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?

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.