Dear Source:
Mr. Fontaine responded to my original forum question about slave reparations by saying, "The thing that confuses me and bewilders me is the fact that the Holocaust survivors have received reparations plus numerous other compensations for their pain and suffering. This is relevant because of the fact that they are European and the descendants of the slaves are not."
Mr. Fontaine, as much as I'm perfectly willing to consider your viewpoint on slave reparations, your opinion begs a response. The Holocaust SURVIVORS of World War II eventually and only to some small cumulative degree received reparations and compensation for their pain and suffering. Whatever compensation they eventually received in no way compensated them for the horror they endured, it was just a panacea and an acknowledgement. Those Holocaust SURVIVORS were, as you said, survivors and that's the point. But they were first-hand survivors – not descendants of survivors.
The DESCENDANTS of those enslaved African slaves who were sold by their own race into slavery have had 300 years to make their way in life so, I'm sorry, but I totally object to your standpoint that those descendants merit reparations or handouts of any kind.
The acknowledgements of the evils of the trade slave have been well documented for a very long time (longer than either you or I have been on this earth) but it doesn't alter the fact that both my original thoughts and those of Paul Devine's added summations really should be taken to point.
I'm sorry (again!) to in any way offend you but we all have to find our own way in life and make our own way during the very short time we have on earth. Slave descendants have had ample opportunity to better themselves through the years and teach their children likewise.
Do you really think that a white person is any different from you?
Anna Clarke
St. Thomas
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