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National & World Issue

Should the U.S. government provide #reparations for slavery?

Score for this "No" opinion : 8.17

"#Reparations will further harm race relations" Jul 07, 2024

The U.S. has always seen social and racial unrest in the country, and it has only gotten worse in recent years. However, the answer to this era of social and racial unrest will never be #reparations.  

Reparations, today, is a political concept. It involves the government, through taxes and social programs, paying a monetary price to the descendants of slaves in America to help address the damage that has been done by #racialinequality and slavery.

Although today's racism issues are rooted in the past, the U.S. has come a long way since slavery. But it is also true that the current issues are still are not comparable to actual slavery. Former U.S. President Barack Obama spoke about reparations in an interview in 2016; he stated, "If we were to look at the countries like South Africa, where a Black Majority is present, there have been efforts to tax and help that black majority. But it has not come in the form of formal reparations programs, and countries like India that have tried to help untouchables also have not fundamentally changed the structure of their societies." So, the New York Times quotes Obama, saying, “Obama considered the idea impractical.”

It is difficult to change society, and in a country like the U.S., every "society" is a little different. So, it is safe to say that reparations would do nothing to solve the greater systematic issues of racism that are present in the country.

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