Episode 6 conversation by Brian Smith BLS History

ldecossa — 2025-02-07 15:13:58 UTC

we gon' keep fightin' bruh, never lose hope

2025-02-07 15:15:06 UTC

Black people should get what’s rightfully theirs.

ahabtemariam3 — 2025-02-07 15:15:22 UTC

Why white republicans be pretending that slavery didn't help them succeed in America? They inherited the wealth that enslavers accumulated and continue to benefit from that today.

Harris Neck

lroby1 — 2025-02-07 15:15:46 UTC

I do wonder where the Harris Neck community would be no if it hadn't been destroyed

2025-02-07 15:15:46 UTC

that even if you do everything right as a black person you can never close the racial wealth gap

2025-02-07 15:15:57 UTC

It was crazy to say mistakes were made ,"black or white" like they even out or are even comparable

smunera5 — 2025-02-07 15:16:06 UTC

It's crazy how the government owes at least 17 trillion dollars to black enslaved descendants. Maybe even more up to some quadrillion of dollars and there are white southern senators against reparations.

mlee174 — 2025-02-07 15:16:26 UTC

After watching the video the main thing that is on my mind are the injustices that occur in the disguise of emanate domain. My whole lively hood comes from my families home so I could imagine it being taken.

idivers — 2025-02-07 15:16:34 UTC

If it has been too long since slavery, what other issues is America going to choose to ignore as the debt continues to accumulate.

2025-02-07 15:16:36 UTC

The conversation around and fight for reparations is so difficult because a lot of people are ignorant about what it means, and politicians seem to not really support it even though they claim they do.

2025-02-07 15:16:43 UTC

I feel like we're going in circles when it comes to demanding systematic solutions to the systematic problems that got us here. Honestly, it seems as if the word 'racism' has become taboo, especially in political media.

ldecossa — 2025-02-07 15:16:44 UTC

i feel like there is a lot of evidence on why the descendants of Harris Neck should be given reparations/their land back when it comes to everything that happened, but its so frustrating how, even after all these years, Congress is still unwilling to give that land back in the big 25 yo

lroby1 — 2025-02-07 15:16:44 UTC

What would life have been like for Mustapha if not for colorism?

mvalencia41 — 2025-02-07 15:16:48 UTC

I think there's a lot of assumptions surrounding reparations (frequently perpetuated by conservatives) that we need to permanently address. Reparations are only the beginning of addressing the contributions of slavery to the racial wealth gap, and more white/non-Black people should realize that giving reparations to descendants of enslaved people doesn't mean taking wealth from those who aren't descendants.

2025-02-07 15:16:55 UTC

I strongly agree with the point made in the end about the continuation of fighting to make "democracy" true/real.

gdonovan10 — 2025-02-07 15:17:03 UTC

It was interesting how against the southern republican senators were against reparations when none of the money owed to black people who were descendants of enslaved people would be from them, only the federal government

Mitch McConnell and his cronies

2025-02-07 15:17:13 UTC

Mitch McConnell and the other Republican senators' infuriating sense of "well it's not fair" is so close-minded and insidious because they hold so much power. When the other senator said "for a wrong that any person, Black or white, committed 150 years ago" as if slavery did as much wrong to white people as it did to Black people. A more insidious form of the colorblind attitude sweeping America today, that deliberately ignores history to maintain a racist system.

Reparations

2025-02-07 15:17:13 UTC

I think the idea that Republican senators keep saying that we are far removed from enslavement when Mitch McConnell and some of them had ancestors who were enslavers and gave them that wealth that shaped who they are today. Also I thought it was interesting how she noted that white elected officials talk about the lack of black wealth but when elected their legislation doesn't reflect that.

mlee174 — 2025-02-07 15:18:26 UTC

I think that what the Senators said was so naive, even if they are not responsible they still benefit from the systems that have resulted out of slavery.

svallentine — 2025-02-07 15:22:26 UTC

For someone who's ancestors had 14 slaves say that reparations for an issues that was 150 years ago isn't necessary and no one alive now had any part of is just crazy to me. If the systemic racism derived from slavery continues today and continues to block African Americans from the economic prosperity they have been striving and working for for many generations, then the other side, the white people, who's ancestors owned other humans and created the systemic racism in this country should take responsibility for what they indirectly did because of what their ancestors did. Logically and morally, reparations should be paid.

Sharahn P

spullum3 — 2025-02-07 15:24:27 UTC

I REALLY REALLY REALLY agree with the conversation about reparations. This is something that is long overdue, and while $14 trillion seems to be a large amount, it’s definitely not impossible when the federal government has spent $6.9 trillion in 2024, which is almost half of the amount due to African Americans that are descendants of slavery. Reparations go beyond money, but that is a start for Black families who have worked and died for this country with nothing in return. As a people and a country, we need to push for this change and demand it until it is received.

2025-02-07 15:25:16 UTC

It is crazy just how much money and reperations are owed to African Americans and are just being pushed aside. I knew that it was a lot but when you put an actual number on the amount of money as well specific examples of mistreatment from the the government. There are so many invisible laws and legislations still used to this day restrict African Americans as well minorities in general