NBC reported today that Mitch McConnell, who is an opponent of reparations, is the descendant of two slave owners who between them owned 14 slaves in Alabama. The two men – James McConnell and Richard Daley owned a total of at least 14 slaves in Limestone County, Alabama, all but two of them female, according to the county “Slave Schedules” in the 1850 and 1860 censuses. McConnell did not answer NBC’s request for comments to the discovery.
From the story:
Slavery experts have stressed that descendants of slave owners should not be held personally responsible for the deeds of their forebears. But they have also argued that the families that descended from slave owners, like McConnell’s, are likely to have benefited from the labor of slaves that propped up farm families in earlier generations — a point made by many reparations supporters, who have said that descendants of slaves were never compensated for the economic benefit their forebears made to white families.
I imagine descendants of slave owners would have lower support for reparations than most of the population. They don’t want to give up what they were born into.
BTW, I too am a descendant of slave owners. I personally don’t feel responsible for my ancestors’ actions, but I don’t deny white privilege or any other privileges.
Last election, the dems promoted a candidate that nobody wanted. This time they are promoting an agenda that nobody wants. The results will be the same.
Mitch McConnell is not responsible for the actions of his ancestors. However, he is responsible for choosing how to responding to the systemic inequality caused by hundreds of years of black Americans being treated like second class citizens. As are the rest of us.
Travel to the western parts of West Virginia and do some door to door interviews with the residents and talk with them about their white privilege A state with $23,500 per capita income, they might have a different opinion about their privilege.