Reparations Math: Some Notes
It's not surprising to learn that the woke want to give blacks reparations, the left seeing blackness as a kind of severe disability. What did Biden say the other day? Blacks couldn't start businesses because they didn't have any accountants? Harsh.
Some blacks in olden days, the woke never cease tiring of reminding us, were slaves. Well, so were whites, both in the US and along the Barbary Coast, and in other locales. Some blacks were also slaves in Africa, under black masters. And some blacks in the US were masters, too.
But never mind. We're only interested in what happened in the US to black slaves.
The point is, since some blacks, now all long dead, were slaves in the US, people who are black now, but who were never slaves, ought to be paid "reparations" for having black ancestors, regardless of whether those ancestors were slaves or not. The funds will gathered both from non-blacks who were never slave owners, and from blacks alive now, through their taxes.
California is hot on this idea, as they are on all wokeness: California moves forward with reparations effort to create 'more equitable' future. They will form a committee which will recommend how much blacks get.
Nancy Pelosi's nephew said, "Although the horrors of slavery may have begun in the past, its harms are felt every single day by Black Americans in the present." But he did not say how, especially considering California was not a slave state. No one ever says how: it is taken as axiomatic that blacks, whether they had slave ancestors or not, inherit the slave gene. Or something.
Anyway, since monies will be paid, somebody has to figure out how much and in what form. This is our attempt to help. We reach no conclusions here, only provide some notes to help us begin. Put your own thoughts below and then, along with California, we'll work on an exact figure to give to blacks.
Below are some pertinent facts and statistics about slavery in the US relevant to considering "reparations", researched and provided by reader DS (lightly edited). This is not to suggest these are the only relevant figures, just some of them. It leaves out the count of white slaves in the US, for instance.
The 600-750,000 dead in the Civil War---which ended more than 150 years ago--do not count in the calculations. No one is quite sure why.
It seems fair, also, to subtract all those benefits provided to blacks through Affirmative Action, which begin in 1961, which is more than half a century ago, and has only accelerated since. Try and find any corporation or institution that will not preferentially hire blacks, ceteris paribus.
We also should find a way to monetize (politicians love that word) the massive disparities in crime, numbers which also are entered in red on the ledger.
I got to thinking about how equitable reparations would be. Splashing money on people usually does not work as well as having them work for it. I do not believe reparations can be done equitably. If you ever write about reparations, here is some research I put together recently. Now the slave count is just for the census year 1860, so aggregate, I do not have. I also understand that many died during the crossing, so even though they were mistreated, they were left out.
[Some details taken from this WP story link: What we get wrong about the roots of slavery in America.]
1400s
Slavery in the new world began in the 1400’s, half a million enslaved Africans had already been forced to work on Brazilian sugar plantations or in the silver mines of Peru and Mexico before 1619.
1619
Portuguese slave ship on its way to Mexico carrying 350 enslaved Angolans was pirated by John Jope who sold twenty or more of them to the governor of Virginia, the colony not having many laborers. The other laborers were indentured servants that would be free in seven years.
1651
[Some details taken from this GP link: Reminder: The First Legal Slave Owner in America was a Black Man]
The first recording of a slave, 1651, is one owned by Anthony Johnson an Angolan who himself had been an indentured servant. John Casar was the first black to be declared by the courts as a slave for life in the 13 colonies.
1860
[Some details taken from this link: click]
30% of southern people owned at least one slave. That means 70% owned none, zero.
[Some details taken from this link: click]
2,225,086 female black, 2,216,744 male black. 78,954 other unknown 89% were slaves before civil war. White population. 26,922,537.
[Some details taken from this link: click]
75% white owned not a single slave or 20,191,902 did not own slaves; 1% owned 40 or more; 0.1% owned more than 100.
4,888,070 free black or 10% black population in 1860; 261,918 lived in south 226,152 lived in north that is 35,766 more free in south than north.
[Some details taken from this link: click]
42% free blacks owned one slave black/white/other/family. 58% owned no slaves; 4% owned 10 to 19; 1% owned 20 to 84.
2019
[Some details taken from these links: click, click, click]
Population in millions:
White 250.52 Black 44.08 American Indian 4.19 Asian 19.5 Hawaiian/Pacific Islands .81 Hispanic 59.64 Two or more races 9.14
Median Income US dollars:
White non/Hispanic 76,057 Hispanic 56,113 Black 45,438 Asian 98,174
Round up:
Blacks slaves in 1860: 4,441,830 Free Blacks in 1860 4,888,070
47% owned at least one slave or 2,297,392.9 blacks owned slaves
Black population in 2019 44,080,000 that is 39,638,170 more people today than were ever slaves.
That's it for now. We need to take all these facts and figures, and others beside, and enter them all into some kind of formula. All suggestions on the details of this formula are welcome.
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