The injustices and historical oppression of minorities resulted in an economic situation less favorable than the majority. To treat the two groups equally, we must first restore the socio-economic situation to a point of equity, which necessarily involves helping those who were previously held back.
You seem to be implying that blacks need to be “lifted up”. I disagree. One’s economic situation is completely separate from one’s skin color. And there are people of all skin colors that can be found in each socioeconomic stratum. I don’t see that all black people as unsuccessful or incapable.
Furthermore, since I know others will likely bring up the slavery argument; I’ll just go ahead and say that I find that a bit lazy. No one living in the United States today was ever personally enslaved by US citizens under the protection of the law. All of that happened literally over a century ago. And that’s not even getting into the fact that practically every region on every continent had some form of slavery at some point in history or that the US slave trade was largely the result of other blacks selling competing tribes into slavery.
There are poor people of all skin colors. If merit-based selections (e.g. for work, education, government programs, etc) are not going to be used, then selections based on income, quality of life, and similar factors seem a lot more fair to me and would equally lift up impoverished blacks, asians, whites, hispanics, etc.
Some have also made the argument that lifting blacks up is insulting to them as it implies that they can’t do so on their own merits and also conditions them toward expecting things to be handed out rather than fairly earned. Take that same sentiment and consider it for any other race. Many people from other races would also be insulted by the implication that they aren’t as good. Yes, you will have people from every single race that are just freeloaders and want things with no effort. But those are not the successful people that push society forward. For the best people in society are the ones that work hard and strive to improve things not just for themselves but for others as well.
Only then can we begin treating both groups equally, when everyone starts at the same level.
The problem is that we think there are groups in the first place. We’re all just human. Like I said before, programs can be tailored to uplift all humans that have economic disparity. Picking a group based on skin color and giving them help because they are a poor + a specific skin color when there are other poor people who are not is just going to create resentment towards the people that got an unfair advantage and the cycle will continue indefinitely.
minorities were repressed for over 2 centuries
See above regarding who sold minorities into slavery. If you don’t mean blacks specifically, I would also like to point out that everyone else who came to the US, with the exception of native Americans, started off more of less the same: you had some of each race who were wealthy, some who were not. Are there whites that are wealthy? Yes. Does that mean all whites are wealthy? No. It is the same for any other race. The concept that a nation has to be ethnically diverse is an artificial construct and one that is fairly recent to history. Even Europe a few decades ago was not very racially or ethnically diverse to the degree that the US was at the same time.
You seem to be implying that blacks need to be “lifted up”. I disagree. One’s economic situation is completely separate from one’s skin color. And there are people of all skin colors that can be found in each socioeconomic stratum. I don’t see that all black people as unsuccessful or incapable.
Furthermore, since I know others will likely bring up the slavery argument; I’ll just go ahead and say that I find that a bit lazy. No one living in the United States today was ever personally enslaved by US citizens under the protection of the law. All of that happened literally over a century ago. And that’s not even getting into the fact that practically every region on every continent had some form of slavery at some point in history or that the US slave trade was largely the result of other blacks selling competing tribes into slavery.
There are poor people of all skin colors. If merit-based selections (e.g. for work, education, government programs, etc) are not going to be used, then selections based on income, quality of life, and similar factors seem a lot more fair to me and would equally lift up impoverished blacks, asians, whites, hispanics, etc.
Some have also made the argument that lifting blacks up is insulting to them as it implies that they can’t do so on their own merits and also conditions them toward expecting things to be handed out rather than fairly earned. Take that same sentiment and consider it for any other race. Many people from other races would also be insulted by the implication that they aren’t as good. Yes, you will have people from every single race that are just freeloaders and want things with no effort. But those are not the successful people that push society forward. For the best people in society are the ones that work hard and strive to improve things not just for themselves but for others as well.
The problem is that we think there are groups in the first place. We’re all just human. Like I said before, programs can be tailored to uplift all humans that have economic disparity. Picking a group based on skin color and giving them help because they are a poor + a specific skin color when there are other poor people who are not is just going to create resentment towards the people that got an unfair advantage and the cycle will continue indefinitely.
See above regarding who sold minorities into slavery. If you don’t mean blacks specifically, I would also like to point out that everyone else who came to the US, with the exception of native Americans, started off more of less the same: you had some of each race who were wealthy, some who were not. Are there whites that are wealthy? Yes. Does that mean all whites are wealthy? No. It is the same for any other race. The concept that a nation has to be ethnically diverse is an artificial construct and one that is fairly recent to history. Even Europe a few decades ago was not very racially or ethnically diverse to the degree that the US was at the same time.