On 4/23/2021 7:15 PM, Ed Pawlowski wrote:
> On 4/23/2021 5:54 PM, jmcquown wrote:
>
>>
>> Despite all the rhetoric, I refuse to feel "guilty" or take any sort
>> of blame for something that happened centuries before I was born.Â* I
>> have no idea whether or not the first McQuown's who arrived in the US
>> in 1680 forced "Indians" off their land in Pennsylvania.Â* They were
>> given a land grant by William Penn.Â* I don't know if there were still
>> natives living there or not.Â* Maybe they lived side by side in
>> harmony.Â* I wasn't there.Â* I do know none of my ancesors owned slaves
>> of any race.
>>
>> The McQuown's were caught up in a religious war back in Scotland and
>> were captured and transported as indentured servants.Â* It was pure
>> luck the captain of the ship died and the man who assumed command was
>> friendly towards the Scots.Â* He dropped them off in Amboy, NJ, rather
>> than handing them over to plantation owners in Virginia.
>>
>> It bugs me that people try to tar all white people with the same
>> brush. It simply isn't true.
>>
>> Jill
>
> I have no guilt either.Â* Sure, slavery was wrong but don't blame me.Â* My
> grandparents came from Poland in the 1890s and had nothing to do with it.
>
My maternal Scottish grandparents didn't arrive here until 1923. They
had nothing to do with it, either.

> There is a reparations bill in Congress but I see no obligation to
> contribute to it.Â* The money for reparations should come from the people
> that sold other humans into slavery.
>
The reparations bill expects us to pay for it. I'm sorry, I was not
complicit. My family was not complicit. But even if they had been,
what's it got to do with me? How do you figure my giving money is going
to magically make things any better?

> https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-53444752
>
>"My great-grandfather, Nwaubani Ogogo Oriaku, was what I prefer to call a
> businessman, from the Igbo ethnic group of south-eastern Nigeria. He
> dealt in a number of goods, including tobacco and palm produce. He also
> sold human beings."

I'm not sure what reparations is supposed to accomplish. Hand out money
and suddenly everyone will get along? All will be forgotten? Sorry, I
don't think so.

Jill