AIBU to think I should get reparations?

[PositiveEngine]

I’m from a working class background. My ancestors, going back 200 years, were also working class people and before that, agricultural labourers. They weren’t slaves, but they were engaged in backbreaking manual work, for very little pay, housed in what were effectively slums, to make capitalists rich. They had no practical way out of that life and the impacts are still felt; I’ve done alright for myself, but the biggest determinant of where someone ends up in life remains where they started.

AIBU to think some reparations would level the playing field a bit?

I believe the OP meant this thread to a a tongue in cheek counterpoint to all those crass arguments that the UK should pay reparations to ethnic minorities who were enslaved and disadvantaged during the colonial era. The problem is that during those eras the majority of the British population were not plantation and factory owners but working class people living at subsistence level. Certainly some of mine on my father's side were. So why should we feel responsible for the misdeeds of long dead capitalists.

No, there will be no reparations.

life doesnt work like that, as you know.

however you are correct that where you start has a large bearing on where you end up.

I was first in my family to go to uni and I am a lawyer. doing fine.

but the privilege I am surrounded by by colleagues is jaw dropping.

the way they so casually talk about. Parents with holiday homes. While childhood summers spent abroad. Camp America. Gap years. Round the world trips. Flats just available to live in while studying. Trust funds. The casual use of the term “family money”. The certainty of everything. There seems to be never be any doubt that a child in the family won’t choose their path (after numerous round the world trips and living in Australia for a year) and be successful in that career and just go on to repeat the pattern with their kids.

it’s really eye-opening to see it in practice.

and this isn’t London. It’s a UK city traditionally associated with high levels of crime and poverty. But, as in most cities, there are the elite. but even for someone like me who grew up middle / possibly lower middle class, it’s jus a world away from what I experienced growing up (detached house,nice area some extra curriculars, encouraged to go to uni…..as opposed to private school, summers abroad, learning to ski, learning to play an instrument, encouraged to travel, all funded, no rush to get a job).

But they will all be dead - most of their descendants are probably on the bread line! My family tree leads back to landed gentry, but I grew up on a council estate - am I now to pay money to descendants of my families servants???? If you don’t have enough money, go out there and earn it girl!

DH granddad was one as well - other and being blocked from higher paying jobs in area mining - nothing was done and he suffered his entire life with the effects though I suppose there was at least the NHS.

I do think social moblity should be looked at more - level the playing field not least so we do not waste talent.

Haiti was punished for its successful slave rebellion (1791–1804) through crippling financial extortion, global trade embargoes, and foreign military occupations designed by colonial powers to prevent other enslaved populations from rebelling. This prolonged isolation crippled the young republic's economy and laid the foundation for its long-term underdevelopment. France owned them I think when they rebelled and spain before them.

I think you can make an arguement that some previous* colonies *could be helped with looking a debt and trade issues - world order is not fair playing field rules get applied very differently- though also heard argument that many countires sunsquent independent governments have actauly been cause of some countries poverty.

So internationally it very hard to do reparations- with in countires I think social moblity would be a better way forward.

You think Marxism is navel glazing? 😂

AIBU to think some reparations would level the playing field a bit?

Sure, you do realise that reparations are not simply monetary, right? So maybe a rich capitalist could just pop on the thread and apologise.....

For what reason? Does this make you incapable of being a fully functional adult?

This.

Most British nationals are from the same labourer background. The landed gentry for whom they worked have long since gone bankrupt, died out or sold up and moved abroad.

Who do you imagine will pay reparations? The tax payer? Otherwise known as you and me.

Are you suggesting we set up an absurdly expensive reparations scheme to pay ourselves, and then put our tax up to cover the vast cost.? Doesn't really work does it !!!

Nobody deserves reparations

This is hilarious.
My dads side were working class miners, his mothers side were very very poor Irish. Why on earth would I deserve reparations?
Im not rich but im not poor either, and my dad being a miner and his dad and his dad has got no bearing on my life

Yes, but OP said people who still have disadvantages in life.

I needed a laugh today, this has given it to me.

Pmsl at landed gentry all being poor or dead. I wish.

i don’t understand this “who should pay” argument. Is there example in history of repatriations being paid by anyone apart from the government?

Have a word with Rachel, I hear she has some cash going spare

Given many of my fmaily were in domestic service and there were many illegitimate kids around it's not impossible in my family but they do not appear listed in birth records as fathers so how you'd prove it.

Also given the power inbalance and potential rape situation and fact they seem to have been dependent on wider family for support strongly suggests no privilage was passed down to them quite the opposite.

But he does still.

If he was from a wealthier family he’d have had better contacts in professional careers.

Instead of being a senior manager in investment banking he could have been a CEO there.

This is why it’s right and proper that I have paid him reparations.

I think he’s spent it on new tyres for one of his Ferraris.

No and neither should anyone else claiming for things that they have never suffered. Just be grateful that humanity has moved on

Go for it, and please do keep us updated on your progress 😂

I think OP is attempting to be satirical.

I’m from Scotland, I know my clan history and direct ancestor inside out. Wanna talk about reparations? Let’s talk about what the English should pay for what they did to the clans.

If this is real then it sounds like you are thinking about wider sociological/political systems and might want to find out more.
I am rubbish at this sort of theory but I find the 'A Very Short Introduction' books really helpful. There are books on a lot of different social and political theories such as Marxism, globalisation, The British Empire, pretty much everything related to this topic but they are condensed down to the main theories. You might find them interesting and it could tell you more about the topics you are raising here.

Apologies if you already know all about it, I am not being patronising as I don't know enough myself but I am a librarian and knowledge is power, so I always recommend books.

What if you came from a working class background and have done ok for yourself? Would you still be entitled to said reparations? Maybe those whose families were wealthy but now have to work to survive should also seek reparations for the world having changed and it no longer be in their favour.

MN madness at its finest.

Yes huge parts of Somerset, Devon and West Wiltshire will re slavery. Thousands of men were Barbadosed following the Monmouth rebellion in 1685...that is put into slavery in the west indies...so I will expect a pay out

As someone of almost entirely peasant Irish ancestry, many of whom migrated to the USA due to the potato famine, should I be entitled to reparations? Each generation of my family have struggled to pull themselves up by their boot straps. My current family have done okay for themselves. I would consider us average. If a decision was made to recompense me for what Britain did to my Irish ancestors, the irony would be that as a current British taxpayer I would be paying myself out of my own money! How does that make sense?

I do broadly disagree that the generations of today should pay cash to other generations of today, for the wrongs their ancestors did.

My family on one side goes back to serfs who were more than just badly paid labourers.

They were tied to the estate (a village!), they had to pay rent and taxes, they also had to work the lord of the manors land for nothing, or if they rented a property with land they had to give a chunk of that produce to the land owner.

Further more they were not allowed to leave, nor were they allowed to marry without the land owners permission.

They had few real rights, they could be tipped out of their homes without any real notice, and whilst this isn't exactly comparable to slavery, it's not a million miles away.

But then the other side of my family traces back to slave owners.

I think the idea that I should be paid reparations or pay them, is ridiculous.

I think what we should do is work hard to prevent slavery in any form (and modern slavery is rife and horrific), and avoid history repeating itself, stand up against racism, fight to prevent people from quietly leaving out unpleasant bits of history and generally, just be bloody better to each other!