Reparations and white privilege

Reparations and white privilege

As I watch the current racial tensions play out and reminders of the Confederacy being toppled, my mind goes back to the reparations issue that was tossed around lightheartedly during the Democratic primary. I find it odd that it has been seriously considered this many generations after the fact, but self-interest being what it is, it grabbed the attention of a good many voters.

Reparations had indeed been planned in real time; and in the most appropriate way. The living victims of slavery were to be compensated with the assetts of living slave owners. It was all spelled out in an Army directive titled “Special Field Order Number 15,” authored by General William Tecumseh Sherman. Prior to his assassination, Abraham Lincoln signed off on the measure that would confiscate about 400,000 acres of land and redistribute it to newly emancipated slaves. There was also a surplus of army mules at the end of the war, which were thrown into the deal as well, and that is how we arrive at the phrase, “40 acres and a mule.”

But history intervened. More specifically, Mary Todd intervened. Wives, those delicate creatures who give us our children and become our partners for life, sometimes feel overshadowed and unappreciated. Mary said, “Abe, you never take me anywhere,” so our sixteenth President lined up some theater tickets and, you know the rest….

If anyone thinks that John Wilkes Booth didn’t alter the trajectory of history, just read up a bit on Andrew Johnson and what a piece of work he turned out to be. Our timely and appropriate reparations project was scrapped almost immediately. It happened in the same way that Donald Trump ordered the beheading of all the turkeys pardoned by Barack Obama. Things done with the stroke of a pen can be un-done with the stroke of a pen.

Johnson was, in fact, the token cracker on the Lincoln ticket. Lincoln, looking forward to the challenges of bringing a broken country together, wanted to have a southerner in a prominent position in his administration, and Johnson was the guy. As the unintended President, Johnson not only managed to dismantle reparations, but he also impeded reconstruction, setting the stage for the 100 years of aparthied that followed.

And here is where I’m going to receive hate mail: I have a decidedly odd, unusual perspective on the issue of slavery. I am personally more shamed by the one hundred years that followed slavery, than slavery itself. Slavery, as indefensable as it is, was thousands of years old, the basis of an economic system and was rooted in tradition, customs and culture. It was by no means an American invention. In fact, it was our gift from the Brits who conveniently outlawed it in Europe in 1772, but sugar in the Bahamas? Rice in Georgia? Tobacco in Virginia? They couldn’t afford to crash those industries, so even though slavery was outlawed at home, it was perfectly acceptable in the colonies. Thanks to the British, our newly formed country that was dedicated to liberty, also included the burden of slavery (they also screwed up the middle east, but that’s another article).

What bothers me about the 100 years following the thirteenth amendment, is that the mistreatment of minoirities was entirely voluntary in nature. It was just mean. It was just hateful. It was optional, and I am amazed that so many followed. Call it segregation, or Jim Crowe; I call it apartheid. Evil has many names, but that’s what it is.

Flash forward to today: If we had riots and looting on Norris Avenue, it would be over in short order. The looters would meet their maker and law enforcement would be challenged by a lack of witnesses. Some would attribute that to community pride. Even if we don’t own a property on Norris avenue, we take pride in its success and appearance. We feel a collective responsibility for our small community and know that we have the opportunity to fix it when it is broken.

Some would call it white privilege. Well, if that’s white privilege, (here’s another thought that’s going to generate hate mail) white privilege is good. I want more of it. I want white privilege for the folks in New Orleans and I want to white privilege for the people in Baltimore. I want it for people living in the projects in Chicago, the barrios in East LA and for the people of the First Nations living on reservations. Let’s have white privilege all the way around.

Reparations paid today for what happened so many generations ago is a non-starter with me. It’s just a bad idea, but it genuinely saddens me to see that so many people feel disenfranchised; that they distrust law enforcement; that 150 years after emancipation, some folks don’t feel emancipated.That’s what needs to be repaired, and it is everyone’s interest to do so.