Coffee Shop Philosophy on African American Slavery Restitution and Reimbursement

There seems to be a big debate going on right now regarding African American slavery and possible restitution and reimbursement to all those people living today who have ancestors in America who were slaves. There can be no doubt that it is a dark stain on the American way of life and history.

Recently I was in a coffee shop and I listened to a couple of white gentleman discussed this with a black gentleman. The black African American said that restitution for slavery may not be possible, but the idea is intriguing and worthy of discussion. He also stated he would not mind receiving $50,000 for the disadvantages that he had been through in life.

This sparked a pretty argumentative debate although it was interesting they were able to keep it within reason and without a fistfight. Another white male entering the conversation, who was a little bit of a bigot himself stated;

Did you hear about the African American Fresno Football Players who raped the 11-year old girl? Isn't society already paying enough for the issues of slavery still. I am sick and tired of paying the taxes for more police, courts and prisons. I don't steal anything. And statistically this is one of those "10 Things You Cannot Say In America" by Larry Elders, but statistically the jails are filled with a higher percentage of Black Americans based on their population contribution than any other race. And we cannot blame it all on Slavery. Well, after hearing all of this I could see that there is quite a bit of racism in America on both sides. And it is really too bad because we all live in the same great nation and we need to stop pointing fingers. Demanding money for something that happened to your ancestors some 15 generations ago makes no sense. Keeping such a demand in the mass media only further divides African-Americans with white Americans. Negative comments about black Americans and stereotyping serves no purpose. Can't we all just get along? Please consider this in 2006.

Lance Winslow