The Simplest Argument Against Reparations For Slavery
In case you hadn’t noticed, there is an international movement made up of many voices that call for reparations to be paid to American blacks and others for the trans-Atlantic slave trade. These voices are made up of three principle types: whites infested with guilt, black race hustlers, and red agitators.
It should be noted that the call is for reparations to be paid only by Western (ie principally white) nations and only for the trans-Atlantic trade, not for any other slave trades (of which there were many).
There are a number of arguments advanced against this proposition, such as why should the descendants of people who had never owned slaves (most whites) pay reparations to people who have never been slaves, but the simplest argument is one that no one but no one ever raises. That argument is that had the slave trade not happened, no one alive today would have existed because history would have been entirely different.
If that isn’t clear, here it is in the simplest terms. On February 20, an obituary was published here for Ted Goodman who died February 15 at the relatively advanced age of 78. His mother though lived to 106, and at her funeral in September 2021, Ted made the amusing statement that “unfortunately” her first husband was killed in the Second World War.
Unfortunately for whom? If her first husband had not been killed, Marie Goodman would never have married Ted’s father, would probably never have met him, and Ted would not have existed!
Now cast your mind back into the distant past; the further back we go, the more a seemingly insignificant act can alter the future. Elizabeth I died in 1603 and was succeeded by James VI of Scotland as James I of England; he was still on the throne in 1619 when an English ship, the White Lion, arrived in Virginia with a cargo of thirty Africans. Now consider the following imaginary conversation between James and one of his minsters.
“Your Majesty, we are beginning a new era of international trade.”
“How so?”
“We have arranged with the Dutch to transport thousands of primitives from Africa to the New World where they will work for us on plantations.”
“I see, and who is going to pay them?”
“No one, Your Majesty, they are to be slaves.”
“Slaves?”
“Yes, Your Majesty, they will work for nothing.”
“Good grief, no, I did not inherit the English throne to turn the country into a slave market”.
“Yes, Your Majesty, but...”
“No buts, I will not tolerate this, and neither I should think would the Pope. Call me a scribe, I shall issue a proclamation against this foul trade at once.”
“Yes, Your Majesty”.
That is only one of many possible scenarios. Imagine if instead of remaining the Virgin Queen, his predecessor had married one of her many suitors; the entire history of England and hence of the world would have been different. Wars that were fought would not have been fought, wars that were not fought, would have been.
However one looks at it, the black Americans of today should be grateful for the suffering of their ancestors as we should all be thankful that our ancestors suffered so that we can live in a highly scientifically advanced world, one in which the most prosperous people who have ever lived can sit down in front of their computers and whine to people on the other side of the world about how oppressed they are.
The issue of reparations for slavery should be a dead letter, we have far more important issues with which to concern ourselves, starting with the wars now raging in different parts of the world, and the development of even more advanced technologies which can bring about a golden age if properly applied, or if improperly applied could enslave or even destroy us all.