Money, in other words, for the African-American community of American slave descent. An old black woman I knew near Holly Springs, MS, dead now for several years, was a plaintiff in a lawsuit designed to win economic reparations for slavery. She, whose grandparents had been owned by my maternal ancestors near Oxford, never expected to win and, indeed, she died before the case was adjudicated. I believe it was thrown out.
But she didn’t need the money. She had inherited cotton land acquired through great diligence and prudence by her grandparents, the freed slaves, and their children, her parents. But she, who had taken to wearing African dress in her old age, wanted the raparations money for the symbolic value. That’s apparently what Barry had in mind, in 2001, with his talk of redistributing, which has now become a campaign issue. Ironic, considering that he is not descended from American slaves, or, on his white side, slave owners, as far as I know. Would it matter if he succeeded in passing out some money? Probably not to the spendthrifts. Would it be worth the symbolism? Perhaps, if that was as far as it went. But Barry, the Left’s stealth candidate, apparently has a great deal more in mind.
Meanwhile, Mississippi has thirty-four thousand unverified new voters to struggle with next week.
THE TEXAS SCRIBBLER 