Do they still think we’re gonna gonna start handing out wads of cash as reparations.
We broke!
TarrouTheSaint on
I have a huge gripe with the atomising discourse of reparations and how it’s absolutely choked both the intellect and the good intent out of this subject. It’s an absolute nightmare that completely misses the point of how nations and groups that today still benefit from historical oppression can support nations and groups that remain disadvantaged because of that historical oppression.
Ad hoc payment agreements, what most people refer to when they’re talking about reparations, don’t accomplish that meaningful support. But at the same time that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be doing more.
MoneyStatistician702 on
We don’t get enough credit for being the nation that ended slave trading. We actually were still paying for that until recently.
Vondonklewink on
Where are our reparations from France, Turkey and Italy for when they enslaved us?
AcademicIncrease8080 on
The whole thing is the wrong way round: Britain should be the one asking for compensation for all the resources, debt and taxation its Empire put into ending slavery.
Britain waged expensive military campaigns all across the world to achieve abolition, fighting kingdoms and empires from Africa to the Gulf states, from South Asia to New Zealand and Oceania in many wars fought over slavery. If it wasn’t for the political and military interventions led by the British and French, slavery would have lasted for perhaps centuries more – no other empires or civilisations were in any hurry to end it.
Obviously, as a wealthy nation we shouldn’t be asking for much, but still the flow of money and compensation should surely be in the direction of the primary liberators of the institution of slavery i.e. Western Europe. It just seems odd that the countries that ended it are the ones paying compensation, does not seem logical at all.
moon-bouquet on
We gave them tropical paradise islands. Account settled.
LifeMasterpiece6475 on
If the populations in America and Europe from African descent want reparations how about they ask the Africans that are still in Africa whose ancestors sold there ancestors in the first place.
The white Europeans weren’t going round with big nets catching them it was their own people who were selling them off.
08148693 on
We can pass on the reparations we get from the Danes for the whole viking thing
Voice_Still on
We should never pay reparations. It’s a ridiculous idea, should we claim from the romans and vikings?
test_test_1_2_3 on
The UK doesn’t owe anyone reparations for shit that happened long before anyone alive today was even born.
We also deserve the credit for being the nation that actually ended the slave trade in the western world, before we abolished slavery it was the norm across all civilisations. We also didn’t go and steal people from Africa, they were sold to Europeans by their own people. How on earth would you ever separate the slaves from slave owners?
The whole reparations discussion needs some kind of policy to shut the debate once and for all, it gets boring hearing the same tired bollocks getting trotted out.
Swimming-Proposal-83 on
I look forward to the outrage from the Times and Telegraph editorial teams!
11 Comments
Do they still think we’re gonna gonna start handing out wads of cash as reparations.
We broke!
I have a huge gripe with the atomising discourse of reparations and how it’s absolutely choked both the intellect and the good intent out of this subject. It’s an absolute nightmare that completely misses the point of how nations and groups that today still benefit from historical oppression can support nations and groups that remain disadvantaged because of that historical oppression.
Ad hoc payment agreements, what most people refer to when they’re talking about reparations, don’t accomplish that meaningful support. But at the same time that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be doing more.
We don’t get enough credit for being the nation that ended slave trading. We actually were still paying for that until recently.
Where are our reparations from France, Turkey and Italy for when they enslaved us?
The whole thing is the wrong way round: Britain should be the one asking for compensation for all the resources, debt and taxation its Empire put into ending slavery.
Britain waged expensive military campaigns all across the world to achieve abolition, fighting kingdoms and empires from Africa to the Gulf states, from South Asia to New Zealand and Oceania in many wars fought over slavery. If it wasn’t for the political and military interventions led by the British and French, slavery would have lasted for perhaps centuries more – no other empires or civilisations were in any hurry to end it.
Obviously, as a wealthy nation we shouldn’t be asking for much, but still the flow of money and compensation should surely be in the direction of the primary liberators of the institution of slavery i.e. Western Europe. It just seems odd that the countries that ended it are the ones paying compensation, does not seem logical at all.
We gave them tropical paradise islands. Account settled.
If the populations in America and Europe from African descent want reparations how about they ask the Africans that are still in Africa whose ancestors sold there ancestors in the first place.
The white Europeans weren’t going round with big nets catching them it was their own people who were selling them off.
We can pass on the reparations we get from the Danes for the whole viking thing
We should never pay reparations. It’s a ridiculous idea, should we claim from the romans and vikings?
The UK doesn’t owe anyone reparations for shit that happened long before anyone alive today was even born.
We also deserve the credit for being the nation that actually ended the slave trade in the western world, before we abolished slavery it was the norm across all civilisations. We also didn’t go and steal people from Africa, they were sold to Europeans by their own people. How on earth would you ever separate the slaves from slave owners?
The whole reparations discussion needs some kind of policy to shut the debate once and for all, it gets boring hearing the same tired bollocks getting trotted out.
I look forward to the outrage from the Times and Telegraph editorial teams!