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'd suggest before reparations a good starting point would be to stop the middle eastern practices around slavery entirely.

We can support this by not going to blimmin Dubai.

Do you have their names? You could write to them, I’m sure they would be happy to stump up a lifetime’s fair wage. Say £1 million and call it quits?

Are you going to unwind the whole of history so that everyone gets an even start in life? As British citizens we all benefit indirectly from the Empire and slave trade. We also benefit directly from the exploitation of foreign workers who produce cheap goods.

No, you shouldn’t get reparations. You should learn about the origins of trade unions and the Labour Party and think about what you can do politically.

Couldn't agree more

A huge proportion of people worked in back breaking jobs back then. I don't suppose 70-odd percent of people in the UK are going to get a penny.

Life is what you make of it. My mum's dad worked in the coal mines up North, like his dad etc before him. He studied, moved down South and got a less hard job.

Where do you start, where do you draw the line and who pays for it all?

As someone who is a British and Jamaican national, maybe one day I’ll be paying reparations via HMRC in the UK and receiving reparations as a descendant of African slaves.

…..You could say that people in Ireland are due reparations for what the English/British did (Cromwell, Ulster Plantations, English landowners during the Great Hunger of the 19th Century, Civil War and The Troubles to name but a few injustices).

Then what about descendants of Australian convicts? Then if you recompense them, what about descendants of people hung for stealing goods worth more than a shilling. Then there are descendants of the Yorkshire folk who William the Conquerer tried to starve to death in the 1100s.

Its a Pandora’s box!

The past is another country. If we could time travel it would be lovely to go back and help all the people who had a torrid time, but then we’d change history and we wouldn’t exist. So, sadly, our ancestors’ hardship is a necessary part of our history and we just need to be grateful to them for everything they did. Focus in their tenacity, their perseverance in adversity and the values they passed down to you. Say a prayer for them if it helps you.

This has to be a micky take. Being born into a loving but lower income background is much better than an abusive wealthier one.

If genuine, it's extremely patronising to 'working class' people, suggesting that they don't have the motivation or intelligence to better themselves.

My Dad was born into an abusive middle income family, any money there was went on alcohol, and he was kicked out of home at 15. Neighbours reported them to social services who did zero. From 10 he did a paper round, helped a milkman etc to get some money to buy food for him and his brother as they weren't fed apart from their school lunch. He worked hard to put himself through uni, and is now multimillionaire.

😂 that was an autocorrect. Reparations

Im not interested in what other countries did. But I am concerned that we stole and are a very rich country while those places have some of the poorest people. Not to mention that if we hadnt stuck our noses in where they werent wanted in the first place then some of those countries would be in better shape now, and we wouldnt have so many problems with people needing to come here to make ends meet. That whole sorry episode of history stinks to high heaven and the balance should be redressed. And nobody will ever convince me otherwise.

Tbh what you’re suggesting boils down to the redistribution of all wealth, to put everyone in the same position, which is communism. Fine if you believe in that, but it’s been shown not to go down very well or turn out well.

That’s the only way you’re going to give everyone “reparations” who would need it under your definitions.

@LittleWeasel
"As someone who is a British and Jamaican national, maybe one day I’ll be paying reparations via HMRC in the UK and receiving reparations as a descendant of African slaves."

Don't worry, you won't.

My ancestors are Jewish..does this mean I can sue Germany? BRB😂

No. You should not get money earned by people working today for something that happened before you were born and that you yourself had no part in? You say "the biggest determinant of where someone ends up in life remains where they started" but that's simply not true unless you have a victim mentality.

No and I don't agree with reparations for things like historical slavery either.

We should acknowledge historical injustices but the people of today should not be punished for things they have not done. One of the fundamental principles of a just legal system is the idea you cannot be punished for a crime / wrong you haven't done.

You can either be an eternal victim or move forward and try and make the world and your own life a better place. Also a warning from history - reparations in their extreme can do more harm than good. Those levied on Germany after World War I stoked the resentment that led to World War II, and those repayments could be argued to be more 'just' than if you applied them to modern day people since Germany wasn't exactly an innocent bystander in either war yet it still led to mass resentment / the road to facism.

Put simply, two wrongs don't make a right.

OK, so British women should get reparations too, right?

🥱

This thread has highly amused me, wanting reparations as your family is working class, is quality.😂

I dont know the details of how it would be done or who would benefit but that doesnt mean norhing should be done. You dont just give up on an idea because ii's complex.

I’m Welsh. We deserve reparations for being punished for speaking our own language at the very least. And for Liverpool taking all our water, and for the towns that were drowned to enable that to happen (#Cofiwch Dryweryn).

🤣

Germany paid reparations

The Vikings left a load of rubble and made a mess of our countryside with their burial sites. I believe they also raped and pillaged. More reparations please.

Well that told me! 🤐