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3857a0d
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The two main criminals are France and the United States. They owe Haiti enormous reparations because of actions going back hundreds of years. If we could ever get to the stage where somebody could say, 'We're sorry we did it,' that would be nice. But if that just assuages guilt, it's just another crime. To become minimally civilized, we would have to say, 'We carried out and benefited from vicious crimes. A large part of the wealth of France comes from the crimes we committed against Haiti, and the United States gained as well. Therefore we are going to pay reparations to the Haitian people.' Then you will see the beginnings of civilization.
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wealth
history
french-imperialism
reparations
civilisation
imperialism
united-states
apologies
haiti
crime
france
guilt
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Noam Chomsky |
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d586b9d
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We invoke the words of Jefferson and Lincoln because they say something about our legacy and our traditions. We do this because we recognize our links to the past--at least when they flatter us. But black history does not flatter American democracy; it chastens it. The popular mocking of reparations as a harebrained scheme authored by wild-eyed lefties and intellectually unserious black nationalists is fear masquerading as laughter. Black nationalists have always perceived something unmentionable about America that integrationists dare not acknowledge --that white supremacy is not merely the work of hotheaded demagogues, or a matter of false consciousness, but a force so fundamental to America that it is difficult to imagine the country without it.
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racism
history
america
reparations
white-supremacy
race
democracy
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Ta-Nehisi Coates |
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026267f
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Won't reparations divide us? Not any more than we are already divided. The wealth gap merely puts a number on something we feel but cannot say - that American propserity was ill-gotten and selective in its distribution. What is needed is an airing of family secrets, a settling with old ghosts. What is needed is a healing of the American psyche and the banishment of white guilt.
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wealth
wealth-gap
wealth-management
white-guilt
institutionalized-racism
reparations
wealth-creation
whiteness
black-history
us-history
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Ta-Nehisi Coates |
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8fb1962
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For Americans, the hardest part of paying reparations would not be the outlay of money. It would be acknowledging that their most cherished myth was not real.
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slavery
reparations
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Ta-Nehisi Coates |
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14d1743
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The popular mocking of reparations as a harebrained scheme authored by wild-eyed lefties and intellectually unserious black nationalists is fear masquerading as laughter.
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prejudice
racism
slavery
hr-40
white-guilt
institutionalized-racism
reparations
whiteness
slavery-in-the-united-states
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Ta-Nehisi Coates |
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0273b98
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Kids in North Lawndale need not be confused about their prospects: Cook County's Juvenile Temporary Detention Center sits directly adjacent to the neighborhood.
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institutionalized-racism
reparations
chicago
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Ta-Nehisi Coates |