If people read what I wrote last time, you would know that I have

worked for black causes. I've done much more than I wrote about

and our family walks the talk. I have two partly black grandchildren.

I truly believe the country owes black people something, but not

reparations.

First and foremost as Campbell acknowledges, if you succeeded

you would be confronted with lawsuits from the Indians. Just how

much is the land our ancestors took from them worth?

Secondly, this is an idea that has not been thought through.

Assuming you could come up with an amount, where would the

money come from? The treasury is funded in part by taxes on

black people. Whom would you pay it to? All black people?

What about Tiger Woods? Not all black people are decended from

slaves. There were free blacks. There are about 30 Million black

people in this country. How much would it cost to determine who

was elgible for reparations?

What is a black person? One who is more than 50% black?

How would you determine that? Some of the black people in this

country decended from black people that came from South Africa.

Don Mandry

I think what is so compelling to me about this sermon is 1) that Campbell anticipates the negative responses and addresses them 2) uses the passage of Zacchaeus to demonstrate the biblical understanding of repentence and reparation 3) does not fall into a defensive posture in a tough discussion. 

How convincing is Campbell's argument that reparations should be made?

Does this sermon speak to you beyond the immediate context and if so, how?

In light of our latest discussion on Religion and Politics, what role do you feel the "white" church ought to play in the lives of the African American community that has suffered systemic oppression?

I liked this one for its thoughtful approach.

Blacks rebelled against racism and their imposed poverty during the Civil Rights movements, with the radicals rallying around the slogan: Black Power! Black theology allied itself with this Black Power movement that was clearly calling for a new economic order. James Foreman, in his "Black Manifesto", a call for economic justice and for a beginning of reparations that was read at the Riverside church in NYC in 1969, saw clearly that liberation would not work within a capitalist system: Any black man or Negro who is advocating a perpetuation of capitalism inside the United States is in fact seeking not only his ultimate destruction and death but is contributing to the continuous exploitation of black people all around the world. (Foreman 27) He realized that there was a strong linkage between racism and capitalism, two forms of oppression that were both part of the same package that the black power and black theology movements were opposing. Unlike others who were more concerned with opposing the current system then creating a new vision, he explicitly called for a new socialist economic system as a crucial goal for the liberation of blacks: "Our fight is against racism, capitalism, and imperialism, and we are dedicated to building a socialist society inside the United Sates where the total means of production and distribution are in the hands of the State, and that must be led by black people, by revolutionary blacks who are concerned about the total humanity of this world."