Reparations

Reparations or making amends for a wrong one has done is in the news again.

This is because a reparation bill has been introduced in the U.S. Congress under the term of President Biden. The new congress will start deliberations that will look into preparing reparations for the African American descendants of slavery.

I mean this is well and good and may be well overdue. But these talks and even the "kind" of reparation should be diligently decided with wisdom and good intentions.

This kind of things shouldn't be just knee jerk reactions or a means to look good.

Didn't the U.S. government do the same for the descendants of Native Americans but with nothing really good happening out of it or to show for it. Things like these normally are initiated to save face or for good publicity and public perception of course.

What About the Others?

Vice President Harris is of Asian descent so maybe she should start talks about reparations for Asians as well.

The Chinese while being in the receiving end of hate nowadays were also treated very unfairly along with many other Asians by Americans in the U.S. for a very long time.

Worse is that Americans exploited and treated Filipinos inhumanely both in the U.S. Mainland and in their own native land. Did we forget that Americans brought in a village of Filipinos over a thousand, into the St. Louis World's Fair of 1904 to be placed on display in human zoos? And yes, they came onboard slavery ships.

During WWII, Filipino veterans who served and died alongside American GIs were never acknowledged nor rewarded for their service to the American people. The Philippine Islands was a U.S. territory and Filipino veterans including guerilla and underground forces fought and suffered greatly during the war in the Pacific but they were never recognized.

When Black Lives Matter, All Lives Matter

So as we are talking about reparations, then these groups should be next in the discussions. And we should include all other immigrants from other countries who were also unfairly treated by Americans, Hispanics, Pacific Islanders, Middle Eastern and certain Europeans.