Do they still think we’re gonna gonna start handing out wads of cash as reparations.
We broke!
I have a huge gripe with the atomising discourse of reparations and how it’s absolutely choked both the intellect and the good intent out of this subject. It’s an absolute nightmare that completely misses the point of how nations and groups that today still benefit from historical oppression can support nations and groups that remain disadvantaged because of that historical oppression.
Ad hoc payment agreements, what most people refer to when they’re talking about reparations, don’t accomplish that meaningful support. But at the same time that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be doing more.
We don’t get enough credit for being the nation that ended slave trading. We actually were still paying for that until recently.
Where are our reparations from France, Turkey and Italy for when they enslaved us?
The whole thing is the wrong way round: Britain should be the one asking for compensation for all the resources, debt and taxation its Empire put into ending slavery.
Britain waged expensive military campaigns all across the world to achieve abolition, fighting kingdoms and empires from Africa to the Gulf states, from South Asia to New Zealand and Oceania in many wars fought over slavery. If it wasn’t for the political and military interventions led by the British and French, slavery would have lasted for perhaps centuries more – no other empires or civilisations were in any hurry to end it.
Obviously, as a wealthy nation we shouldn’t be asking for much, but still the flow of money and compensation should surely be in the direction of the primary liberators of the institution of slavery i.e. Western Europe. It just seems odd that the countries that ended it are the ones paying compensation, does not seem logical at all.
We gave them tropical paradise islands. Account settled.
If the populations in America and Europe from African descent want reparations how about they ask the Africans that are still in Africa whose ancestors sold there ancestors in the first place.
The white Europeans weren’t going round with big nets catching them it was their own people who were selling them off.
We can pass on the reparations we get from the Danes for the whole viking thing
We should never pay reparations. It’s a ridiculous idea, should we claim from the romans and vikings?
The UK doesn’t owe anyone reparations for shit that happened long before anyone alive today was even born.
We also deserve the credit for being the nation that actually ended the slave trade in the western world, before we abolished slavery it was the norm across all civilisations. We also didn’t go and steal people from Africa, they were sold to Europeans by their own people. How on earth would you ever separate the slaves from slave owners?
The whole reparations discussion needs some kind of policy to shut the debate once and for all, it gets boring hearing the same tired bollocks getting trotted out.
I look forward to the outrage from the Times and Telegraph editorial teams!
I’d like reparations for the damage done to the country when the tories were in power
If the Carribean nations ask for reparations say ok. Then hand them the bill for the West African squadron and other measures accounting for inflation et all. I would imagine things will get pretty quiet after that.
Quite right too. What a load of bollocks. They’ll only spend it on chicken and crack anyway.
legit question, tho, why did we have to pay the slaveowners to release their slaves? Couldn’t they be told to kick bricks
I suspect being a working class person in the north of England mid Industrial Revolution or a serf on a farm pre that wasn’t a great deal better than slavery. My family didn’t benefit from slavery, so why should I pay?
Everyone always makes the silly “what about the Romans invading us” argument as if they’re the first to come up with it, and as if it isn’t basically the only challenge ever offered to the case. I don’t like Christopher Hitchens on everything, but on [this](https://youtu.be/3MNu2GNx-kQ) he makes a far better case than the one opponents of reparations are usually shadow-boxing against.
Funny, you never see them outstretching their hand towards Arabs and North African states. Places where slavery was much more popular and in a way exists to this day. You don’t even hear anyone complain or point out Berbery slave trade. The public discourse (mainly coming from USA) equates all slavers as white
Slavery exists today, a 21 year old yazadi women was rescued from 10years as slave in gaza, most of us unknowingly use a number of slaves, iirc it’s 16 in the uk, there’s a calculator somewhere.
23 comments
Do they still think we’re gonna gonna start handing out wads of cash as reparations.
We broke!
I have a huge gripe with the atomising discourse of reparations and how it’s absolutely choked both the intellect and the good intent out of this subject. It’s an absolute nightmare that completely misses the point of how nations and groups that today still benefit from historical oppression can support nations and groups that remain disadvantaged because of that historical oppression.
Ad hoc payment agreements, what most people refer to when they’re talking about reparations, don’t accomplish that meaningful support. But at the same time that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be doing more.
We don’t get enough credit for being the nation that ended slave trading. We actually were still paying for that until recently.
Where are our reparations from France, Turkey and Italy for when they enslaved us?
The whole thing is the wrong way round: Britain should be the one asking for compensation for all the resources, debt and taxation its Empire put into ending slavery.
Britain waged expensive military campaigns all across the world to achieve abolition, fighting kingdoms and empires from Africa to the Gulf states, from South Asia to New Zealand and Oceania in many wars fought over slavery. If it wasn’t for the political and military interventions led by the British and French, slavery would have lasted for perhaps centuries more – no other empires or civilisations were in any hurry to end it.
Obviously, as a wealthy nation we shouldn’t be asking for much, but still the flow of money and compensation should surely be in the direction of the primary liberators of the institution of slavery i.e. Western Europe. It just seems odd that the countries that ended it are the ones paying compensation, does not seem logical at all.
We gave them tropical paradise islands. Account settled.
If the populations in America and Europe from African descent want reparations how about they ask the Africans that are still in Africa whose ancestors sold there ancestors in the first place.
The white Europeans weren’t going round with big nets catching them it was their own people who were selling them off.
We can pass on the reparations we get from the Danes for the whole viking thing
We should never pay reparations. It’s a ridiculous idea, should we claim from the romans and vikings?
The UK doesn’t owe anyone reparations for shit that happened long before anyone alive today was even born.
We also deserve the credit for being the nation that actually ended the slave trade in the western world, before we abolished slavery it was the norm across all civilisations. We also didn’t go and steal people from Africa, they were sold to Europeans by their own people. How on earth would you ever separate the slaves from slave owners?
The whole reparations discussion needs some kind of policy to shut the debate once and for all, it gets boring hearing the same tired bollocks getting trotted out.
I look forward to the outrage from the Times and Telegraph editorial teams!
If anyone deserves to put their hands in their pockets, it’s the descendants of slave owners who willingly took payments from the British government stemming from the [slave compensation act of 1837](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slave_Compensation_Act_1837#:~:text=The%20Slave%20Compensation%20Act%201837,law%20on%2023%20December%201837.&text=An%20Act%20to%20carry%20into,upon%20the%20Abolition%20of%20Slavery.) every year up until 2015!
I’d like reparations for the damage done to the country when the tories were in power
If the Carribean nations ask for reparations say ok. Then hand them the bill for the West African squadron and other measures accounting for inflation et all. I would imagine things will get pretty quiet after that.
Quite right too. What a load of bollocks. They’ll only spend it on chicken and crack anyway.
legit question, tho, why did we have to pay the slaveowners to release their slaves? Couldn’t they be told to kick bricks
I suspect being a working class person in the north of England mid Industrial Revolution or a serf on a farm pre that wasn’t a great deal better than slavery.
My family didn’t benefit from slavery, so why should I pay?
Everyone always makes the silly “what about the Romans invading us” argument as if they’re the first to come up with it, and as if it isn’t basically the only challenge ever offered to the case. I don’t like Christopher Hitchens on everything, but on [this](https://youtu.be/3MNu2GNx-kQ) he makes a far better case than the one opponents of reparations are usually shadow-boxing against.
Funny, you never see them outstretching their hand towards Arabs and North African states. Places where slavery was much more popular and in a way exists to this day. You don’t even hear anyone complain or point out Berbery slave trade. The public discourse (mainly coming from USA) equates all slavers as white
Slavery exists today, a 21 year old yazadi women was rescued from 10years as slave in gaza, most of us unknowingly use a number of slaves, iirc it’s 16 in the uk, there’s a calculator somewhere.
There found it
https://slaveryfootprint.org/
Sorry but what, we are struggling to fund councils and public services. We can’t just give away money for something that ended hundreds of years ago.
We should be getting paid not paying out ourselves.
Good, I hope they don’t cave later on. Most of us, regardless of race or gender have been eating the same giant shit sandwich.