Chicago is a hot mess of murder, mayhem, and disturbingly poor leadership, a perfect place for Black Lives Matter to wreak havoc and destroy innocent folks’ lives in the name of racial equality. Either BLM activists are taking cues from Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) – or the opposite – but the new drumbeat is that the act of plundering and pillaging is in fact reparations. People riot and loot to eat.
One simply cannot make this stuff up. After destroying much of Chicago’s famed Magnificent Mile district, BLM activist Ariel Atkins spoke calmly: “That is reparations. I don’t care if someone decides to loot a Gucci or a Macy’s or a Nike store, because that makes sure that person eats, that makes sure that person has clothes.”
So, they grab a handbag, some sneaks, and raid the snack bar, and those who have never been enslaved are repaid? Well, that’s rich. Black Friday alone could end this discussion forever if we just get retailers on board – one day and done. The inelegant words of the woman standing in front of white folks, trying to hijack the movement after a night of chaos resulting in more than 100 arrests and $60 million in damage of property, tells all: ”Anything they wanted to take, they can take it because these businesses have insurance.”
Dear Lord, if this continues, white people with money and privilege won’t be able to afford these stores!
The loot-and-shoot mentality overtaking the Windy City makes Al Capone’s era of Tommy Gun violence look rather quaint. In the heyday of the “sinful, ginful” 1920s, Chicago’s murder rate was well below what the city is reporting today. And the lack of a cohesive plan forged by the mayor, the city council, and the Chicago Police Department has everyone pointing fingers.
This Reparations Nonsense
The idea of reparations has long been discussed in America: First brought up in radical fringe circles after slavery in America was abolished by the 13th Amendment, it sounded nice but was too unwieldy even to attempt. And those advocating them today are having one helluva time quantifying who might receive and who must give. If one were to turn the tables on the white population and employ the “one drop” criterion, historically used as a way to discriminate against black people, the genealogical websites that provide DNA testing would make bank.
Liberty Nation, of course, has monitored the pulse of the subject, and Andrew Moran, LN’s economics expert, weighed in not long ago with this sage analysis:
“Reparations have an abundance of logistical problems:
Blacks owned blacks during the slave era.
All immigrants who arrived in the U.S. after emancipation had nothing to do with the slave trade.
What if a household in 2019 had some ancestors who lived in the U.S. before emancipation and some after?
It is impossible for the government to determine most claimants had ancestors who were slaves.
Most people did not own slaves.
Many white people fought against slavery.
Failed Democratic policy in Libya restarted slavery – do these men get reparations?
The U.S. couldn’t even afford this progressive feel-good policy if it wanted to.”
Let’s Plan for Friday After Thanksgiving
Seemingly jolted awake after the Magnificent Mile incident, Mayor Lori Lightfoot, taking hits from all sides, finally made a bit of noise about reparations and police shootings and the like: “I don't care – do not care – whatever justification was given for this. There is no justification for criminal behavior ever. You have no right to take and destroy the property of others.”
Finally, the havoc wreaked on the Chicago-style Rodeo Drive has animated the mayor into at least speaking out against the very people she wanted to keep the feds away from when she declined the president’s invitation to help with the violence. But that is a day late and millions of dollars short. Maybe other Democrat-controlled cities allowing the ridiculousness to continue should call Minneapolis for advice.
If Black Lives Matter so much to corporate America, then a deal should be struck: All retailers will agree to leave their doors unlocked the day after Thanksgiving for the descendants of slaves to take their fair share. Twenty-four hours to grab the Louis Vuitton, the Sony 52-inch, a few canned goods for the starving, and a cool pair of kicks. Let’s make November 27, 2020, Black Lives Matter So Much We Paid Up Day.
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Read more from Sarah Cowgill.
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