What would we do without progressive paradises like Portland, Oregon to show us the way? We'd be floundering. So, thank goodness for "Reparations Happy Hour" in Portland last week, an event that is sure to eliminate all the pain of past racial injustice and totally cure racism in America.
Here's how it works. The organizer of "Reparations Happy Hour" is a group called "Brown Hope." They invited “black, brown and indigenous people" to a bar where attendees each received a $10 bill as they entered. The free money was mostly funded by white people who "Brown Hope" asked not to attend — because, you know, nothing cures racism and the pain of past segregation quite like forced segregation.
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"Reparations Happy Hour" was the brainchild of 27-year-old black activist Cameron Whitten. He said the event “made attendees feel as if their pain were valued and understood."
Look, everyone wants to feel understood, but if your “pain" is rooted in the possibility that you might be a distant relative of people who were slaves 150 years ago, you're simply choosing to be enslaved by the victim mentality that has consumed our nation like the plague.
Whitten said he hopes the event calls attention to reparations, which is the idea that the federal government should compensate black Americans for the slavery that their ancestors endured. He hopes to make this a monthly event, although they're changing its name to "Reparations Power Hour" so they don't discriminate against people who don't drink. Very thoughtful.
Dwelling on the negative past is no way to get the positive future you desire.
Clarence Thomas, Associate Justice of the US Supreme Court, once said in an interview:
I have never understood the notion that we could continue to focus on race in order to get over race. I've never understood [how] we have to be race conscious in order not to be race conscious.
That is the main problem with reparations. It can't fix the past and at best, it just puts a band-aid on the future. The idea of reparations is ridiculous, because where does it end? Every human on the planet could pin some blame on some group somewhere in history for some injustice. Dwelling on the negative past is no way to get the positive future you desire.
But if you really have your heart set on reparations, head to Portland where they're atoning for America's slavery sins, ten bucks at a time.
Only in progressive America.
