Do current African-American citizens deserve reparations for slavery?
Yes they do
Side Score: 6
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No they do not
Side Score: 9
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There is no one alive today who were enslaved during that barbaric period of history. Nor is there anyone alive who participated in this gruesome and inhuman practice. This being the instance there is no case for for any reparation. Why should people be asked to make amends for the alleged sins of their long since deceased fathers to the descendants of those who were enslaved during a time when such a despicable business was was a globally accepted form of commercial enterprise. Should Germany make reparation to the many nations their destructive military actions of WW2 caused? Around 70 million deaths and untold misery to other countless millions were the sole responsible of the German nation. Side: No they do not
Why should people be asked to make amends for the alleged sins of their long since deceased fathers to the descendants of those who were enslaved during a time when such a despicable business was was a globally accepted form of commercial enterprise. You raise some good points but I don't think it is necessarily that simple. What about those who are still enjoying the financial benefits of that "globally accepted commercial enterprise"? As you imply, they weren't involved, but doesn't that just make it even worse that they are rich from it? What you are going to find if you start digging are an awful lot of "successful" people on the American right wing who are enjoying the profits made during that period. Perhaps some of them are on the left too, but assuming that ideology is passed along like inheritance I doubt it will be very many. Side: Yes they do
If we enter into the weird world of whataboutery then we open a Pandora's box of such instances as THE BRITISH, FRENCH, GERMAN, SPANISH, PORTUGUESE AND DUTCH EMPIRES WITH THEIR PLUNDERING AND EXPLOITATION OF THE MANY NATIONS WHICH THEY SUBJUGATED. How far back in history do you wish to go? Back the the Romans who slaughtered and enslaved the populations of many nations as well as milking their human and material resources? Then there was the Egyptian Empire. Should we not include the great Turkish Empire in Europe, Asia and Africa as well as the Persian (Iranian) Empire not to mention the Chinese Empire and the more recent Japanese Imperial Empire? According to your logic these exploitive Imperial powers all owe $ 1000s of trillions to the present day descendants of those whose ancient ancestos they enslaved and robbed. Side: No they do not
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"Should Germany make reparation" You mean like this: Side: Yes they do
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According to a member of New York Air National Guard’s 109th Air Wing, who is at Ground Zero from September 22 to October 6: “One fireman told us that there was still molten steel at the heart of the towers’ remains. Firemen sprayed water to cool the debris down but the heat remained intense enough at the surface to melt their boots.” [NATIONAL GUARD MAGAZINE, 12/2001] New York firefighters recall “heat so intense they encountered rivers of molten steel.” [NEW YORK POST, 3/3/2004] Paramedic Lee Turner arrives at the World Trade Center site on September 12 as a member of a federal urban search and rescue squad. While at Ground Zero, he goes “down crumpled stairwells to the subway, five levels below ground.” There he reportedly sees, “in the darkness a distant, pinkish glow—molten metal dripping from a beam.” [US NEWS AND WORLD REPORT, 9/12/2002] Ron Burger, a public health advisor who arrives at Ground Zero on September 12, says that “feeling the heat” and “seeing the molten steel” there reminds him of a volcano. [NATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH ASSOCIATION, 9/2003, P40] Alison Geyh, who heads a team of scientists studying the potential health effects of 9/11, reports: “Fires are still actively burning and the smoke is very intense. In some pockets now being uncovered, they are finding molten steel.” [JOHNS HOPKINS PUBLIC HEALTH MAGAZINE, 2001] William Langewiesche, the only journalist to have unrestricted access to Ground Zero during the cleanup operation, describes, “in the early days, the streams of molten metal that leaked from the hot cores and flowed down broken walls inside the foundation hole.” [LANGEWIESCHE, 2002, PP. 32] Ken Holden, who is involved with the organizing of demolition, excavation and debris removal operations at Ground Zero, later will tell the 9/11 Commission, “Underground, it was still so hot that molten metal dripped down the sides of the wall from [WTC] Building 6.” [9/11 COMMISSION, 4/1/2003] And, last but not least... Leslie Robertson, one of the structural engineers responsible for the design of the WTC, describes fires still burning and molten steel still running 21 days after the attacks. [SEAU NEWS, 10/2001] Side: Yes they do
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