How Many Slaves Do You Own?

[Jo McDonald]

As you will recall, Henry Louis Gates, Jr.. is the Harvard  professor who got
arrested by Cambridge Police a month or so ago.

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?
~~~

[Varmit]

Jo, great post.

[kshillbillys]

He makes a lot of excellent points. There's another black man that comes to mind that's costing America a lot of money too...

[Varmit]

How many slaves do I own?? That depends on who you ask.  If you ask my oldest boy he will you I own one.  If you ask my youngest son (9yrs old) he will tell you one.  If you ask my daughter (6yrs old) she will say, "two, and they are both boys." 

[larryJ]

So----------I asked my wife---------"Sweetheart, how many slaves do we own?"  She replied, "Just one-------------you!"

Larryj

[Roma Jean Turner]

Pretty much sums it up for me.

[Diane Amberg]

One of my all time favorite bumper stickers hangs in the Ladies Auxiliary's office at the fire house. YOU CAN"T FIRE ME! SLAVES HAVE TO BE SOLD!