Commission To Study Reparation Proposals For African-Americans Act (HR 40)

In other words, "reparations." That's right, Congress will be looking into ways to make people who have never owned a slave pay money to people who have never been slaves. If there was ever a sure-fire way for permanently damaging race relations, this is it.

I know, there are many blacks out there who blame their own personal conditions on the injustices of the past, but that is a cop-out. Many prominent African-Americans made successful lives despite the history of the United States. Here are a few: Barack Obama, Thurgood Marshall, Jesse Jackson, Bryant Gumbel, Tiger Woods, Eleanor Holmes Norton, Oprah Winfrey, Montel Williams, Beyonce, etc. There is no reason why other blacks cannot be as successful. Blaming past slavery is nothing more than coming up with an excuse for personal failure in present.

This proposal is two things: 1) An attempt to act on white guilt and 2) an attempt at further socialist redistribution of wealth.

The problem is that those of us born after the Baby Boom have no white guilt to give.

Here is the executive summary of HR 40

To acknowledge the fundamental injustice, cruelty, brutality, and inhumanity of slavery in the United States and the 13 American colonies between 1619 and 1865 and to establish a commission to examine the institution of slavery, subsequently de jure and de facto racial and economic discrimination against African-Americans, and the impact of these forces on living African-Americans, to make recommendations to the Congress on appropriate remedies, and for other purposes.

So, why should I pay for something I am not responsible for? Before anyone goes out and says that my white skin makes me responsible, let me first say that my ancestors hail from Amherstburg, Ontario, the northern terminus of the Underground Railroad. In other words, my ancestors helped freed slaves find safety in Canada. If ancestry makes one responsible for slavery, ancestry also absolves one if one's ancestors opposed slavery.

If this abomination somehow manages to pass, it will be just like any other spending bill. Money will be apportioned, then spent and then be gone. The people who recieved and spent that money will then be back in line demanding even more money.

This reparations bill will be nothing more than a foundation for a new welfare system. That will guarantee racist attitudes for a long time to come.

You can access the bill text on-line here:

Commission To Study Reparation Proposals For African-Americans Act (HR 40)
OpenCongress.org
January 6, 2009