What do White Americans Owe Black People? Jason D. Hill on Racial Justice

The Michael Shermer Show # 231

A conversation with Jason D. Hill on what white Americans owe black people.

Shermer probes the philosopher on the arguments for and against reparations. They also discuss multiple dimensions of race in America today, including a black-white divide which has grown exponentially over the past decade.

Jason D. Hill is a professor of philosophy and Honors Distinguished Faculty at DePaul University in Chicago. He is the author of five books, including We Have Overcome: An Immigrant’s Letter to the American People. He specializes in ethics, politics, foreign policy, and moral psychology.

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[sprinkle]

The state should be strictly prohibited from discriminating, but the people should be free to associate and trade with whom they please.

[captaincheese-beard]

About the single mum discussion: Here in Brussels about 30% of kids live under the poverty line and the number one predictor of that child poverty is if you grow up in a single mother household combined with your mother being from African descent.

[billlyons]

Excellent conversation, thank you both.

[masterofnone]

I get why Michael would point out that the guy is black (honestly he doesn't look black he looks like one of his parents were white) given the current milieu but we have to get past this obsessing over skin colour. An argument should be judged on its merits and the ethnicity of the individual making the argument is irrelevant.

[tayaotto]

I think I may disagree with the indigenous parts. There were massacres that were unprovoked n done by the colonial military to indigenous peoples. The movement west, not only forcing AND bounties for "dead indians" was also a thing. And the forced assimilation led to murders too. Those are intentioned. It wasn't as organized a genocide like Hilter, but really do we split hairs on them?

[dgh]

Equal opportunity starts with equal primary education where every child everywhere receives the same high quality teaching and learning in the basics of reading (phonetic), technology literacy, and conservative mathmatics. That will allow each child to achieve their potential and have access to post secondary technical training programs or intellectual programs as they are inclined. Adopting this policy would change the country within 2 generations. This has nothing to do with race and everything to do with class.

[chb]

He's also right about the issue of the Native Americans. I'm putting this book on my to-read list.

[jps]

Jason Hill is right. I think that, if we want better lives for the Native Americans, Palestinians, etc., we should imagine the best possible future and work from here (2021) to there (a future point in time), considering vectors of possibility, rather than focus inordinately on the past.

[zebrawien]

I do not owe anyone anything and I treat people the same, period. Takes a few seconds to diggest but long to manifest.

[henryroberts]

If I owe black people reparations, then the italians owe me reparations for the Celtic genocide. 100 pre-augustinian Denari/year will do it.

[AK-yxwc]

Isn't there anything that comes from the US that is not about race!?

[DeconvertedMan]

31:00 but then - the argument could be made if a state has not done anything against (X) race/group etc then a business could do it- but then the question is how long must a state NOT do that?

[ericm]

45:00 - How is society responsible for procreation decisions? Because in the scope of poor people having babies they can't take care of, that isn't a result of people deciding to have a baby... They are deciding to "have sex" because their day-to-day life is such a miserable experience from one moment to the next, with no real expectation of a better life, that momentary pleasures such as sex are very welcomed intermissions from the standard level of misery.

"But... people know where babies come from" ... Sure... "most" people do. But the poorer the community, the less likely they are to get proper sex education which can significantly help with factors related to mental preparation. We didn't evolve to have "responsible sex"... we evolved to have a desire to "have sex" because that emotional response was significantly beneficial to reproduction and survival of our species.

[viewingthetube]

Prior to the Civil War 60% of US exports consisted of cotton and tobacco. These industries provided tremendous wealth as the economic foundation of the United States. The textile Mills in the North, infrastructure, industry, military and macroeconomic global advantage would not have been as strong if not for Black slave labor.

Please stop the myth the sole reason for American wealth was "my immigrant ancestors worked hard". All humans throughout history worked hard but at least admit the nation was made wealthy by exploiting millions of Black people.

The free labor of millions of Black slaves afforded you the enjoyment of living in this wealthy nation. This is a fact.

[DeconvertedMan]

Nothing. Oh - good he is against it. Thank goodness.

[nitahill]

What about the treaties that the US Gov reneged on with the Native Americans?

[chb]

Great talk. As he mentions, there has never been an in-depth look into the actual causality of group differences by many in the intelligentsia and media class. Instead, there is simply the forwarding of a scientifically lazy and ideological narrative.
Thomas Sowell writes on this in "Intellectuals and Society" as well as "Discriminations and Disparities, " both of which I would highly recommend to any viewers of this video.

[masterofnone]

Strange that u did not talk about the biological differences (and psychological) between men and women that explain difference in interest. Instead u left the implication that sexism was the explanatory variable, which in todays world is not true.

[mitchkahle]

Religion is not an innate trait. Except for childhood indoctrination by religious parents or peers, religion is a choice and may be rejected. Skin color is entirely innate, as are sex, age, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, and gender identity. Therefore religion does not deserve the same level of protection as innate biological traits.

[ransakreject]

If anyone should pay it’s the Democratic Party