Skip Gates on reparations
Here. One of the most fascinating historical accounts of African complicity in the slave trade is here. Crowder makes the important distinction between Bight of Biafra sell thy neighbour/brother slave trading and Bight of Benin sell the enemy's village to Dahomey version. It seems to me that this distinction is still ramifying today...
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7 comments:
Thanks for shring the opinion on HLG article which I read yesterday.
who with a decent education didn't know this. and how does it undercut reparations. it doesn't excuse the crimes committed during slavery and the trade itself
I haven't read the book, but I don't know why Skip Gates chooses to write books like this one. Referring to it as, "The Blame Game" suggests animosity toward the reparations dialog itself. Eric Foner's point is a good one. It is a reminder that the reparations debate is complicated, particularly when one considers it with regard to blacks with roots in the USA history.
Substantively no different from those parroting Jewish "complicity" in the Holocaust as if that diminishes the crime.
The point about the Jewish Holocaust is a good one. When the Jews complained they were erroneously given a nation state. When Africans complain, it's called the "blame game"----double standard for sure.
The argument for reparations is simple and straight forward. The descendants of the Kings and Chiefs in Africa should apologize and pay reparations to the blacks in Diaspora. That is the primary settlement of the issue. The involvement of Caucasians is secondary.
Anonymous,
You are incorrect. The reparations debate does not mandate that Africans (kings or others) should apologize and pay those in the diaspora. It advocates that apologies, money (or other resources) should come from the American companies and institutions that benefited from the system and institution of slavery. These are those companies and institutions who used and depended on slavery to build the USA and are responsible for its economic growth.
While I certainly do not qualify as someone who would receive reparations, the discussion is one that I find worthy of attention.
Here are few websites that can shed more light on the subject.
http://www.reparationsthecure.org/AboutUs
http://www.cceia.org/resources/picks/175.html
http://www.cceia.org/resources/picks/175.html
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