The Reparations Scam

It is possible to compensate people financially for any injuries they have suffered. This is a valid, but imperfect way to correct a wrong. If let’s say, a rich guy gets drunk, flips his car over, and slides into a school bus killing a kid, he would face both criminal and civil charges. If he was forced to pay a million dollars to the family that lost the child, that’s certainly not a fix since that money can’t replace a child’s life. However, it would at least be an acknowledgment that the rich guy in question had done something wrong to that family and it would be an attempt, albeit inadequate (most people wouldn’t trade the life of their child for any amount of money), to repair that injury as best as possible.

It makes sense.

Well, what if someone else, based on the fact that they’re the same race as the little girl, ALSO demanded that they be paid a million dollars? In addition, the million dollars wouldn’t come from the rich guy who was responsible, it would come from the whole community. This would make sense to anybody? No? You would not believe it. After all, if we’re being perfectly honest, we should acknowledge that slaves may have suffered terribly, but their ancestors benefitted TREMENDOUSLY from their suffering.

It’s impossible! How could that be? Where did American slaves come from?

Of those Africans who arrived in the United States, nearly half came from two regions: Senegambia, the area comprising the Senegal and Gambia Rivers and the land between them, or today’s Senegal, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, and Mali; and west-central Africa, including what is now Angola, Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Gabon. The Gambia River ran from Africa to the Atlantic and was a major waterway for slave trade. At its peak, one in six West African enslaved persons came from this region.

These two regions account for nearly half of all enslaved Africans living in the United States. A large number of these enslaved persons are from Ghana and other parts of the Windward Coast. Others originated in the Bight of Biafra (including parts of present-day eastern Nigeria and Cameroon), an inlet of the Atlantic on Africa’s western coast that was a hub of extensive slave-dealing operations.

Let’s see. What’s the per capita income for black Americans in the United States?

Now, what’s the per capita income in:

Angola: $1953

Cameroon: $1666

Congo: $2,290

The Democratic Republic of Congo: $577

Gabon: $8,635

Gambia: $772

Ghana: $2,333

Guinea-Bissau: $795

Mali: $873

Nigeria: $2,065

Senegal: $1,636

There’s a reason all the people that are telling you America is a racist hellhole and they deserve reparations for giving us the gift of their presence aren’t moving to where their ancestors were captured. It’s because, despite all their whining and complaining, they have it several orders of magnitude better here than they would there and they know it.

Everyone should not be able play the victim in 2023, because of what happened to them more than 100 years ago. And even if that did happen, black Americans are not the only ones that were affected. Many white people were slaves and died while fighting for the end of slavery during the Civil War. Different ethnicities, such as the Irish and Italians, were discriminated against. So were Asian immigrants. While it is possible to point out the ways in which Americans mistreated Indians back then, you can also see how Indians massacred Americans and kept slaves.

Additionally, contrary to the impression you get from the ahistorical nonsense going around on the Left these days, slavery has been around as long as human beings have and it wasn’t just a black thing. 

It’s important to note that the United States has done far more than any other country in history to abolish slavery. While we should be ashamed of having slaves, it is also something we should be proud of for helping to end slavery. Perhaps we should have a day of national thanksgiving to the United States for their efforts to eradicate slavery around the globe. It would be well-deserved.

However, if there were still slave owners and living slaves in America today, I would be fine with them receiving reparations from the people who profited from their voluntary labor. This would be one of the best uses of reparations. But all slave owners and owners are long gone.

It’s also worth noting that one of the critical concepts used to sell the ludicrous idea of reparations for slavery is that America “got rich” Slavery is outlawed. This idea doesn’t even survive the most basic level of scrutiny:

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