bet you've never done it  to anyone.  
I want
reparations.  Kind of silly, isn't   it?

But if we're going to talk about reparations, that's a street that  runs in
two directions.  You want money from me for what some other  whites did
to some other blacks in another  century?

How about  you guys paying whites reparations for current expenses caused
by  blacks?  Not long ago blacks burned down half of Los Angeles, a city  in
my country.  Cities are expensive, Hank.  Build one sometime and  you'll see
what I mean.  Whites had to pay taxes to repair Los Angeles  for you  You 
can
send me a check.

Now, yes, I know you burned  LA  because you didn't like the verdict in the
trial of those police  officers.  Well, I didn't like the verdict in the 
Simpson trial.

But  I didn't burn my house and loot Korean grocers, or burn down a city.

Over  the years blacks have  burned a lot of American cities: Newark,  
Detroit, Watts, on and on.  Now add in the fantastic cost over  the years 
of  
welfare in all its forms, the cost of all of those police  calls people had 
to make,
for cells and jails and security systems in  department stores.

I can't live in the capital city of my own country  because of crime
committed by blacks. Toss in  the cultural cost of  lowering standards in
everything for the benefit of blacks..  See what I  mean?

Now, I'd view things differently if you said to me, "Fred, blacks  can't get
anywhere in a modern country without education.  We know  that.  We need 
better schools, smarter teachers, harder courses, books  with smaller 
pictures
and bigger words.  Can you help   us?"

I'd say, "Hallelujah! Hoo-ahh!  Not just yes, but hell  yes.  Let's sell an
aircraft carrier and get these folks some real  schools and get them into 
the
economic main-stream.'  I'd say It partly  because it would be the right 
thing
to do, and partly because I'd like to add  you guys to the tax base.

The current custodial state is expensive.   I'd just love for blacks to 
study
and learn to compete and stop burning  places.  But is it going to happen?  
 
You may not believe it,  but I, and  most whites, don't like seeing blacks 
as
miserable and  screwed up as they are.

I spend a fair amount of time in the  projects.  Those places are ugly.  
It's
no fun watching perfectly  good kids turn into semi-literate dope dealers  
who barely speak  English.  It just plain ain't right.  But, Hank, what am I
supposed  to do about it?  I can't do your children's homework.  At some  
point, people have to do things for  themselves, or they don't  get done. 

Maybe it's time.

I'll tell you what I see out in the  world, Hank... I think blacks are too
accustomed to getting anything   they want by just demanding it.  True, it
has worked for over half a  century.  Get a few hundred people in the 
street,
implicitly threaten to  loot and  burn, holler about slavery, and sadly
the Great White Cash  Spigot turns on.

Thing is, whites don't much buy it any longer.   Most recognize that what 
once
was a civil-rights movement has become a  shakedown game.  Few people
still feel responsible for the failings and  inadequacies of blacks.  
Political
correctness keeps the lid on --   but everyone knows the score.  Which

scares me, Hank.

On one  hand, blacks hate whites and incline toward looting and burning. 
(The whites  you hate are the ones who marched in the civil-rights 
movement. 
Ever think  about  that?)

On the other hand, whites quietly grow wearier and  wearier of it.  Not 
good,
Hank.

On the third hand (allow me three  hands, for rhetorical convenience), 
blacks  
keep demanding  things.  As I  write, you demand reparations for slavery. 
Blacks  in Oklahoma (I think it  was) want money for some ancient race  
riot.

Other blacks reject the Declaration of Independence.  Blacks  in New York
hint broadly at burning and looting over a trial, yet more demand  the
elimination of the Confederate flag, and the federal equal  opportunity
apparatus, which means blacks want to sue Silicon Valley for not  hiring
nonexistent black engineers.  That's a lot of demanding for one  month,
Hank.

What happens if whites ever say, "No"?

Now, how  about you?  You've got a cushy job up there at Harvard, and you
can hoot  and holler about what swine and bandits whites are.  I guess it's
lots  of fun, and you get a salary for it to boot.  But don't you think you 
 might
do blacks more good if you told them to complain less and study  more?

For example, if you want blacks to work in Silicon Gulch, the best  approach
might be to find some really smart black guys, and get them to study  
digital
design ~ not Black Studies (as  you teach).  That's how  everybody else 
does  
it.  It works.  Then blacks wouldn't  feel left out, and racial tensions 
would
decline  Sound like a  plan?

Just out of curiosity, how many hours a week do professors of  Afro-American
Studies spend in the projects,  encouraging poor black  kids to study real-
life sho-nuf subjects?
~~~

Pass this one across  America!!!