Comments by "Alan Friesen" (@alanfriesen9837) on "" video.

Ahh, whataboutism. Fine, African countries who participated in the slave trade should compensate their victims as well.
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@measl This isn't about racism, it's about compensation for legitimate victims. Also, as a white American I've seen black and white racism in my country. White racism is much worse, both in scale and in influence.
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@Herman Menderchuck I don't get why people think that because some Africans are guilty of involvement in the transatlantic slave trade that European and American involvement is less heinous. It doesn't matter what someone else did; it matters what we did. African involvement is a different debate. It's worth having on it's own merits, but it doesn't effect western culpability in the slightest.
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We've had degrees in Black studies since the sixties. We also have degrees in Hispanic Studies and Asian Studies and, oh my God, Western Studies. How did that get in there?.
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@measl I don't know the percentage. My recollection is that black Americans make up about 12.5% of the population. I would suspect that the vast majority of Black Americans can trace an ancestral line back to a slave, but I don't know for certain. I don't really think that matters. If someone can than they should be entitled; if they can't than they shouldn't be entitled. Slave ownership in the antebellum United States was something that anyone with enough money could participate in. This included mostly white folks, but also Native American and black freemen, and probably others as well. Again, this doesn't really matter. As Americans we need to redress this wrong, and this includes all Americans, black, white and other. While there are currently no sanctioned slaves in the United States, the legacy of slavery is still felt and compensation is still warranted. Frankly, the sooner we get it out of the way, the better. You're certainly entitled to your opinion, but if your looking to do what's right on this issue, this is what's right. That's irrespective of what other countries do or have done, how many people are affected, whether or not they are black or white. The United participated in and promoted racial chattel slavery and the abduction and forced relocation of millions of people for that purpose. That is unconscionable, particularly for a country built on the concept of and self-declared champion of personal liberty and equality of all men. For the damage inflicted on American slaves the United States is liable, and for that reason, reparations are the appropriate remedy. And to your last point, any country currently allowing the practice of slavery should be forced to stop it, and its victims should likewise be compensated by those states.
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@measl I have no problem with the fact that I'm white. I have no personal guilt for anything, except that which I caused or allowed to cause. There is nothing wrong with being a white person. Likewise there is nothing wrong with desiring to see an old injustice redressed, and frankly I'm blown away by the sheer volume of posters here are comfortable with the thought of perpetuating that injustice.
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@Herman Menderchuck As villainous? Yes. More villainous? No. Every entity involved was responsible and every one of them should be held to account.
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@measl Your refusal to see it doesn't negate its existence. I'll heed your request. So long.
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@Herman Menderchuck Okay, everybody whose participated in the slave trade is wrong and culpable. Go after all of them. Let's start here.
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@belindakennedy5828 First Point: I don't want to punish anybody. I want to see the descendants of the victims of slavery compensated because we didn't do it when we should have back in the day. Second Point: Who freed me?
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It's governments. There is no personal liability left. What remains is the responsibility of sovereign states to compensate the victims of their policies. In America it's a little simpler because reparations were calculated at the end of the Civil War at 40 acres and a mule per slave family. By calculating the modern cash value equivalent with interest a defined compensation cache can be determined. This could be divided equally among those who can be positively identified as descendants of American (U.S.) slaves. Compensation for slaves taken to other locations aboard U.S. flagged slavers would be more complicated but could be in line with an international determination involving other slave trader nations.
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