Radiance, you missed the point.
the thing is, the payment is not meant to be a payment for individuals to repay them for wrongs did to them. it is a way to bring two ethnic groups toghether.
the black people in america to this day feel discriminated against, and they have justification for it. of course, caution has to be taken making a claim like that. not any black person in america is discriminated, some of it is their own doing, ans so on. but on the whole, there is still racism, and the average black person in america is worse of than the average white person. and it would be naivety to claim slavery isn't one of the roots of this situation.
the reparation is a means to acknowledge that by the govrnment and it's institutions, which are still predominently white, thereby both releiving some anger in the black community and guilt in the white one.
the thing is, policy is not detarmined by looking back. it is determined by looking forward.
and, Renegadze, you might not be aware of that, but germany actually offered to pay israel repartion. that was some 40 years ago, and had spurted great controversy in israel. while the repartions were to be based on the money and assets that were confiscated off of europe's jews, in israel it was considered a way of reconciliation, "blood money", if you will. many survivors opposed to taking money, claiming that "blood can not be bought", and that it is too soon to reconcile with germany and clean the german conscience. in the end, by the way, the reparations were accepted by the israely government.
again, the object is not to pay for the exact monitary value, because that is impossible. you can't put a price on a life of slavery, nor can you accuratly calculate the property taken away from europe's jews. what you can do is show remorse, and try to correct the consequences of your action.
Offensive Bias wrote:
However, something like slavery, a pretty much accepted policy in the day, cannot be seen as an act of war or an atrocity. People who cannot defend their freedom, do not deserve their freedom. Saying "but we were forced" means you still have a mouth to speak, lungs to breathe. Quit yer moanin' and move on.
>_> A particularly harsh stance to take.
i think you should think this over, Radi.
considering the fact many employees today are being abused by their employers, and cannot walk away, because they might not find another job, i really can't see how do you expect a slave in a country where slavery is legal to rebel. and the bolded sentence is just too close to faschism.
It's a clear analysis, that could have been phrased way more controversially. 
