UFAA: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: why did Lincolns reforms – the Homestead Act, the land grant University, credit for agricultural mechanization, etc. – not uplift newly freed slaves? Many white Americans descend from immigrants fleeing European wars in the 1850s and 60s who then fought in the US Civil War and got their 40 acres and a mule in the Homestead Act. It could be argued that white privilege is built not on ongoing racism, but on a historical foundation laid by Lincoln that benefitted European-American farmers and their descendants, but not the African-American freed slaves who would be provided no basis for generational wealth accumulation. The same might be said of poor Appalachian and southern whites, who were abandoned by the broken dream of Southern Reconstruction. What do you think? How can America make good on its broken promises without inciting racial tension? What does white America owe to black America? Should there be any efforts at reparations, or should we focus on the proverbial rising tide to lift all boats?
Posted on: Sat, 04 Oct 2014 18:23:00 +0000
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