Re: Paying up

Rebel (rpalm@UNM.EDU)
Sun, 26 May 1996 18:17:12 -0600

I'm coming into this discussion about slaves late, but I've been thinking
that if we start getting into the business of reparations, where would it
stop? Is there a statute of limitations on being a slave-holder? If not,
shouldn't we get the black slavetraders who were the ones capturing the
slaves in the first place (and they didn't consider them "their own
people" because they were from different tribes so it was definitely and
"us-them" business) and had been for quite some time (shall be safely say
"centuries"?) before the white yanker traders came along, who, like they
good Yankee traders they were, took advantage of a market that was alredy
there?

Or, do we really just cut off history at the point where Anglos took over
the business and act as if they invented it and ask for reparations from
their progeny, since we can't get reparation from those people themselves?

Slave holding has been going on for a long time....my anglo ancestors were
being taken slaves by Abysinnian and Ethiopian and Peloponesian (sp?)
traders when they were still running around in loincloths and painting
their faces blue, and had no civilizations.

It seems that civilization, regardless of whether it's Chinese, Japanese,
Egyptian, Ethiopian, Hispanic (shall we talk about reparations from the
descendants of the Spanish conquerors who took Native Americans as
slaves?), or Anglo, has manifested its own particular brand of
oppression...as well as other things, like art, music, and other high
culture.

I think the blame game, no matter who we're blaming, is pointless. Humans
learn from their mistakes, we hope, and move on, and stop practicing
things like enslavement of other people.

But we're a long way from that...nasty ol' white male dominated culture
that we are, we're still not as bad as some other cultures which, still,
in this modern day and age, practice atrocities on their fellow citizens
which make one want to puke.

Humans in general, not just of one or another color, have a long way to
go.


"I don't need any new ideas. I'm confused enough as it is."
Jack, in _The Brothers McMullen_
Rebel Palm, MA, Evaluation Coordinator (and dilettante Soc PhD candidate)
CSH / EZI Evaluation Project, c/o MPH Program
University of New Mexico
FAX: 505/299-0965