The debate about reparations for slavery can easily fall prey to emotional arguments over intellectual reasoning. The recent rioting in Cincinnati underscores how rapidly the emotional can overtake the rational. It also shows how destructive resorting to the heart over the head can be. But the anger, frustration and humiliation brought on by racism – experienced by various blacks daily, demands an outlet or some type of relief.
“First of all,” Thomas Sowell, a history professor, writes, “slavery is not something like stepping on someone’s toe accidentally, where you can say excuse me.”
Yet reparations are something along those lines. They would be a national apology for acts that were perpetrated by people no longer alive upon people who are just as dead. This apology would do nothing to solve the modern problem of racism. In fact, some people will see any type of reparation as a definitive “case closed,” disallowing any future charges of discriminatory practices.
Columnist Charles Krauthammer proposed this: A one-time cash payment to black Americans in return for the complete and final abolishment of racial preference programs. But, it is a myth that equality can be achieved for the right price. A flat tire doesn’t suddenly re-inflate just because a driver ignores it and continues on, so how would a cash payment suddenly render all existing racists color blind?
Equally foolish is the assumption that federal welfare benefits (which have always served more whites than blacks) and programs that aid all minorities, are somehow a direct payment to black Americans. These programs are based on need or intended to redress clear-cut (and legally proven) cases of institutional discrimination.
The best argument for reparations comes from analyzing statistical data dealing with jobs, incomes, poverty levels and net financial worth. For example: Twenty-three percent of all black families live below the poverty line and 61 percent of all black families in the United States have zero, or negative, net financial worth. A significant amount of the net financial worth of a family comes from wealth handed down by earlier generations. American slaves did not have the opportunity to earn this wealth and thus their descendants were at an institutionalized disadvantage. A good illustration of this disadvantage is the relative wealth of the descendants of Caribbean slaves who immigrated to the United States.
Their ancestors were paid what is equivalent to $100 million, in 1836, by the British government when it ended slavery. They still had obstacles in place, but because they were the majority population on several islands they were able to expand on this wealth and eventually come to the United States as immigrants with real net worth. Thus, as a group, they are better off than the U.S. slave descendants.
However, since the ’50s, black Americans have made significant strides in income and earnings. No other group in U.S. society rose as fast during that time period. For example: During the ’60s, the median income for black couples was 60 percent that of whites. By the ’90s the median had risen to 84 percent. It may be best to retain the current situation for economic growth instead of stifling it by shutting down programs after payment of cash reparations.
Another strike against reparations are the logistical problems involved. Who would qualify for the payments and how would the payments be made? What suggestions would the recipients be given to do with the money?
For example: Would the reparation be paid to a recent immigrant from an African country? If yes, then it would invalidate the slavery issue. If no, then how long does a black American need to suffer the burden of institutional racism before becoming eligible?
If only descendants of slaves are eligible, what will constitute proof? Many families have an oral history of slave ancestors but no documents- many of the surviving records are not archived properly or are incomplete.
What about a person of mixed racial heritage? If they appear white, or another minority than black, would they be eligible? The further these claims are delved into, the closer it becomes to an echo of past injustice. Just “one drop of black blood” could be heard again, with the same divisive results.
The most compelling reasons argue against individual monetary reparations. These reparations would do very little to redress current problems facing black Americans. Problems which may be the last vestiges of slavery induced institutional racism.
If a structure could be devised to address some the basic systemic problems of equal access to education, repair of the decaying infrastructure in urban areas (where poor blacks tend to concentrate) and allocation of more money for research and treatment of diseases that disproportionately strike the black community – perhaps reparations would be viable.
But, until such a plan is put forth, we cannot support the drive for reparations.
