zlacker

>>pessim+(OP)
This is what affirmative action should be... helping people out based on their individual situation, not because their skin color or gender.

>>getmei+F5
Affirmative action shouldn't ever have been a contest with prizes for the most unfortunate. It was sold as a way to fix the wrongs of slavery. Having been enslaved legally in the US is not a race, it's an atrocity.

The reason we should be paying for foster kids' college is because the state is their parent, so it's our responsibility. In a country that wasn't shit, regular people would be jealous of how kids who were wards of the state lived, and how well-raised they were. There's no clearer illustration of our values than the fact that children who, through no fault of their own, have become the responsibility of the state are treated like unwanted trash. The idea that a society like that could figure out how to ethically treat prisoners or immigrants is laughable.

>>pessim+47
Do reparations for slavery even make logical sense? Please cut me some slack here, by the nature of the world we live in, I have not uttered these thoughts to another human being, and they might have obvious flaws. It's tough when you can't talk about ideas out of fear of the consequences.

I think nobody argues that it's a vile, morally repugnant thing to enslave another human being. But that was a long time ago, and all those slaves and the people who enslaved them are all dead.

The descendants of those slaves are now much wealthier and better off by pretty much any metric than their relatives who were not enslaved. How do you make an argument that those descendants are victims in need of reparations? No crime was committed against them directly, and they seem to have benefited from the crimes committed against their ancestors.

I must stress that this is not in any way excusing or justifying the wrongs that occurred. But how would you make an argument for reparations, given how things turned out?

>>slashd+Fd
I think the numbers tell a convincing story.

The median net worth of Americans in 2019 was $121,760.

In 2019, the median net worth of white Americans was $189,100.

The median net worth of Black Americans was $24,100

I forget how to link on hn but it's from the motley fool.

>>nomat+Eg
Yes, that is true (I don't know about the exact numbers, but there's no question there's a difference.)

Asian Americans are even better off, but why should they have to pay for reparations? Their ancestors weren't involved in slavery in the US.

Hispanic Americans are also pretty poor (more so than African-Americas if memory serves), but they weren't disadvantaged by slavery, should they have to chip in for reparations?

Southerners were clearly disadvantaged by fighting and losing the civil war, does the North owe them anything?

What about the survivors and next of kin of the soldiers that put it all on the line for their country in Iraq and Afghanistan only to find out the government lied to them and everyone else about why they were there?

Everybody could find a grievance if they look hard enough. Which ones do we try to address?

>>slashd+Vl
I agree exactly. And what about people who’s families moved here in the last 140 years. They surely didn’t own slaves.

And who even gets reparations? If someone’s great great great grandmother was a black slave but every other relative was white, does this person get reparations?