The question posed on the initial post was as follows: “Reparations for slavery?” It was the title of said post. Ryan’s opener to his comment to that was as follows: “No, I think reparations would be a waste of time.” Come again? Since when is paying for one’s mistakes a waste of time? No, don’t come again, man, but rather come off it.
Ryan, you suggest many things, you suggest that instead of reparations we should “end the slavery that is still going on in places like Sudan.” It’s not either this or that, my good man. It’s both. You wonder why there are “no calls for reparations from Arab countries who arguably played a greater part in the slave trade than England did.” Well, there are several reasons for this. I think that it’s because
- * Arabs enslaved Africans and Europeans and made them soldiers and workers and guards, but did not introduce the racial element as the enslavement of Africans by Europeans and Americans did. “Arab slave trade was not limited to people of certain colour, ethnicity, or religion.” As I write these words, the effects of the latter one are still palpable. Because of this latter one, certain groups in America today truly believe that the African is inferior and has no business being out of chains. Yes, it’s that bad.
- * The enslavement of black people by Europeans and Americans is better documented. There is clearer evidence of how humans were traded for profit and beaten up and raped. Moreover, Arabs castrated their slaves so there was no offspring to tell the story to, and so on down the line. Alex Haley made his fortune precisely because word was handed down in his family. I’m not excusing Arab slave drivers, I’m answering your question.
- * What Arab state are you going to ask for reparations? Qatar? Iraq? Saudi Arabia? What occidental state are you going to ask for reparations? America, England, Spain and Portugal.
- * American and Europeans, unlike their Arab counterparts, never set their slaves free. Slaves died of old age in their slave shack. Arabs released slaves after a certain number of generations. These freed slaves went on to re-establish their lives. In America, notably, we all know what happened.
If you need more reasons I can imagine a few others. Reparations would not be a waste of time at all. They would serve to “repair” what was damaged, and what was damaged was people’s lives, people’s esteem, people’s economic development, people, full-stop. I hope that answers your question of why the noise about one slavery and not about another. It’s a common utterance of those who’d like the issue of slavery to go away. Head in the sand kind of thing. You were enslaved, it’s finished, shut up. But it won’t go away, and we won’t shut up.
