The idea of reparations is just as ludicrous as arresting a child for the sins of the parents. If we were to ask the government applies one, then why should they not apply the other as well? Additionally to the "stolen lives" argument, this "stolen land" argument is likewise ridiculous. First off, there is no inch of real estate that was ever not taken from someone else and to this day, is still held by force of arms; if not, then why do every nation in the world have a standing military, even if only a defense force?
Face it, previous to European "incursion", American and African tribes both practiced "total warfare", which means when they went to war, the victor would kill off all the men, some of the kids, keep all the women, take over their turf and wipe that tribe totally from existence. There are over 400 tribes known in North America who were wiped from existence pre-Columbian. It is more difficult to determine the number of African tribes wiped out pre-Columbian because tribal documentation were not as recorded, but from the history of known ancient African empires tells of vast number of tribes being wiped out.
Before the Europeans arrived in the Americas and Africa, indigenous tribes were wiping each other out and real estate was captured as a reward. Previous to Europeans and Middle Eastern incursions, the practice of warfare by these indigenous tribes of America and Africa was brutal, endemic and a matter of both societal survival and cultural preservation. But in the post-Columbian era of the Atlantic region, there was another player involved in the arena of warfare and land acquisition; a player who by their very presence, would change the rules of engagement.
Example: The Spanish Jesuits, who first settled Jamestown area and wiped out tribes (because of small pox) and captured Indians and took them to Europe. One particular Indian known as Paquiquino, who in 1561 traveled with the Spaniards to Spain, Cuba and Mexico, and he saw what they did to tribes there. He returned to Virginia as a Christian Jesuit Don Luís de Velasco and was a participant in his tribe's wiping out all the Jesuits in Virginia, thus paving the way for the first Englishmen to settle at Jamestown in 1607, on the very land once held by a previously decimated tribe.
At Plymouth, the Wampanoag tribe that helped save the pilgrims by teaching them how to live off the land; the very tribe that celebrated the first "Thanksgiving" with them, did not do this for altruistic reasons. The records are clear that the Wampanoag was a smaller tribe that was being bullied and pushed out by the Narragansett tribe. The pilgrims agreed to an alliance with the Wampanoag, who helped them learn to live off the land, so the Europeans joined them in decimating the Narragansett, chasing them off and splitting the spoils from the alliance.
These First nations were perfectly fine with continuing this "total warfare" mentality and applied it against both natives and Europeans, such as the lost settlement of Roanoke and the Indian massacre of 1622 at Jamestown. Unfortunately, the Indians found out that the Europeans were better at this game than they were and because of this, no one has a right to cry foul against Native American when it was their own "modis operendi" which they practically applied to themselves and others.
As for the enslavement of African tribes, I want to say that slavery is a terrible and loathsome venture which no community of people should ever tolerate or condone. But history is cold in it's factual dissemination and the facts is this; every descendant of someone enslaved here in America is only alive because of slavery. Again, this is NOT a condonation of slavery, but rather a factual analysis of pattern of history and how the value of a human life altered the standard practice of killing a prisoner, to give that human being the opportunity to live on and with time, offer their descendants the opportunity to elevate themselves and their children from this circumstance, with each successive generation.
Let me explain: As a matter of total warfare mentality of African tribes, it was a regular practice that the men of the losing tribe were killed on the battlefield. But when the Muslim enslavement of Africans begun in the 7th century, the leaders of the victorious tribe found that they could sell their male prisoners for valuable wares and this became the practice. When Europeans chose to get involve in the African slave trade, the biggest advantage to the African tribes selling prisoners was the fact that the Europeans came to them by ship and established local trading posts. Thus, African tribes would no longer have to make the long trek north to sell their slaves because the buyer came to them.
Understand the point here. If the tribe that won on the battlefield did not have buyers for their prisoners, they would have killed them outright. That means the descendants of every man sold into slavery only exist because of slavery. Their descendants were given an opportunity to struggle and one day cast off the very shackles which preserved their bloodline. That moment came at the cost of 750,000 lives violently ending in one war, and it compelled an overhaul of society to end it once and for all here in America and that transformation, while slow, continues. But what also continues is the African slave trade, which to this day is happening and yet none of these advocates of reparation are ever heard attacking what is going on in Africa. They are silent and disconnected on this issue.
So quit talking reparations because people are not owed a thing if they did not have to experience it themselves and those who did experience it are no longer alive. If reparations are given for the burdens of an progenitor, should we likewise arrest and execute any person descended from a convict or criminal? Shall we likewise give all the land in the United States back to all the pre-historic tribes who first came here during the ice age and eventually fell to other tribes during the span of ten thousand years?
Or do we just put an end to all the silliness and move on with life and fixing those very things which impacts life among the living?
Warbard
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