Evanston to give reparations for it's past.

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billryan
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Evanston to give reparations for it's past.

Post by billryan »

Whenever I hear a discussion about giving reparations, one side seems to argue it wasn't them. They or their families didn't own slaves and were 't even in the country as if the ills to our minority brothers and sisters ended with slavery.
Evanston, a city where slavery never legally existed, has established a fund to aid people or the family of people who were discriminated against from the years 1919-1969, when city codes officially treated minorities as second-class citizens.
In an interesting move, the funding comes from diverting part of the proceeds from pot sales into the funding, so anyone who doesn't wish to participate can simply not buy pot in the town.
It's a rather small first step, but one that is overdue, in my opinion.
The house I owned on Long Island was built in 1929 and the original deed said that non-whites could only overnight if they were employed as domestics and they had to have separate sleeping quarters.
Blacks were permitted to live only in a small neighborhood on either side of the railroad tracks. In the late 1970s, it was discovered the land in that area was all owned by a corporation, when they sold the property and evicted the residents. Today, a small office park sits on the land.
Levittown, the great suburb often credited with creating the middle-class dream of homeownership denied minorities from it's origin in 1946 until sometime in the mid-1970s. The deeds said, in bold wording twice the size of the surrounding clauses, that the homes could only be used by members of the Caucasian race. Even today, it's 98% white.

Chicagoan
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Post by Chicagoan »

My great-grandfather immigrated from Ireland. For years, he was discriminated against. Signs in shop windows that said "Help Wanted" also said "No Irish Need Apply." There were many other forms of discrimination against the Irish at that time. Despite that, the Irish immigrants took advantage of every opportunity --- including education --- offered by their new country, pulled themselves up against overwhelming odds, and many of them succeeded. They do not seek any reparations.

Likewise, as Barrack Obama (and countless others) have demonstrated, those same opportunities are freely available to African Americans also. But you have to want them and you have to work for them. Simply asking Uncle Sam to be your sugar daddy for your entire life is not the route to success.

Tedlark
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Post by Tedlark »

billryan wrote:
Tue Mar 23, 2021 2:15 pm

It's a rather small first step, but one that is overdue, in my opinion.
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion.

Being of Irish decent; I reserve my opinion on this topic.

billryan
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Post by billryan »

Chicagoan wrote:
Tue Mar 23, 2021 2:57 pm
My great-grandfather immigrated from Ireland. For years, he was discriminated against. Signs in shop windows that said "Help Wanted" also said "No Irish Need Apply." There were many other forms of discrimination against the Irish at that time. Despite that, the Irish immigrants took advantage of every opportunity --- including education --- offered by their new country, pulled themselves up against overwhelming odds, and many of them succeeded. They do not seek any reparations.

Likewise, as Barrack Obama (and countless others) have demonstrated, those same opportunities are freely available to African Americans also. But you have to want them and you have to work for them. Simply asking Uncle Sam to be your sugar daddy for your entire life is not the route to success.
How many Irish were brought here in chains? How many Irish were prohibited by law from learning to read? I'm Irish and for anyone to compare the plight of the Irish to that of the blacks is insulting to everyone. My grandfather came over and had a job with the New York Fire Department as soon as he paid the usual bribe to Tammany. Within a few years, he and his brother owned a saloon.
Since I was a kid, we've sung songs like " When New York Was Irish", and celebrating how the Irish built New York.

Tedlark
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Post by Tedlark »

What are the lyrics to the song: "Celebrating how the Irish built New York?" Did Sinatra ever cover it?

Tedlark
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Post by Tedlark »

BR you need to re-read your own post. I think Chicagoan was comparing his ancestors to those people who were discriminated against and not so much to Africans who were brought here in chains.

And, there are already complaints about what Evanston did with this fund. People are criticizing how the money can be spent ( a narrow band including putting the money toward the purchase of a home, mortgage assistance and, home improvements) by those who are awarded it by saying "Doesn't the Evanston City Council think that black people know how to spend this money responsibly?"

The median home value in Evanston is $413,000.00 and 20% of homes in Evanston are worth $550,000.00 to $825,000.00. Evanston is a moderately affluent community.

This was a good idea that wasn't very well thought out. Just my opinion.

Eduardo
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Post by Eduardo »

African American recovery funded by selling drugs? Fascinating.

I'm disappointed they aren't requiring the police department to build them houses using police funds. Maybe they are saving that one for the Irish.

Tedlark
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Post by Tedlark »

Eduardo wrote:
Tue Mar 23, 2021 8:12 pm
African American recovery funded by selling drugs? Fascinating.

I'm disappointed they aren't requiring the police department to build them houses using police funds. Maybe they are saving that one for the Irish.
So, if some of the residents who do get the money also buy marijuana from legal sources in Illinois they will be paying themselves with their own money.

billryan
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Post by billryan »

Tedlark wrote:
Tue Mar 23, 2021 6:02 pm
BR you need to re-read your own post. I think Chicagoan was comparing his ancestors to those people who were discriminated against and not so much to Africans who were brought here in chains.

And, there are already complaints about what Evanston did with this fund. People are criticizing how the money can be spent ( a narrow band including putting the money toward the purchase of a home, mortgage assistance and, home improvements) by those who are awarded it by saying "Doesn't the Evanston City Council think that black people know how to spend this money responsibly?"

The median home value in Evanston is $413,000.00 and 20% of homes in Evanston are worth $550,000.00 to $825,000.00. Evanston is a moderately affluent community.

This was a good idea that wasn't very well thought out. Just my opinion.
I can't comment on how good the program is, and hopefully, any glaring errors will be fixed. I think it's an interesting approach.

billryan
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Post by billryan »

Tedlark wrote:
Tue Mar 23, 2021 5:29 pm
What are the lyrics to the song: "Celebrating how the Irish built New York?" Did Sinatra ever cover it?
Bono has covered both songs. The group Celtic Wommen has a great version of When NY was Irish.
While there were Irish in NY from the get-go, from the 1870s thru the early 1960s, NYC government, the police, the fire, and the transit services were run by and mostly dominated by the Irish. I believe the Irish population in NYC never exceeded 25% but had over 80% of the civil service and political jobs. Tammany Hall didn't start out Irish but returning civil war vets swept in an almost exclusively Irish cadre.

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