[PEN-L:7644] Re: Liquidated damages for slavery

[Mathew Forstater <forstate@xxxxxxxx>]

I like some of Bill Wilson's stuff, and he certainly is no Thomas Sowell or
Walter Williams, but it would do us well to also read some of the very good, and
Marx-informed. critiques of Wilson, by people who are experts on these
questions, e.g., Sandy Darity, Rhonda Williams, and others.  For those with
enough interest in and humility concerning these very important questions to
take the time to look at some of this stuff, let me recommend:

_The Black underclass : critical essays on race and unwantedness_, by William A.
Darity, Jr., and Samuel L. Myers, Jr., with Emmett D. Carson and William Sabol,
New York : Garland Pub., 1994.

_Race, Class, and Conservatism_ by Thomas Boston, Boston: Unwin Hyman, 1988.

and the really excellent special issue symposium on Black Neoconservatism from
July, 1987 in _Praxis International_ with contributions by Rhonda Williams,
Robert Gooding-Williams, Sandy Darity, Cornel West, Lorenzo Simpson.

Also some of the contributions in the recent two volume collection _A Different
Vision_ edited by Thomas Boston, London and New York: Routledge, 1997.

and recent good work on reparations/restitution in two collections edited by
Richard America:

America, Richard F.(ed.): _Paying the Social Debt: What White America Owes Black
America, Westport :  Greenwood Publishing Group, Incorporated, 1993.

America, Richard F. (ed.): _The Wealth of Races: The Present Value of Benefits
from Past Injustices, Westport :  Greenwood Publishing Group, Incorporated,
1990.

One of these hopefully contains a very good piece by George DeMartino where he
outlines three different ethical perpectives on the issue, including one based
on the work of A. Sen, that should be required reading for any discussion of
these issues.

The question of who benefits from racism and sexism is a complicated (and very
politicized) one, but there is some very good work on these difficult issues
that goes beyond the simplistic story that one gets in, e.g., Michael Reich's
_Racial Inequality_, 1981, Princeton U. Press.  In addition to the work of Sandy
Darity and Rhonda Williams already mentioned, the work of Patrick Mason, Howard
Botwinick, Steven Shulman is also of note.  Believe it or not, even people who
did not actively promote racism and sexism, or who don't seem all that well off,
nevertheless benefitted from the existence of institutionalized racism and
sexism.  Believe it or not, it could have been even worse (it *was* worse, e.g.,
for most African Americans and women, Indians, etc).  And the fact that every
mode of production was exploitative (in fact I don't believe that is true, but
granted most were) should not be an excuse for promoting social justice.  Some
social justice is better than none.  And it is not about "racial guilt" like
let's feel bad, it is about real material reparations/restitution, so some
people's children don't have to suffer as much because they happen to be
"unlucky" enough to have the wrong color skin. Also, one doesn't have to have a
monopoly on virtue to deserve justice.  The remark about sounding like Rush
Limbaugh, if not directed to this post, would apply here pretty much.

And let's not forget the two very good, old, special issues of RRPE, with
contributions by Shulman, Harry Chang, Boston, Albelda, Nakano Glenn and others,
one from Fall, 1985 (vol. 17, no. 3) and the other from 1984 (vol. 16, no. 4).

Finally:

Robert Gooding-Williams (ed): _Reading Rodney King Reading Urban Uprising_,
London and New York: Routledge, 1993.

has some very good pieces.

Mat

Rod Hay wrote:

> I don't believe in racial guilt. And I don't believe that any social group
> has a monopoly on virtue. My ancestors were poor scotish crofters. If they
> received any benefit from slavery, it was not apparent in their income. The
> point is that all past modes of production were based on exploitation. Are
> all descendants of the exploited (the large majority of the population in
> most modes of production) to be compensated.
> A much more reasonable political goal would be to design programs that
> create opportunities for those that don't have them now regardless of their
> background. I think the work of William Julius Williams is instructive on
> this question.
> It is a class issue not a race issue.
>
> ----Original Message Follows----
> From: "Charles Brown"
>
> The point is the living descendants' lives are impacted by  history. Today's
> inequality is caused by the wrongs and inequalities of the past. Each
> generation's equality does not arise anew upon each generation. Calling the
> idea of such compensation ludicrous is an unsupported conclusory remark.
> Whatever the rationale, "equality (material equality)for African Americans
> NOW !" is the demand.
> Without recognizing that today's inequality is caused by events in the past
> , one ends up having to blame the victims or blame that inequality on the
> current generation. That is ludicrous. The inequalities in quantity and
> quality of life between different races in the U.S. is rooted in the past.
> It is not entirely caused by events in the present. The reparations concept
> is one way of taking account of this.
>
> In other words, living whites have social and economic advantages based on
> the wrongs of the past. For you to decide it is too complicated to bring in
> the wrongs of the past in understanding today, is to conveniently leave
> whites in their advantageous position.
>
> Another dimension is that many claims to ownership and control in the
> present are based on tracing connections to the past. For example, what is
> the basis for claiming that the U.S. can keep people from crossing its
> national boundaries except claims to ownership of this land traced through
> dead generations  ? Most law, tradition and custom are the products of dead
> generations. No one proposes inventing these anew with each living
> generation. That would be ludicrous. You would respect history when it is to
> your advantage and ignore it when it is not.
>
> Charles Brown
>
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