Reparations: Cash Payments or Something Else?

"Some proposals have called for cash payments from the U.S. government. The question of who if any should receive such payments, who should pay them and in what amount, has been highly controversial, since the United States Census does not track descent from slaves or slave owners and relies on self-reported racial categories. Since all slaves have long since died and the statute of limitations has long expired no court has seriously supported black reparations."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reparations_for_slavery

"He finds the idea of individual monetary restitution in the form of checks sent to African-Americans 'a cheap form of forgiveness and an insult to those millions of Africans who lost their lives to the slave trade.'"
http://bankrupt.com/CAR_Public/001113.MBX

"When asked if the government should grant "cash payments" to blacks, nine out of ten white Americans rejected the proposal, while a strong majority of blacks favored it, by 55 to 37 percent."
http://www.zmag.org/sustainers/content/2002-10/30marable.cfm

"'Blacks cannot simply accept cash payments, the Minister (Louis Farrakhan) warned. "We need land as a basis of economic and political independence. We cannot settle for some little jive token. We need millions of acres of land,' he said."
http://www.finalcall.com/national/reparations_rally08-27-2002.htm

"The proposal holds that African Americans deserve reparations for the injustice done on their ancestors in the form of cash payments."
http://www.purdueexponent.org/2001/09/06/opinions/c1.html

"Eighty-nine percent of blacks believe the federal government should offer a combination of cash payments, debt forgiveness and social welfare programs to compensate for the devastating effects of slavery and racial segregation, according to a new survey released Tuesday."
http://www.emergingminds.org/magazine/content/index.php?itemid=2632

"This year, Dawson and Bobo, both professors of African and African American Studies, sought to clarify Black and white attitudes toward three reparations proposals: cash payments to African Americans as individuals; scholarship funds for disadvantaged African American youth; or the establishment of a Community Trust, to be used to rebuild Black schools and community infrastructure and foster small business."
http://www.blackcommentator.com/110/110_cover_white_wealth.html

"He said black people never got a fair deal and deserved a check."
http://www.nationalcenter.org/P21NVWilsonReparations801.html

"One such justification is that cash reparations, like damages, pay for past wrongs and racial preferences act as injunctive relief to prevent future wrongs."
http://www.bc.edu/schools/law/lawreviews/meta-elements/journals/bctwj/24_1/08_TXT.htm

"That Reparations be paid in the form of cash ($1,000,000) to each African N' America born prior to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 or exempt same regardless of date of birth from all federal taxes for 246 years (1619-1865)."
http://www.ubuntu.tv/

"In truth, few mainstream advocates of reparations favor individual cash payments, including Harvard law professor Charles Ogletree, and Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., the second-most senior member of Congress, who has, to no avail, proposed legislation in every session of Congress since 1989 to examine whether the government should provide reparations to blacks." http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20060419/news_lz1e19greene.html

"Big majorities of African-Americans believe companies that profited from slavery should apologize, make cash payments to descendants of slaves and set up scholarship funds for blacks."
http://www.usatoday.com/money/general/2002/02/21/slave-reparations.htm

"President Bill Clinton says he does not favor compensating the victims of slavery, because the nation is so many generations removed from that era that reparations for black Americans may not be possible."
http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1997/06/17/clinton.race/

" Just think about it, we (Black Folks) could really move forward in this society with reparations in the form of “cold cash money”. "
http://www.aframnews.com/html/2005-02-16/feat1.htm

"During the 1970s, the implementation of a reparations plan was discussed in terms of direct cash payments to those of African ancestry, similar to the model of reparations for Japanese Americans interred during World War II (with the obvious distinction that while the payments for Japanese Americans were made only to those who were actually alive during the period, payments to African Americans would necessarily be to the descendants of black slaves)."
http://www.yale.edu/isps/journal/volume2/conley.html

"A 2002 Mobile Register-University of South Alabama poll found the state's citizens racially polarized over the question of reparations. While 67 percent of black respondents favored the federal government making cash payments to slave descendants, only 5 percent of white respondents agreed."
http://www.lawschool.com/apology.htm

"While some have been calling for individual payments to descendants of slaves or to all identifiable African-Americans, I do not believe that is the best way to proceed. "
http://www.gatewayva.com/biz/virginiabusiness/magazine/yr2002/jul02/ideas2.shtml

"Many reparations advocates argue that the government should provide individual payments and make a formal apology to blacks for the damage caused by the trans-Atlantic slave trade and its social and economic consequences. Others make a case for other compensation, like tax-exempt status."
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?sec=travel&res=9D0CE7DA133DF93BA2575BC0A9649C8B63&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

"Though some activists are demanding individual payments to Black families, the best known advocates talk only of remedies being fashioned to help bridge the divide between poor Blacks and the rest of the nation."
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0DXK/is_19_18/ai_80744484

"The black poor, however, want to be paid now. And they want to be paid directly. Robert Brock, a self-proclaimed legal activist, has been barnstorming through the South for years, making speeches at small black churches in which he claims that, for a $50 fee, he will file tax-rebate claims on behalf of individual blacks. He wants every black person in America to get a reparations check for $500,000." http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3b8a70351a8f.htm

"Remember, Dr. Robert Brock filed as early as December 9, 1965, demanding $500,000. for each Slaves' Descendant of African Origin Ancestry." http://www.directblackaction.com/repara_form.html

"Individual payments or a trust fund? Monthly payments or a lump sum? Who would receive reparations? Direct descendents of slaves or all black Americans?"
http://www.indyweek.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A16525

" Some, like Robert Brock, a Los Angeles campaigner for reparations, argued for direct payments to descendants of slaves....Some favor direct payments to slave descendants ranging from $25,000 to $100,000 or more. "
http://www.crf-usa.org/brown50th/reparation_reading.htm

"Yes, we deserve reparations for all that can mean from direct payments to social programs to repair the extensive damage done by four centuries of institutionalized racism." http://www.thedish.org/Reparations.html

"The amount concerned is absurd. Harper’s magazine estimates the total of reparations due at over 100 trillion dollars, based on 222,505,049 hours of forced labour between 1619 and 1865, subject to compound interest since. Dr Robert Brock, a proponent of reparations, suggests $500,000 per descendant. Given the fact that most African Americans have at least one slave ancestor somewhere in their family tree, this equals a mere $15 trillion – or a surtax of $50,000 on every non-African American man, woman and child in the USA (higher than the median family annual income)."
http://www.idebate.org/debatabase/topic_details.php?topicID=496

"Author and lecturer Robert Brock recommends a $500,000 federal payout to every descendant of slaves; Tulane law professor Robert Westley, a government-funded trust for blacks’ “educational and economic empowerment”; and San Francisco State professor Wade Nobles, “300 years of free health care, housing, sustenance and education for every African-American.” (Do you think I mention Robert Brock, who the Green Party of St. Louis calls "The Reparation Man," too much? Do a Google search on him along with the word reparations.)
http://www.portlandtribune.com/opinion/story.php?story_id=16637

"The National Legal and Policy Center, a corporate-governance watchdog group, cites one Robert Brock, a lawyer, who says the government should pay each descendant of a slave $500,000. The group figures this would cost $15 trillion, or about $50,000 for every man, woman and child of other races."
http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20050614-082458-1824r.htm

"Aiyetoro also argues that the only kind of satisfactory reparations that could possibly be made is in the form of several thousand dollars to each descendant of a slave."
http://www.justicetalking.org/joindebate_viewpost.asp?postID=3067

"1965 US government unsuccessfully sued for $500,000 for each descendant of a slave"
http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,4134730-103681,00.html

"If the government used such net-worth inequality as a basis, and then factored in measures like population size, it could address reparations by transferring about 13 percent of white household wealth to blacks. A two-adult black family would receive an average reparation of about $35,000."
http://homepages.nyu.edu/~dc66/reparations.htm

“Should African Americans be paid (individually) x amount for the 224 years of legalized slavery (1641 to 1865) and the roughly 90 years (1877-1965) of legalized discrimination?”
http://www.blackpolicy.org/resources/Reparations.php

"Dr. Browne suggests four possible methods for payment of reparations:
1. A per capita cash payment to each African American on a designated date, based on a pro rata share of the finally agreed on reparations debt.
2. Investment of the reparations payments in income-producing assets, with the income allocated annually on a per capita basis.
3. Use of the payment to fund massive government-sponsored programs to raise educational and skill levels, provide housing, and generally improve overall economic status.
4. A collective payment to the "community" to create conditions necessary for 'takeoff' in the Rostovian sense."
http://academic.udayton.edu/race/02rights/repara16.htm

"Some want the money to support a fund devoted to black education; others would prefer a cash payment and a national apology."
http://www.uwec.edu/Geography/Ivogeler/w188/south/slaverylawsuit.htm

"According to Browne, the most widely accepted way for reparation would be to provide a cash payment to each Black American alive, based on a pro-rated sum of the entire settlement. "
http://www.valdosta.edu/~dmsnyder/Academic%20Transcript%20page/pol%20paper.htm

"Some groups believe the government should pay cash directly to African Americans. Others say the money should go into programs aimed at improving the lives of African Americans."
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EPF/is_6_102/ai_92800333

"Should every 'qualified' African-American get a check, or should the money be put into a fund to assist those African-Americans truly in need? If a fund is the best way, then who will be in charge of it?"
http://www.metrotimes.com/editorial/story.asp?id=2388

"He contends that black people are eligible for special tax rebates and, if they pay him $50 to fill out a claim form, they will one day collect a half-million dollars in compensation for all that slavery and state-sanctioned discrimination stole from African Americans.... And although there is no assurance they will ever collect the promised $500,000, those who come to hear Brock deeply believe in the reparations quest....'We’re glad to be in America,' said Gary Grant, a Pentecostal minister who helped arrange Brock’s visit here. 'But the white man has been taking advantage of the black man all our lives. Now, we want to get paid.'”
http://afgen.com/reparations_in_america2.html

"Compounded interest on that payment , brings the amount to approximately 180,000 US dollars per decendant....."
http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/discuss/2786/