Americans, by the millions, have embraced fantasies of all sorts. Enter a small number of African Americans. They embrace an old fantasy called reparations. Reparations deal with the notion that the U.S. government should compensate the descendants of black slaves. The reparations demand, when you get down to it, is nothing but a pipe dream. It’s a fantasy.
The notion the U.S. government is going to compensate 40 million Blacks is about as realistic as Santa Claus. Moreover, the push for reparations would be incredibly divisive during an already divisive time. Though Americans are doing better than when George W. Bush left office, many Americans are still struggling.
Even if the government did grant reparations to Blacks, poor Whites, not so poor Whites, and others would be upset, and they would be demanding their own versions of reparations. There would be yet another unnecessary division in the country.
Hypothetically, let’s say the government did give Blacks reparations. Let’s say it gave $1 dollar for each person. That would be $40 million dollars. Let’s say the government gave Blacks $10 each. That would be $400 million dollars. These are small amounts to illustrate the cost of any reparations.
Reparations is pipe dream, many practical African Americans have long dismissed. However, the idea resurfaced because some Blacks asked Bernie Sanders his view on reparations, and Sanders didn’t support the idea. In response, the black eggheads sought to take both Sanders and Hillary Clinton to task.
The reparations issue is a ridiculous debate. It is a pipe dream, and you would think grown folks had more important ideas to embrace and float.
For example, rather than trying to promote reparations, why don’t we petition the government to promote the idea of more training and apprenticeships? American businesses are sitting on piles of cash. They have thousands of unfilled jobs, because they claim they cannot find enough qualified people. If that’s the case, why don’t these business set up apprentice programs to train people to do those jobs?
Blacks, who promote reparations, are essentially poverty pimps, or they’re delusional. They’re misleading our people by having them focus on pipe dreams rather than reality.
Wouldn’t it make more sense to take the energy that’s behind reparations and redirect it towards encouraging young black people to master math, science, and computers? Wouldn’t it also make more sense to focus on our strengths and what we do have rather than what we don’t have?
What we do have is a $1 trillion dollar annual earning. We should use some of that money to create better schools, communities and fund more entrepreneurs. This would be more realistic than chasing fantasies and pipe dreams.