Barbados Might Send Benedict Cumberbatch a Bill For 'Slave Reparations'

Brittany M. Hughes | January 4, 2023
DONATE
Text Audio
00:00 00:00
Font Size

The island nation of Barbados is reportedly mulling over an idea to start billing the descendants of plantation owners for “reparations” paid to the descendants of slaves. And by “plantation owners,” they mean folks who died some 200-to-300 years ago - a list that apparently includes the great-great-great-etc.-grandad of famed British actor Benedict Cumberbatch.

According to this, Cumberbatch, known for his starring roles in Sherlock Holmes, Star Trek, and as the Marvel franchise’s Dr. Strange, is also a seventh-generation heir of a Barbados plantation owner whose holdings included about 250 slaves. The plantation was reportedly purchased in 1728 - about 300 centuries ago - and used slave labor until the island, part of the British empire, nixed the practice in 1833.The Cumberbatch family was then paid about $1.2 million in today’s dollars in compensation for their loss of slaves.

Now, under Barbados’ proposed rule, Benedict Cumberbatch - who, I think it's safe to assume, was not involved in the purchase or running of his grandfather-times-seven’s plantation in the 1700s, nor has he owned or participated in the owning of slaves himself - might find himself getting a bill from the island nation’s government for “reparations” to be paid to the descendants of the slaves his ancestor once owned, but who've never actually been slaves themselves.

And apparently, it doesn't much matter that the people being told to cough up the cash didn't actually do anything wrong - so long as the government deems them to be beneficiaries of their ancestors' crimes.

Caribbean Movement for Peace and Integration David Denny told the Telegraph that “Any descendants of white plantation owners who have benefitted from the slave trade should be asked to pay reparations, including the Cumberbatch family,” adding that Cumberbatch’s personal celebrity status shouldn’t exclude him from that.

Related: INSANITY: Schools Bring Back Mandatory Masking to Stop Virus Outbreaks

The Deputy Chair of Barbados’ national commission on reparations (yep, that’s a thing) David Commissiong, said the money should be used to “turn the local clinic into a hospital, support local schools, and improve infrastructure and housing” for non-white folks. (Translation: "We need a new revenue stream.")

Also on the short list to pay up for his ancestor’s humanitarian crimes is British MP Richard Drag, of South Dorset, whose family also reportedly owned a plantation back in the day, apparently making him culpable for monetary compensation in the name of people who’re long dead, who were abused at the hands of people who are...well, also long dead.

If those the government targets for reparations don’t pay up, Barbados MP Trevor Prescod, chairman of Barbados National Task Force on Reparations, said they’d “take legal action in the international courts,” pointing to the UN's condemnation of slavery as a "crime against humanity" as legal standing. 

The proposal, which officials say is still in its early stages, comes about a year after Barbados voted to remove Queen Elizabeth II as head of state.

donate