I'm glad we agree then. Because I've been screaming this all thread.
My point was the 1865 solution isn't applicable.
I don't think it's an either/or situation. Isn't it shameful that it took a thread on reparations for people to realize, "they need good education and infrastructure"? That is the responsibility of every government to all of it's citizens. Regardless of whether the citizens have been structurally shafted by their government in the past.
Again the point is it's a responsibility not being carried out in communities with majority black American populations.
The question is "how do we compensate for over 300 years of wealth stripping from African Americans, both slaves and second class citizens"? The answer is not "give them good education and infrastructure", because they are owed that already, just by existing as citizens. Which is a trap you and others are easily falling into. You don't steal $3-15 trillion from a segment of the population and then just "give them good education".
The answer is not give them reparations. A decent portion of my friends are from the inner city. Most, if not all of the them, are very successful and would be in the top 25% of household income in America. What was a defining characteristic of all of them?
a) the all were in gifted in talented programs in their inner-city high schools or homeschooled
b) they all went to college (most received scholarships)
Most were poor. Many came from single parent homes. Many saw rampant crime around them and had family member continually locked up. Regardless, the thing that allowed them to vastly improve their quality of life was infrastructure/education.
You're actually the one falling into a trap by thinking reparations will have a long term effect on wealth, when black Americans literally significantly less educated and don't have the infrastructure to spur growth in their communities. What the point of giving someone wealth when they have no idea what to do with it (ie. personal finance, investing, 401ks, insurance, etc)? Every time I hear about reparations I think of the stats about the amount of lottery winners that go broke. People like to think money solves everything, especially with regards to the black American community, and it's further from the truth.
The problems in the black community are systematic. I really can't repeat that enough. Even if reparations are handed out the system still exists and the system will drain their wealth (as it has done for the last 150 years)
That is all well and good. I don't even think I disagree with your data points, but you're just making the case for why everyone needs access to good education. But you can't tell me that just giving African Americans good education and infrastructure helps them close the gap on the equity that other privileged groups in this country built on their backs.
No, I'm making the case why specifically black people need all of these things and yes it will close the gap. Unless you want to ignore all of the economic data it's clear what would happen. The problem is that local, state, and federal governments don't want to pay for it/ think it's a bad investment.
By the way, when infrastructure and education improvements happen in the ghettos, who benefits the most? It's not black people. It's the group of people that abandoned the cities in the 60s and 70s, and are now coming back with their equity, buying everything up and pushing black people out, both educated and non-educated. Fort Greene in Brooklyn today is totally different from how it was in 1990 when I was born. A lot of money was poured into it. It wasn't black people who profited from it though.
You are talking about gentrification and that's a totally different issue.
Infrastructure and education improvements =/= gentrification. White Americans who live in gentrified areas usually send their kids to private schools and most of the initial infrastructure is built to cater to private companies (ie. high-end residential and commercial real estate companies). We are talking about two different things.
