United Nations panel says U.S. owes reparations for slavery, mass incarceration

[Dystemper]

I demand the Roman Empire pay reparations for what they did to my Celtic ancestors. Also Great Brittan must pay all the MacGregors reparations for what they did to that clan.

[gusty jack]

Correction, the group is: "United Nations' Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent, a body that reports to the international organization's High Commissioner on Human Rights". So yes. It does sound quite a bit like they have the ear of someone high up, namely the #1 person on the HRC. Call it "opinion" all you like, but the fact remains, regardless of how biased the group might be, they are not some vague, hardly known, never-heard-of-before group to the UN. They are advisors that are heard from by the person running the HRC. If someone stated that they reported to the President of the United States, I would (rightly) assume that they have some sway as they have the ear directly of the person in charge (the debate of whether the President is really "in charge" is another debate entirely).

Your correction of the name of the group I provided is to quote that they're "a body that reports to the international organization's High Commissioner on Human Rights"? Seriously? That's not a correction, because that's not part of the name of the group. The group is the United Nations' Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent.

Do you understand that every professional guest panel formed by the UN HRC reports to the High Commissioner at the end of the day? Obviously not. You think they "have the ears" of someone higher up, but that's not what reporting to the HC means. If they didn't report to the HC then their panel would be more useless than it already is as a purely academic initiative, because no one would even listen to/read their findings at the end of the day. Reporting to the POTUS doesn't mean that you have his ear or that they even care what you have to say, it just means that you give your reports to him. He probably doesn't even talk to you, you just send your findings in a folder and it lands on his desk - it doesn't even come close to meaning that he gives two shits about what you have to say. The HC, like the POTUS, doesn't appoint every panel that sends him their findings, he's just the guy at the top who has everything pass over his desk.

I never said that they were an unknown panel, just that their existence is so temporary and their area of study so acute that their impact is negligible. The entire point is that they don't represent the UN HRC - they're just a temporary guest panel tasked with investigating an academic research topic and coming up with findings. To think that their findings will hold any political weight in the real world is nothing but foolishness, and to rave and rant about the UN as a whole because of a single UN-affiliated guest panel making a statement about their findings is completely ludicrous and misguided.

[Wycked]

Everyone's ancestors suffered some atrocity at the hands of someone else's if you go back far enough. Quit looking for a handout for your grandfathers grandfather and move on.

[cubby]

Correction, the group is: "United Nations' Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent, a body that reports to the international organization's High Commissioner on Human Rights". So yes. It does sound quite a bit like they have the ear of someone high up, namely the #1 person on the HRC. Call it "opinion" all you like, but the fact remains, regardless of how biased the group might be, they are not some vague, hardly known, never-heard-of-before group to the UN. They are advisors that are heard from by the person running the HRC. If someone stated that they reported to the President of the United States, I would (rightly) assume that they have some sway as they have the ear directly of the person in charge (the debate of whether the President is really "in charge" is another debate entirely).

Interesting, and good point. This (albeit ridiculous) recommendation had to be initiated by someone with authority, otherwise it more than likely wouldn't have happened, and certainly wouldn't have been published.

I will look, but offhand, do they say who is on the Working Group, and more specifically, which nations they represent?

[Derpleton]

Why are we still funding this?

[Forogil]

The UN does!

No, as the article shows the UN doesn't care about what it says - because then it wouldn't allow any random affiliated group to use their name.

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No one can be forced to pay for a crime committed by their forbearers or neighbours.

Or even something that they did that wasn't a crime at that time (slave-owning was legal back then). Being punished retroactively is even against human rights.

[Kalis]

I will look, but offhand, do they say who is on the Working Group, and more specifically, which nations they represent?

These are the members.

It looks like they are a selection of human rights lawyers, not national representatives. Only one seems to have worked for a national government and it doesn't specify the capacity, so presumably just advisory.

[Dellis0991]

I really don't care for reparations I'd rather see that money be used for fixing America's crumbling infrastructure (it would create many jobs), and improving relations between the people and the law. Reparations is a old and played out answer and wouldn't help anyone in the long term.

[cubby]

These are the members.

It looks like they are a selection of human rights lawyers, not national representatives. Only one seems to have worked for a national government and it doesn't specify the capacity, so presumably just advisory.

Thanks!

I apologize ahead of time for asking you for info, but you seem much more dialed into this topic. Did the report, which I haven't read (/shame), lay out how the reparations would be implemented or suggestions/recommendations for amounts or how it would be funded?

[Traveler Voltin]

yes lets this to the group of counties that refuse to do anything and makes the US do their dirty work.

hell no

[Torais]

Was this the same U.N panel that let Sarkeesian and Quinn carry on while referencing their own work as a reliable source of evidence?

Better question; Since when does most of the world care what the U.N has to say anymore?

[Kalis]

Thanks!

I apologize ahead of time for asking you for info, but you seem much more dialed into this topic. Did the report, which I haven't read (/shame), lay out how the reparations would be implemented or suggestions/recommendations for amounts or how it would be funded?

There are 35 recommendations, but it looks mostly fluff, e.g. setting up task forces, apologising and erecting monuments. Some of them don't seem to bear any relevance to their remit, for example...

115. Targeted measures should be developed to raise awareness of and reduce crimes against the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex community, in particular against transgender women.

And...

101. Security policies in schools should be revisited. Policing in schools should be abolished.

What have they got to do with people of African descent? There is quite a bit on schools and prisons, roughly 20 of the 35 recommendations, most of that appears to be irrelevant to race though and is just a critique of policing in the US.


There is nothing really about specifics in respect of reparations, the closest seems to be...

94. The Working Group encourages Congress to pass H.R. 40 — the Commission — the Commission to Study Reparation Proposals for African-Americans Act — which would establish a commission to examine enslavement and racial discrimination in the colonies and the United States from 1619 to the present and to recommend appropriate remedies. The Working Group urges the United States to consider seriously applying analogous elements contained in the Caribbean Community’s Ten-Point Action Plan on Reparations, which includes a formal apology, health initiatives, educational opportunities, an African knowledge programme, psychological rehabilitation, technology transfer and financial support, and debt cancellation.

Perhaps the legislation listed there has more detail.

[truckboattruck]

Lol at any one who believes the holocaust is a lie.

didn't happen, deal with it

Infracted - Conspiracy Theories

[Rooflesstoofless]

a formal apology

I'm sorry we've made it so that a black person who chooses the straight and narrow path can pretty much go as far as their ambitions and talents can take them.

[Deleted]

Has the UN ever been good for the West and White people?

The UN hasn't been good for anything for a long time. It started out as a decent enough idea but ended up basically being hijacked by the worst of the bunch. China and Saudi Arabia for example pretty much call the shots in the human rights council. Which means the only countries to be primarily hit by it are Israel followed by western nations.

The situation isn't much better anywhere else, where these same countries simply buy votes en masse and happily use the UN as a club against those who initially created it perverting the very idea behind it.

[Deleted]

Has the UN ever been good for the West and White people?

UN do organizes large refugee tent camps in "safe zones" in countries that is in war...think how many more desperate refugees there would be without them.....

[Thagrynor]

Your correction of the name of the group I provided is to quote that they're "a body that reports to the international organization's High Commissioner on Human Rights"? Seriously? That's not a correction, because that's not part of the name of the group. The group is the United Nations' Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent.

No. My correction was to include the "United Nations'" in there. You neglected to include the fact that it is the UNITED NATIONS' Working Group, not just so random working group. The fact that it is the UN's working group does heavily imply they are a part of and thereby affiliated with the UN. To imply, as you have, that they are so vaguely known, fringe group only loosely associated with the UN is factually inaccurate.

And, in point of reference to this very news story, a Japanese customer of mine just mentioned that he had heard about this very thing on MSNBC, who is reporting that the UN itself is making this same claim. So, while I would very much believe that MSNBC screwed up their reporting given what a sham of a news outlet they are, it is still being reported that the UN is stating this.

No one is going to make a distinction of "Well, it is just the UN's working group for whatever so it isn't the UN" because there is no evidence that is the case. Unless you happen to be a member of the HRC and know things we don't. Then by all means, show us your evidence. Because the UN does have a history of poking its nose into places it has no business being.

[gusty jack]

No. My correction was to include the "United Nations'" in there. You neglected to include the fact that it is the UNITED NATIONS' Working Group, not just so random working group. The fact that it is the UN's working group does heavily imply they are a part of and thereby affiliated with the UN. To imply, as you have, that they are so vaguely known, fringe group only loosely associated with the UN is factually inaccurate.

And, in point of reference to this very news story, a Japanese customer of mine just mentioned that he had heard about this very thing on MSNBC, who is reporting that the UN itself is making this same claim. So, while I would very much believe that MSNBC screwed up their reporting given what a sham of a news outlet they are, it is still being reported that the UN is stating this.

No one is going to make a distinction of "Well, it is just the UN's working group for whatever so it isn't the UN" because there is no evidence that is the case. Unless you happen to be a member of the HRC and know things we don't. Then by all means, show us your evidence. Because the UN does have a history of poking its nose into places it has no business being.

Except every single one of those things is your opinion, and not a fact. It's not the UN, it's a temporary panel made up of guest members. If a university forms a temporary guest panel to investigate something, the findings of that panel are not attributed to researchers at the university they are attributed to that panel. Just because the findings end up on the desk of the Dean doesn't mean that the university is responsible for anything more than putting the panel together in the first place.

This was simply not the UNHRC that made the statement. It was a guest panel. Whether the panel had "United Nations" in the title or not is irrelevant, because we already knew they were an affiliated panel. Until the UNHRC itself actually releases a statement this whole thing is nothing more than an academic exercise, which is what I've been saying it was from the beginning.

[Deleted]

I demand the Roman Empire pay reparations for what they did to my Celtic ancestors. Also Great Brittan must pay all the MacGregors reparations for what they did to that clan.

Turkey is in trouble becuse of what Ottoman Empire did.....or mabye we shall squeeze Saudi Arabia, they have the money....

[Berengil]

I am willing to pay reparations in the same manner that Peter Griffon did. I will make a single plate of Rice Crispy treats and offer them at a random meeting that contains black people.

Also, what does being a left handed person have to do with this ;P

Lefty as in politically. I consider myself center-left; I was trying to state that opposition to the ridiculous idea of reparations isn't just a right-wing thing. Sorry for the confusion.