The Atlantic - Latest Comments in Another Sista Souljah

Re: Another Sista Souljah

Nquest — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 22:53:41 -0000

Shani-o, the idea that people are pushing Reparations as the solution to "the problem" is a sinister myth. No one talked about reparations to Japanese-Americans as a "solution" to some problem Japanese-Americans were having. Framing Reparations in any context other than "were there damages, injuries or losses suffered?" or "is there a debt owed?" is to take the conversation out of... well, context.

The "solution to the problem" idea is a question anti-reparationists pose often with the largely false cash-to-individuals association to try to make their case against Reparations. The sloppy logic is: if it's not the solution to the problem then why pursue it. Which makes absolutely no sense. Only Black people are supposed to just accept being cheated not only out of their inheritance but out of having a real, thoroughgoing examination of how the past is connected to the present and how the debt is implicated in the problems Obama identifies as the lack of resources for schools in the inner city, etc.

I've yet to hear anyone claiming that it's not viable to provide good schools in the inner city. I've also missed where college tuition vouchers, like the kind Native Americans receive in certain states, were tagged as logistical nightmare and, therefore, not viable.

Re: Another Sista Souljah

Nquest — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 22:30:04 -0000

Liza, a helluva lot of Black people are dumb on reparations and make the same association Diane does. Matter of fact, that's the association Obama apparently makes because what he calls "the best reparations" are things Reparations advocates, people actually pushing the movement, have long since included as part of Reparations.

Re: Another Sista Souljah

Liza — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 14:21:52 -0000

Diana's comment above isn't good for much of anything except to illuminate the fact that most white Americans know very little about reparations and mostly associate reparations with payments made to individuals.

Obama said, "...the best reparations we can provide are good schools in the inner city and jobs for people who are unemployed..."

The linked article goes on to say, ""There's enough flexibility in the term "reparations" that Obama can oppose them and still have plenty of common ground with supporters.""

And this, "The NAACP says reparations could take the form of government programs to help struggling people of all races."

I am not trying to be an Obama apologist here, but there is not enough time before the election for Obama or anyone else to educate the dumbed down electorate about reparations for slavery. Despite all of the dire economic news, the escalation of violence in Afghanistan and Pakistan and bad news forever from Iraq, the Democrats are still very vulnerable to the usual GOP fear based politics and smear campaigns. Just look at their recent public opinion success with off shore drilling. The Democrats would really be in trouble if the Republican presumptive nominee were even slightly appealing.

Re: Another Sista Souljah

Ed Marshall — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 22:55:05 -0000

Hey, when you go to the Atlantic, I've got a suggestion.

Don't take captcha with you. I'll write it if it doesn't exist but there has to be something out there that instead of letters to copy using bizarre OCR defeating fonts it could cough out the same thing with relavatively simple math problems like 1+1=? and Diane would have been stumped and looking like John McCain trying to remember why he didn't like birth control and faded off into the ether.

Re: Another Sista Souljah

Ed Marshall — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 22:48:34 -0000

Diane C. Russell is a pseudonym for a geriatric, retrograde, moron from Prince George's county.

Re: Another Sista Souljah

shani-o — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 20:44:54 -0000

I think Diane is a person who googles words like 'reparations' and 'barack obama' and spouts off her ill-informed opinion.

With that said, it astounds me that otherwise rational thinkers believe reparations are logistically viable and a solution to 'the problem.'

Re: Another Sista Souljah

Nquest — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 20:29:28 -0000

I want to hear Diane talk about the everyday theft of taxes Black people been paying into the system. I want to hear all the anguish and outrage over taxes Black people paid while enduring the domestic terrorism that went on after her great grandfather purposely fought in the Civil War to "free the slaves." (I'm sure theirs a memoir with him in his John Brown suit.)

And sacrifice??? I want Diane to count every single Black body that died from the Middle Passage up until the end of slavery and then talk to me about sacrifice. I also want Diane to count every single Black soldier who fought in every war prior to 1970 before their was even a semblance of freedom/equality in this country then talk to me about sacrifice...

I want Diane to calculate the cost of all the labor that was exploited, calculate the social costs to all the Africans who were orphan when captured, all the families that were split up... All land Blacks had stolen from them, not just lost, after Emancipation.

Oh and speaking about land... I want to hear Diane talk about the Homestead Acts that the U.S. government gave to Whites 160 acres a pop while 40 acres and a mule was something Abe Lincoln would guarantee "freed slaves" even as he moved to compensate slaveholders for their loss.

Also, I want Diane to talk about all the textile workers, etc. the slave patrollers and all white men on deck militias for slave control that were present and a part of America's slavocracy.

More than anything, though... I want a complete list of everything Diane refused to pay federal taxes for under the pretense that it was "theft."

Re: Another Sista Souljah

Ta-Nehisi Coates — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 19:36:05 -0000

Irony much, Diane?

Re: Another Sista Souljah

Diane C. Russell — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 19:32:07 -0000

My ancestors never owned slaves. My great great grandfather lost his farm, his land, his health, and turned my great grandfather into a virtual orphan, on his own in a rural area at age 8, going off to fight to free the slaves.

Despite the fact that we never owned slaves, never supported slavery, sacrificed to end slavery, you want to extort money from me for "reparations."

That is theft, plan and simple theft.