(09-22-2022, 08:41 AM)mikesez Wrote: (09-22-2022, 05:24 AM)The Real Marty Wrote: I know you're just being devil's advocate here, and I appreciate that, but here's my opinion.
I'm not in favor of assigning guilt or victimhood based on race. Especially when so many people have the blood of multiple races in them, and so many people did not have ancestors who were perpetrators or victims. Are my ancestors responsible for Jim Crow because they were white? To say that, since some white people victimized some black people, then all white people are guilty and all black people are victims, is grossly unfair. If a white person murders a black person tomorrow, would I share the guilt because I am white? And if a crowd of black people have a riot and burn down several blocks of a city, are all black people responsible for that? If you said they were, you'd be justifiably called a racist.
And who in this country is white or black, anyway? There are so many people of mixed race now. Would we judge victimhood by measuring skin tone? Would people have to do DNA tests to prove they are descended from a black person in the South during the Jim Crow era? Better buy stock in Ancestry.com. What if a person had a white and a black ancestor who lived in the South during the Jim Crow era? Maybe he could move a few bucks from his right pocket to his left pocket. Because he's a perpetrator and a victim.
What do you think would happen if reparations are handed out based on race? What do you tell a poor white person when a richer black person gets money because of his skin color? Are you going to tell him that we should all be equal under the law, when you just violated that principle? That poor white guy is going to resent it, and you're going to see an explosion of racial resentment and racism when you hand out money to people of a certain race.
The whole idea of assigning victimhood based on things that happened a hundred years ago, and basing it on skin color, is unworkable, and destructive to our social fabric. There's no denying history. Things happened that were bad. But we can't fix it in this case.
The higher the stakes, the more people lie.
People don't lie much on the elementary and high school lotteries we have to meet racial quotas at magnet and charter schools in some places.
But they do stretch the truth in college admissions. Anyone with a drop of African ancestry is black, and Asians select "prefer not to say."
It wouldn't make much sense to have any kind of large benefit based on race, for that reason.
But a one time check probably isn't the right solution to the problem I described anyhow, even if no one would lie and we could make sure only the "right" people got the check.
The problem I'm describing is one where, 80 years ago, white people had the opportunity to get subsidized mortgages in desirable areas, while black people weren't permitted to live in those areas. This remained true for about 30 years, in every part of the US. This, not slavery, is the main cause of the racial wealth disparity we see today. I don't think we can ever make a race-based subsidized mortgage program, but perhaps we should have one based on if your parents are wealthy or not. Similar to how colleges hand out financial aid based on calculated family wealth, an aid to first time homebuyers could be done the same way.
Lies. Iies. Lies. During the period of red-linning the increase in home ownership was roughly congruent between whites and blacks. Purposely lending to less qualified borrowers would result in longterm financial detriment to the banks.
Moreover, Black Americans built most of the @$%/ country. U ready think they would have needed credit instruments to build their own communities if they so chose? From 1930 to 1960 you had one of the largest economic miracles in human history. Black America saw a reduction in poverty from 87% to 47%. The Civil rights movement was a outgrowth of the booming Black middle class thar was created during this period.
Unfortunately, this new wealth and access to higher tiers of the socioeconomic hierarchy was poorly invested. Instead of cementing Black property rights and universal enforcement of the 14th ammendment as the end of segregation, Black elites chose to adopt a more statist neo-marxist view of economic development and this trickled down to the most tragic cultural revolution in the history of humanity culminating in the deaths of more blacks in extermination centers, than there were blacks alive when MLK was assassinated.
This isn't uncommon. Western Europea countries started experimenting with statism/ socialism around the same time with the same stagnation of economic growth.
