74.7 F
Charlotte Amalie
Friday, March 29, 2024
HomeNewsArchivesReparations?

Reparations?

Dear Source:
I really don't understand the whole reparations thing, i wonder what those seeking reparations from the Dutch are willing to do for the caribs and tainos that were taken as slaves from the virgin islands, if you can insist that someone today is liable for the wrongs of yesterday then perhaps you would be willing to make your own reparations for the wrongs done to natives of the virgin islands, now if your thinking hey I didn't kick them out enslave them or participate in any way in what was done so why should i have to clean up a mess that was done 300 years ago. well mr morehead? the truth is many people need reparations some of them from things worse than slavery, you cant name a race that hasn't been enslaved, nor can you name one that hasn't had genocide done to it.
I guess it depends on who is telling the story, its easy to say that all wrongs should be rite but a simple fact is of all the white people in the 1700-1850's 95% never owned a slave about 99% of those white people were owned by a king and the vast majority experienced the same exact situations that many Africans did in that time period, the real kicker to all this is while whites and blacks are preoccupied with our own conditions the majority of people alive in the 1700-1800 were Asians in slavery, and today the vast majority of Asians are in slavery. those cheap good we buy at k mart are the fruits of that slave labor force china is using to work there factory's. so would you like reparations for the wrongs done to your people or would you like to end the institution of slavery, i would support you if your protest was about not buying goods made by today's slaves, seeking to be a leader of Africans is exactly the same as being a leader of the human race, your fire and indignation is appreciated but your single minded solution is questionable.
as a human i am sorry that your ancestors were in slavery, you may think i don't know what it means or how horrible it was, my family survived its own horrible conditions, 2000 years of being owned by kings, 20 years of freedom then along came Hitler who killed us, the Russians who enslaved us and finally after the fall of the iron curtain 18 years of independence. i know what its like to have no relatives left alive, my mom and dad were spirited away to America on the underground railroad because unlike African slaves we had no value to our oppressors we were murdered in the millions yet today the chez republic is alive and working to rebuild it self.
So if you say white people don't know, i say all of us are humans all of us know but quite like we sit back and buy the cheap good produced by Chinese slaves today and focus on our own conditions thinking we are unique, it makes me wonder if reparations are enough. what we need is an understanding that slavery exists despite our best efforts we need to work to stop slavery in any of its forms and we above all need to know that value of every man woman and child on our earth, where one is enslaved all of us are guilty because we did nothing.

Paul Vrabcak
Frederiksted, St. Croix

Editor's note: We welcome and encourage readers to keep the dialogue going by responding to Source commentary. Letters should be e-mailed with name and place of residence to source@viaccess.net.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email
Keeping our community informed is our top priority.
If you have a news tip to share, please call or text us at 340-228-8784.

Support local + independent journalism in the U.S. Virgin Islands

Unlike many news organizations, we haven't put up a paywall – we want to keep our journalism as accessible as we can. Our independent journalism costs time, money and hard work to keep you informed, but we do it because we believe that it matters. We know that informed communities are empowered ones. If you appreciate our reporting and want to help make our future more secure, please consider donating.