Dana Goldstein has a great short column in the Prospect on the problems with the popular concept of increased school funding as a kinda sorta form of slavery reparations.
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Reparations
19 Dec 2007 11:16 am
Comments (13)
Regarding the the point of the column Matt linked to, I wonder if trying again to desegregating our schools is worth the effort. I think it would improve outcomes for everyone, but it would be evry difficult and painful. If there was a way to do it that didn't require coercion, then fine. But if not, maybe it would be better to put the energy (and money) into just fixing urban schools.
The main point of the column isn't reparations, its school desegregation.
I am very leery of government trying to force this. It seems like an awfully blunt instrument. Is there any evidence that it actually accomplishes anything? I would rather we found a way to put more money and effort into improving schools with the populations they have.
Also, my impression is that forced desegregation in the 1970's caused a lot of damage to the Democratic party.
I used to think reparations were wrong, but I don't anymore. I used to think that since there were poor white people, too, it was unfair to them to only give money to black people. But the problem with being black is that other people can see that your black and treat you differently and you identify with a culture that recognizes this reality and in some cases works to exacerbate it. Because white people have been determing the social conditions of black people since they brought them too this country, I feel like we have an obligation to make certain sacrifices to try and create a greater level of equality between blacks and whites in our society. There are policies that I believe should be followed as a result: ending the war on drugs, reforming the prison and legal system, and increasing assistance to the poor. So in my mind reparations aren't wrong, though they may not be effective in achieving the kind of lasting equality I'm looking for.
Reparations for slavery are wrong. I don't go in for institutional or generational guilt. The sins of the forefathers aren't visited upon their progeny
Well James, would you agree that our forefathers' theft of of the fruits of other men's labor is in fact our inheritance? Do we not benefit as a society from that theft?
It's very convenient to not go in for institutional and generational guilt when you benefit from what those institutions and generations have done.
Reparations for slavery are wrong. I don't go in for institutional or generational guilt. The sins of the forefathers aren't visited upon their progeny.
It's not about guilt. Its about unpaid labor.
It's not about guilt. Its about unpaid labor.
Nonsense. Who's labor? Dead people? What's next, reparations for the descendants of underpaid child laborers?
Well James, would you agree that our forefathers' theft of of the fruits of other men's labor is in fact our inheritance? Do we not benefit as a society from that theft?
It's one thing to recognize the inherent institutionally racist structures and prejudices, and work to end them. But the above seems to be just another form of the "white people are inherently racist because they benefit from said institutional racism" bullshit that permeated my graduate school program. It's the sloppiest kind of thinking: predestination lite. So-called reparations are only reparations if they are paid to victims of the underlying act; that those acts have a legacy does not make today's African-American population victims of slavery.
The focus should be, as the article states, on ending today's institutional barriers. I give full credit to Brown University for finding a novel way of re-tasking "reparations" for that purpose, but I still think the underlying motivation -- intergenerational guilt -- is so much nonsense. It's like original sin, only with racial baggage instead of metaphysical; it's fundamentally dishonest.
He argues for 1) busing and 2) more money for failing schools. Gee, there are some fresh ideas.
Looks to me like Dana started out writing an article on reparations before she realized she didn't have much to say. The reparations and integration sections are linked by segue, but not much more.
Re: Well James, would you agree that our forefathers' theft of of the fruits of other men's labor is in fact our inheritance?
Actually I don't. That labor dissipated a long time ago (see: 2nd Law of thermodynamics, AKA entropy). Reparations are owed by the dead to the dead. We should be looking forward to the future not obsessing about the distant past. There's plenty of injustice in our own day and age and that does need to be remedied. But we can't fix the past.
Reparations for slavery are wrong. I don't go in for institutional or generational guilt. The sins of the forefathers aren't visited upon their progeny.
It's not about guilt. Its about unpaid labor.
Posted by goethean | December 19, 2007 12:13 PM
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Since several of my ancestors were indentured servants and many more served as unpaid apprentices I guess that means you owe me money.
"I don't go in for institutional or generational guilt."
A wise choice. It's also entirely irrelevant to the issue of reparations, which isn't about guilt but about putting things right.
"Actually I don't. That labor dissipated a long time ago (see: 2nd Law of thermodynamics, AKA entropy)."
Of course, life in general, human life, and esp. human society are all 'anti-entropic' in the sense that you're talking about.
I've never understood the forced deseg thing. Is it supposed to be an end in itself or a means to an end, specifically, black kids getting a decent education? Someone tell me. Because I don't see why sitting next to a white kid is more important than getting a decent education.
And if you all think it's the means to getting a decent education, because America would just never never let their white kids get bad educations, then I'm a little more on board, but how's it going to work? Right now, with bussing, a few black kids get to wake up at five in the morning to spend forever on a bus so they can go to a school with people they will never see in their neighborhood, or over the summer, and that doesn't seem so hot to me. Plus, if you were going to do this on a scale to provide every black kid with a white school, you'd have to be adding wings to each white school, or building new ones, and where does that money come from?
How about this - stop basing school money on property tax. It's not fair. It means poor kids get worse schools, by definition. If education is going to be public, it should offer the same services to everyone, the way the post office does. It's either public or it's not.
If you forced the funding to be equal, then you'd see a lot of white people caring more about lifting all the boats on the tide, so to speak. And little black kids could sleep in as long as little white kids.
Comments closed January 02, 2008.
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Heads in the Sand
Back in my undergrad days, many many moons ago, David Horowitz took out an ad in a number of college newspapers, including the one I worked at, entitled "10 Reasons Why Reparations for Slavery are Wrong." He even came to speak -- and yes, he as much an ass in person -- on this subject matter. It was a horrid speech, both because of the horrid little man giving it and the boorish reception he received from the student body.
I didn't like his arguments. They were vacuous, dishonest, or just plain inaccurate. But I agreed with the final conclusion: Reparations for slavery are wrong. I don't go in for institutional or generational guilt. The sins of the forefathers aren't visited upon their progeny; we're perfectly capable of our own.
Posted by James F. Elliott | December 19, 2007 11:34 AM