Cornell Notes

Topic/Objective: Reparations for African

Americans

Name: Andrew Felder III

Class/Period: 9th
Date: 1/7/15

Essential Question: Should the United States Federal Government pay reparations to African
Americans?

Questions:

Notes:
Affirmative Standpoint
The legacy of slavery has hindered the economic progress of blacks in America.
Reparations would serve as a damage award that would rectify a historical wrong
committed by the United States. In general, reparations advocates argue that
reparations are justified because America itself owes a debt to the descendants of
slaves. America owes this debt, advocates assert, simply because the slaves
themselves were never paid for their forced labor. Black people worked long, hard,
killing days, years, centuries, and they were never paid. There is a debt here." In
addition, Reparations will also give individual African Americans a better chance to
create their own economic base and become self-reliant. Through slavery, African
Americans were terribly wronged and modern blacks were robbed of their
inheritance. Further, blacks face racism every day. They deserve to be compensated.
Another pro could be that Material reparations are key to ending government
discrimination through race-based programs. In addition, Reparations, as proposed
here, should restore some of the lost chapters of our history and explain, and
ultimately remedy, the wealth and power that divides us today. With reparations, the
effects of slavery would provide the country with closure regarding the shameful
history of slavery and Jim Crow. This emotional closure, combined with economic
and educational programs, could eventually bring the end of race-preference
programs and the start of a dialogue about race focused on the future.
Negative Standpoint
Any Reparation plan would lead to Unfairness and Huge Administrative costs. Not
taking into account of the reparations that have already been given to African
Americans. These new reparations will pose many controversial questions in return
will affect the entire economy as a whole. Questions will include who would receive
reparations, descendants of slaves, all blacks? Would well-off African Americans
receive payments? If a fund were set up, who would administer it? Would those
unhappy with the plan call for even more reparations or file lawsuits? With all of
these problems that will arise in the economy, individuals who are not of African
descent will feel as if they are not being treated equally. In addition, if reparations do
occur, when financial issues occur with the federal government and African
Americans, the government has a chance of being sued, which will add on to the debt
that is already owed to different organizations and countries. Another point that could
be made would be State over USFG. According to George Schendler the states are
responsible for a larger part of slavery not the federal government. A different
approach would be to extend "wrongdoers" to governmental entities and ignore
individual citizens. The individual States owe compensation, since they had laws
regulating slavery and the treatment of slaves, the federal government was not a direct
participant in the process, and its regulation was more remote than that of the States.

Even if the case can be made, its contribution to the reparations fund would be
smaller than the individual slave States, comparable perhaps to the fraction owed by
non-slave States.

Title Of Article- Reparations for African Americans?

Author of Article- Randall Robinson (Worker with The Reparations Coordinating
Committee)
Origin of Article- 2012
Topic- Should the United States Federal Government pay reparations to African
Americans?
Definitions- Reparations the making of amends for a wrong one has done, by
paying money to or otherwise helping those who have been wronged.
Side- This article was neutral because it expressed the different viewpoints of the
topic since it is very controversial, but didnt show a bigger opinion for either side.
Controversial Question- Should all African Americans be paid in Reparations even
though they personally didnt go through slavery
Research- There is plenty of evidence the hardships that occurred were hardships that
individuals could and did overcome. The black middle-class in America is a wealthy
community that is now larger in absolute terms than the black underclass. In Africa,
most African Americans have overcome the hardships of Slavery and are focusing
more on other hardships.
Sources: http://www.crf-usa.org/brown-v-board-50th-anniversary/reparations-forslavery-reading.html
http://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=124115
http://www.npr.org/programs/specials/racism/010827.reparations.html
Multimedia-

SUMMARY:
In this article, it expresses the different viewpoints on Should African Americans be Paid in Reparations in
the US? There are no Biased opinions therefore making this document very reliable and shows how it is
full of info.