'Slavery Reparations' Madness Spreads From Cali To Boston

P. Gardner Goldsmith | December 19, 2022
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Fewer than two weeks ago, I wrote a piece for MRCTV covering the immoral push by California Governor Gavin Newsom and his collectivist allies to further enslave residents in order to pay “reparations” for crimes they didn’t commit, sending almost $223,200 to each of the non-white people whom the new slaves never harmed.

Well, the Boston City Council has joined this atonal Chorus of Insanity, and the vote was unanimous.

On Wednesday, the four “At-Large” and nine “District” councilors all agreed to “explore” forcing on Beantown residents and businesses a mandate that they pay for “addressing the city’s history of anti-Blackness.”

According to MassLive’s Alvin Buyinza (really, that’s his surname):

“Boston city councilors unanimously voted to establish a task force to study reparations for African Americans aimed toward addressing the city’s history of anti-Blackness at a Boston City Council meeting Wednesday.”

This in a city that was not incorporated until 1822, but where slavery had been abolished in 1783.

And, by the way, according to Mr. Buyinza, the phrasing is “aimed TOWARD,” not “aimed at.” We’ve gotta be sophisticated, nowadays.

Indeed, in contemporary “sophisticated” circles, everyone alive in Boston today was alive prior to 1783, and can be split by the Boston City Council into the categories of “victim” and “victimizer”. Or is it that the city is prepared to make NEW victims out of innocent people and new, morally culpable victimizers out of the people who willingly accept the redistributed dosh?

Being a political apparatchik must be extremely tiring.

But, perhaps it’s easier than one thinks. Because when one has his or her hand on the government levers, the meanings of words, basic ethics, and logic simply don’t matter.

Adds Buyinza:

“Commissioners are also expected to collect data and document historic harms and inequities experienced by Black Bostonians in several areas like health, education, social justice and housing.”

Ahh, yes, “social justice.” In other words, like those in California, these bureaucrats will operate under “rules” that have no boundaries and they want to make it up as they go.  

Related: California's Mulling Over $220k 'Reparations' Payments For Black Residents | MRCTV

But one thing is certain: they will try to make people living today feel culpable for the wrongs committed by others, long since turned to dust, Mr. Buyinza notes:

“Phase one would be to research and document Boston’s role in the African slave trade. Phase two would assess Boston’s actions to date to address the continued impact of slavery. And the final phase would make recommendations to the city ‘for truth, reconciliation and reparations’ for its role in the African slave trade, Arroyo (Councilor Ricardo Arroyo) said.”

Perhaps Mr. Arroyo would like to read that MRCTV piece, and then consider what, exactly, he means when he says the word “Truth.” As I noted December 6:

“Beyond the fact that none of these potential ‘recipients’ of ‘reparations’ was injured and, therefore, cannot be made whole through these fictitiously termed ‘reparations’, there is the fact that, even if one were to believe that the descendants of slaves deserve to have the state make slaves out of people today, such that these new slaves – the taxpayers – will hand over big sums of cash for things they never did, the history of slavery is such that virtually every individual in any race can claim that, at one time or another, his or her ancestors were enslaved or preyed-upon.  Where does this ‘original sin’ for slavery concept end?”

And, as Dr. Thomas Sowell has noted:

“Blacks were not enslaved because they were black but because they were available. Slavery has existed in the world for thousands of years. Whites enslaved other whites in Europe for centuries before the first black was brought to the Western hemisphere. Asians enslaved Europeans. Asians enslaved other Asians. Africans enslaved other Africans, and indeed even today in North Africa, blacks continue to enslave blacks.”

How can people be culpable for wrongs committed by others?

They cannot be.

And how can people who have not been victimized claim that others owe them compensation?

They cannot.

Which brings us to a final, key, point. Imagine a United States where politicians, themselves, were held financially liable for the injuries their policies inflict – or which they facilitate through funding – on others. Imagine what America might be like if voters put their names on ballots, and, in like fashion, were tied to the bad policies passed by those whom they supported – those who, we’re told, “represent” those voters?

In a manner similar to “joint and severable liability,” the agents of the state would have to pay out of their own pockets if they harmed others, and their supporters would pay in the same fashion. That would see politicians and their supporters steer clear of a lot of legislation.

Likewise, it would clarify the fact that not all citizens who are trapped inside the various statist corrals support the state that traps them, and they do not give their consent to being “governed.”

Because what we are talking about when we talk “reparations” is a strange, ugly, form of “the state committing more sins by forcing people to wash away previous state sins.” The initial sins were committed by previous political operators, by supporters of the government, and by slave-owners who benefitted from government policies backing slave sales or the tax-paid police who returned runaway slaves. Instead, today, we might be enslaved even more than our current status as tax-serfs – in order to pay for their crimes.

In moral interaction, it is IMMORAL to blame innocent people for the crimes of others. And it is only through the mechanism of statism that we all are roped into having to support those kinds of criminal policies and actions.

Related: Thomas Sowell: Claims of ‘Systemic Racism’ Have 'No Meaning,' Resemble Nazi Propaganda | MRCTV

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