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this post was submitted on 26 Mar 2026
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So you suggest ignoring how the current status quo is built on the continuous exploitation of racialized and colonized people?
"The status quo is built on the continuous exploitation of people"
*FTFY
I suggest that there's no meaningful benefit to be gained by looking backward rather than forward. If you want to move to a different paradigm, that's fine, but condemnation of the past is performative compared to putting forward laws and resolutions to benefit others. The Bill of Human Rights was forward-looking, this condemnation is backward-looking. Emphasize where we want to go and why we want to be there, rather than where we were and the mistakes we made as a society.
Slavery was evil, so was the destruction of indigenous peoples across the world. But we can't yet change the past. We should reinforce that we will work to eliminate slavery (chattel and indenture), human trafficking, and the abuses related to it. Focus on what we can improve today and how we can improve things.
Is your stance in any way informed by a privilege you hold?
Because there are a lot of people today who are still disadvantaged by the historic slave trade, who would meaningfully benefit from reparations.
So when you say "no meaningful benefit", who exactly are you talking about?
Okay, as long as we also take away all the historical family wealth that goes back generations too.
But that's not how it works, is it? Great great great grandad gets to get rich off having slave plantations and his son gets to get rich off of Jim Crow sharecropping, and his great great great grandson gets to inherit that wealth without any complications.
But benefiting from it is okay?
God I hate white people
I did not benefit from it. Half my family are refugees. I was born into a shitty life. I do not want to be punished on to of that for something i had zero control over.
I'm really interested in what you think reparations even are - do you think they're just going to shake down all white people for money? How are they going to punish you? Why would they punish you?
It sounded like that to me yes. I probably misunderstood. And Why me? I'm white. I'm also poor and a socialist but according to the reaction i got in this thread I'm just an idiot and it is right to hate me.
There's a propaganda effort by white supremacist society to paint all reparations as "evil revenge against white people :<" instead of what it actually is: correcting the injustices of slavery by making whole the descendants of slaves who have been robbed of their heritage and generational wealth.
But you benefit from it, and others are punished from that theft. This is a generational problem.
I did not. I think i replied to a comment that was not directed at me
... How is this comment still disagreeable?
This „punishment“ or rather responsibility would not be something that the average wage earning person has to worry about financially whatsoever. There is however a lot of accumulated wealth, that could be used for much better things than the third luxury Yacht in Monaco. So if this extraordinary luxurious wealth can be traced back to exploitation and slavery, and the government would enforce this money to be used for reparations in forms of community centers, museums, research for those who’s ancestors freedom, cultural heritage and often lives were taken, this would not be a punishment. As a German I think there is good reason to individually act responsibly concerning the crimes of e.g. my great grandfather. It is not my crime, but it’s my responsibility to call it such, to do my best in every day live that something like it will not happen again. Calling that a punishment would be unfair compared to the suffering of the victims and their living relatives.
I see. It sounded like indiscriminate handing out to me. I am fine with actual wealth being redistributed. My personal responsibility measure is political contribution and spreading left leaning reasoning.
When you're accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression
Okay then, we're taking all your stuff. When your kids want it back, we'll say:
"How long must we atone for the mistakes of the past", I exclaim, tears dropping down my face, as I close the door at the family whose house I stole.