Reparations? Not in This Life!

Mere de Hammer with brother Cliff 1949

Cliff 1950 on grandparent's front
 steps

Grandparents 1955

Mom and Cliff  on grandparent's swing1954

"When Clyde Ross was still a child, Mississippi authorities claimed his father owed $3,000 in back taxes. The elder Ross could not read. He did not have a lawyer. He did not know anyone at the local courthouse. He could not expect the police to be impartial. Effectively, the Ross family had no way to contest the claim and no protection under the law. The authorities seized the land. They seized the buggy. They took the cows, hogs, and mules. And so for the upkeep of separate but equal, the entire Ross family was reduced to sharecropping."

Ta-Nehisi Coates

Here's another family of the same generation that was "reduced to sharecropping". I doubt very much their standard of living was any higher than Clyde Ross and his family. But some would have the descendants of Tobe and Prudence (my grandparents) pay REPARATIONS to the descendants of Clyde Ross. Why? Because Clyde was poor? Because he couldn't pay his taxes which the author implies were not owed? The fact is I don't owe Clyde Ross or his family a damned thing, and if I'm forced to pay I will exercise my God given right to defend my rights. If YOU choose to throw your money away out of some misplaced guilt then that's up to you. Keep me out of it!