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Recursion

(56,582 posts)
Thu Jun 5, 2014, 08:55 AM Jun 2014

TNC: The Radical Practicality of Reparations

Another great piece by Coates on reparations.

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/06/the-radical-practicality-of-reparations/372114/

David [Brooks] grounds his rebuttal in The Philadelphia Plan, an affirmative action program that David believes qualifies as reparations. I disagree. The Philadelphia Plan was an attempt to end job discrimination among firms doing business with the federal government. Originally it was isolated to the building trades in Philadelphia. This was not a mistake. "The NAACP wanted a tougher require; the unions hated the whole thing," said White House aide John Ehrlichman. "Before long, the AFL-CIO and the NAACP were locked in combat over one of the passionate issues of the day and the Nixon administration was located in the sweet and reasonable middle."

The Plan's proprietors showed little stomach for any kind of historical reckoning. President Richard Nixon's Assistant Secretary of Labor Arthur Fletcher, who helped create the Plan, targeted not just blacks, but "Orientals, American Indians and persons with Spanish surnames."

More importantly, The Philadelphia Plan was focused on ending present racist discrimination, not compensating for the past. In Philadelphia, a city that was 30 percent black, there were 12 minority unionized ironworkers and three black pipe-fitters. There was no black unionized work among the sheet metal trades, elevator constructors, or the stone-masons. From the perspective of reparations, one might calculate how much this discrimination had cost Philadelphia's black community and then attempt to compensate them. The Philadelphia Plan did not do this. Indeed Fletcher went so far as to declare himself neither interested in compensation nor "a fruitless debate about slavery and its debilitating legacy." The Philadelphia Plan was no more reparations than school busing was reparations.

The White House's appetite for these "reparations" proved short lived. In 1970, Nixon took The Philadelphia Plan national, expanding beyond the trades. In 1972, he ran against his own plan. Fletcher was forced out. The Democrats were tarred as the "quota party." "The zip went out of that integration effort," said then aide William Safire, "after the hard hats marched in support of Nixon on the war." So much for "reparations."


Lots more at the link. Really good piece.
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TNC: The Radical Practicality of Reparations (Original Post) Recursion Jun 2014 OP
There is no way to fairly implement reparations. badtoworse Jun 2014 #1
Did you read the piece? He gave several very practical examples Recursion Jun 2014 #2
I read the piece and I don't agree that approach is practical badtoworse Jun 2014 #3
He talks about that Recursion Jun 2014 #4
This plan would be subject to all sorts of abuse and would become a cash cow for affected minorities badtoworse Jun 2014 #5
 

badtoworse

(5,957 posts)
1. There is no way to fairly implement reparations.
Thu Jun 5, 2014, 09:07 AM
Jun 2014

Trying to determine the amount of reparations, who should get reparations and who should pay for them would be a shit show of monumental proportions. We should not start down that road.

Recursion

(56,582 posts)
2. Did you read the piece? He gave several very practical examples
Thu Jun 5, 2014, 09:20 AM
Jun 2014

Such as compensating the black veterans who were denied access to the GI Bill, the black farmers who were denied at subsidies, and the black homeowners who were denied FHA loans. This stuff was closer the the present day than the Japanese internments in WWII.

 

badtoworse

(5,957 posts)
3. I read the piece and I don't agree that approach is practical
Thu Jun 5, 2014, 11:23 AM
Jun 2014

Other groups besides blacks also suffered those things - what about them? Cutting people checks just because they're black isn't going to cut it.

Recursion

(56,582 posts)
4. He talks about that
Thu Jun 5, 2014, 12:18 PM
Jun 2014

He addresses that point for most of the second half of the post. See his bout about native Americans especially.

 

badtoworse

(5,957 posts)
5. This plan would be subject to all sorts of abuse and would become a cash cow for affected minorities
Thu Jun 5, 2014, 01:18 PM
Jun 2014

There is no denying that many groups were treated unfairly in the past, but where is the fairness in making people who had nothing to do with the past wrongs pay for them? I don't believe we can or should try to look back into history and attempt to right every wrong that was ever committed on a particular group of people.

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