The following comment is in response to an article that my colleague John Turner wrote about slavery reparations:
 

I think you said it right at the beginning "some may think of you as a racist." Not only are you a racist but you are also ignorant. To compare us to the Japanese as you suggest they lived it so they had the right to the reparations; unlike African Americans whose ancestors lived this 140 years ago, we no longer suffered. Here's the issue I have with this, those who lived it 140 years ago were not able to sue the government. You may say they had an opportunity. I challenge you to tell me when. What's it between hangings, when our children's schools were set on a fire, when the KKK felt compelled to terrorize our communities, or maybe we should have exercised audacity to challenge the government when we weren't even allowed to vote. You also mentioned half of the country was enslaved. You should research history before you write a blog such as this. New York was a slave town till around the late 1700's, early 1800's. Slave catchers would actually come to NY and kidnap free black men. These men who had families and jobs were violently taken away and at times it took decades before they were able to prove they were free. You are also ignorant to believe reparations should be in the form of $500, etc. Do you think $500 can eradicate and excuse the heinous crime of slavery? Reparations should be made in the areas of education (free or low cost college tuition), fair housing (despite what you believe, we don't have it), and equal health care in our communities. So many of your contemporaries believe that they or the US government shouldn't have to pay for that. I ask has it been an accident that white people have generational success compared to their black counterparts? And what has spawned this success? The answer is your ancestral upper hand. Your family had centuries of opportunity that led to wealth. Whereas my understanding [is that we] were still struggling to vote just 42 years ago. To quote that we've been freed for over 100 years is ludicrous. We may have been freed from calling someone Massa, but we were still shackled till about 42 years ago. To insist that catch up after centuries of oppression without any assistance similar to the Japanese and Jews is only proof of how this nation's true opinion of slavery [is]. I have no doubt if the clock could turn all of you ignorant racist would love nothing best than to put us back in our place, so you could have an abundant reign of prosperity from the cheapest labor you'll ever get!

I find this perspective interesting because I too come from a background of abject poverty although I am Hispanic instead of black. However, I do have a very different opinion about “generational success.”
 

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My mother only had a second grade education but she was the exception since the norm for her peers was absolutely no schooling at all. And there were hardly any schools for white hoodlums to burn down because many Hispanics from the rural farming communities of South Texas of all ages toiled long hours in agricultural fields but that is beside the point.

In the barrio of a small town (white people lived on one side of the railroad tracks and Hispanics lived on the other side) my parents were not content with the prospect of a lifetime of poverty. However, when I was born in the turbulent year of 1968, great changes were already taking place in America. Norms and cultural standards were being torn down and a new era would totally change the face of the country and irrevocably alter the generations to come afterwards and I was a recipient of that change.

Through his employer, my father took every vocational and trade class available to greatly expand his skills. My mother as a middle aged woman took the monumental step of obtaining her GED. However, she knew that the ticket out of the barrio was to acquire more knowledge and learn more skills. Living in a small town, the nearest university was an hour’s drive away. My parents hatched a plan where we could scrape by while my mother was enrolled as a full time college student.

Such an idea was quite ambitious for a middle-aged woman from the barrio. However, a new trend was also emerging. A whole generation of Hispanic children were actually receiving a complete education from kindergarten through all twelve grades and that included my brother and my sister and me. Instead of working in the fields as child laborers, as had been done generations before, we were now learning how to read and write. Another trend was for Hispanic kids from the barrio to have the opportunity to go to college after they graduated high school.

Although my mother missed out on what her children were benefiting from, she wasn’t going to miss out on the opportunities that a college education could provide. So as a middle-aged mother of three, she earned two degrees and even did a little bit of graduate work. As a result, my parents were able to move out of the barrio and buy a home in the suburbs of a city. In fact, my first day of high school happened to be at a suburban school. Shortly afterwards, my parents were able to purchase a much bigger suburban house that sat on a huge lot.

But regardless of living in the barrio or in the suburbs, there were certain things that never changed. We couldn’t skip out of class or flunk tests. In the barrio, my dad asked the principal to pull me out of a bilingual class that the school inadvertently placed me in when I had a schedule change. Although English was not the primary language spoken at home, my parents were not about to allow me to have a watered down education. Although we were poor, we were not ignorant. My dad also gave us lectures about a work ethic and he vividly explained to us what hard work really was.

My life did very much change but it had nothing to do with what happened in the past. In fact, my parents took advantage of what was available in the here and now and it forever altered our lives. Today, all three of their children have college degrees and they all have professional careers.

And here is one other big change. My parents were naturally suspicious of white people. They grew up under enormous bigotry and my dad served in a mostly segregated army in Korea. So joining the great middle class also meant an overwhelming exposure to whites and even having them as neighbors. But perhaps the biggest change my folks experienced was with their own children because we all married white people.

When my mother was a little girl, it was unimaginable for her to believe that the world would ever change because she lived under the yoke of poverty and in a climate of harsh racism. Today she has half-white grandchildren and a white man (her son-in-law) has even lived a few months under her roof while my sister’s house was being built.

So the world did change. Although I cannot comment on the experiences of the African-American community, I can say that Hispanics didn’t have it easy. My parents and their parents lived through some harrowing times of oppression and segregation. But as the world changed, they changed with it and they took advantage of what all the changes had to offer. They are not living in the past and neither am I.

Do I have a beef with the past? No, not really although I acknowledge what happened in the past and I will not trivialize it and I strongly disagree with those who try to minimize it. However, my focus is on the present, which was the example of my parents. I don’t want to forget the past but it is the here and now that matters especially since I have children.

As for any “generational success” my parents had to start from scratch and they did very well as did a lot of other Hispanics who were from the barrio. But these achievements had everything to do with exercising personal responsibility, making good decisions, and avoiding bad judgment. These are intangible qualities that are the recipe for financial success that no monetary reparation can ever replace.

However, the reason I don’t want to pay for this nation’s past mistakes is because the white people around today (such as my wife and my in-laws) had nothing to do with slavery a century and a half ago and opposing reparations doesn’t make them or anyone else a racist. As a Hispanic I sure as hell didn’t have anything to do with slavery and opposing reparations because I don’t want to pay for them doesn’t make me a racist either.

As for the segregation and the oppression of the past century, the half white side of my son is not responsible for all the discrimination committed to the Hispanic half of him and it is ridiculous to find a convoluted accountability for it.

To me, reparations have become more about revenge than about correcting any past mistakes. And it has also turned into not taking into account of the opportunities of today that are already available which were not around when my parents were children. Of course it is not going to be easy to be successful but nothing in life ever is.

Are there still stupid people around today?

Of course there are and as far as I can tell, the world is always going to be filled with stupid people and no law is ever going to fix that. However, times have changed and people have changed and I thank God that I am living in a country where minorities are already enjoying almost limitless opportunities. But most important of all, I am fortunate that my parents didn’t carry any grudge around with them because that would have prevented them from succeeding in life especially because they got to enjoy some adorable grandchildren.

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COMMENTS FROM READERS

I read around ten blogs per day and I've done that for over two years now. This article is one of the best (in my top ten) of the hundreds that I've read during that time. What a great story of determination, responsibility, and persistence and it clearly illustrates what I believe the US is all about: opportunity for all. Those of us who are lucky enough to be born here or to legally immigrate here have the opportunity to achieve success. Success isn't guaranteed, only the opportunity. If you are not paralyzed by victimhood, if you are not obsessed with past injustices, AND if you set goals, work hard, and persist, you have an excellent chance of achieving those goals. Congratulations to your Mother and Father for their personal achievements and for providing the necessary guidance and lasting values to ensure their children's success. Once again, this is a GREAT post! It solidly refutes all of the points made by the angry letter writer quoted at the beginning. I hope it is picked up and linked to by others all over the web. -C.D. Jewel, Author of Liberalstein