REPARATIONS, ARE YOU KIDDING?

Reparations, are you kidding? Hmmm. What does that mean? According to the dictionary it means repayment for damages or other harm usually caused by war. But because this is an election period the word has come up again. While some may say the word means payment to black people for damage done by slavery some two hundred plus years ago, I think the definition of the word should actually be pandering to black people to get votes. We will see the word thrown around a lot over the next year or so. Politicians think offering the idea of reparations will insure them the black vote. 

I have said this before and I will say it again. I never owned a slave and had I lived during that period of our history, I am more likely to have been a slave than to have owned one. I don’t owe anybody anywhere reparation for anything. Reparation has been defined by some as money to be paid to someone who was never a slave, paid by someone who never owned a slave.

I have heard from many black people who think reparations are just another way of holding black people down and victimizing them even more. All people in this country have an equal opportunity to succeed or fail depending on their talent and effort, even redneck hillbillies.

I personally know an individual who was born in poverty in the mountains of Appalachia who spoke with a definite “hillbilly” accent, was basically uneducated, and for whom college was just not available. When he was barely out of high school, he joined the Army and got to see how the rest of the world lived. After the army he took himself out to California. When he saw how those people lived he decided that to fit in and be successful he had to learn how to speak like they did. So he watched TV and listened to the radio trying to change his accent. Eventually he was able to pull it off and went on to achieve a modicum of success. He was further helped greatly by finding a beautiful young lady who put up with his hillbilly ways and worked hard to make a presentable man out of him. Granted this guy is white but I assure you his skin color had nothing to do with his success. Don’t get me wrong. Many of his friends and associates in the country were successful. Most never left but that was their choice.

The point of this example is that success is available to anybody in this country regardless of their beginnings. I personally know many outstanding black people who have achieved success beyond their wildest dreams by hard work and dedication. I also know some folks, both black and white who are still waiting for someone to come along and give them success. For some reason that train never seems to stop. 

As I see it, we have choices in this world.  We can choose to be successful or we can abdicate and just exist. It’s really up to us individually. We can either provide or be provided for. The color of our skin should not ever be a reason for our success or our failure. Neither should our history be a factor. I can tell you for a fact that hillbillies are looked down on. I can attest to the fact that a person with a hillbilly accent is usually considered to be less than intelligent. Don’t tell Jeff Foxworthy that though. He might wonder if you are actually a redneck. 

I oppose reparations of any kind. I suggest you do the same. We, the people, don’t owe any such payment and the proposed recipients aren’t due any such payment. It is nothing more than ridiculous political pandering.

Ron Scarbro