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Activists Say Black Americans Deserve Reparations for Slavery

By Manila Ryce
Published Tuesday, July 11th, 2006, 4:43 am
Filed under: Society/Culture: Racism, Society/Culture, US Politics

The movement to compensate black Americans for slavery is gaining momentum. So far, reparation efforts have been successful in making it mandatory, in certain states and individual cities, for businesses to publicize their past ties with slavery. In recent months the Moravian Church and the Episcopal Church both apologized for owning slaves, and are debating whether or not to compensate black members. In June a North Carolina commission recommended state-funded programs be created to specifically support local black businesses and home ownership. Katrina Browne, a white Episcopalian filmmaker said, “We all inherit responsibility.”

Though I think it’s a great thing that businesses are being forced to share their past dealings with the public, I personally oppose the reparations movement. Yes, reparations should have been made, but to the people who deserved them. It is far too late now to give every black American their “40 acres and a mule” by unjustifiably taking it from non-black people. Not to mention, there are tons of problems in enacting reparations.

1. There are practically no black Americans of pure African descent anymore, unless they emigrated recently. So what happens with the majority of black and white people who are composed of multiple races? Do we decide how much someone pays or how much they get paid by the percentage of their ethnic background?
2. What about the Americans that are neither white nor black? You know, the often overlooked Asians, Latinos, Native Americans, Middle Easterners, etc. Do we get compensated for the discrimination we’ve been enduring too, or do we also need to pay? I’m half-Filipino, but I doubt I have any checks in the mail from Saudi Arabia, Spain, China, Japan, or America for the oppression they’ve caused my ancestors.
3. What about the majority of white Americans whose ancestors had nothing to do with slavery, fought for its abolishment, or came to America after it had already ended? It’s illogical for these people, who bear no historical burden for slavery, to pay for it now because they are white. I do believe that’s called racial discrimination.
4. Slave reparation follows the same stereotypical logic that affirmative action follows: white people are rich and black people are poor. While it’s true that the share of wealth in this country is disproportionate, any form of compensation should be based on social class, not race. Why should a white person living in a trailer park pay reparations to a black person living in a mansion?
5. Reparations do nothing for black Americans as a whole. As John H. McWhorter, a black Senior Fellow from the Manhattan Institute said, “The reparations movement is based on a fallacy that cripples the thinking on race - the fallacy that what ails black America is a cash problem… Giving people money will not solve the problems that we have.” The movement just isolates black Americans ever further from the rest of America, proclaiming “we’re different because of our skin color”. Black leaders like MLK fought for equality and acceptance, not special treatment and separation. The concept of race is an archaic one, and continually drawing attention to that difference is the mindset of an eternal victim.

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2 Responses to “Activists Say Black Americans Deserve Reparations for Slavery”

  1. You know, while in theory I support reparation, in practicality I agree with your points. When the Japanese were rounded up into concentration camps in this country, reparations were made, but they were made within the same generation, when they knew exactly who the victims were. The point you made about mixed descendents is also a potential train wreck. The first thing I thought of was the descendents of James Madison(Or was it Jefferson?) and his slave mistress. I read an article about a recent family reunion between the white and black members of this line. Despite their common ancestral patriarch, the white members, and even the light skinned black members, looked strictly of European heritage. So would reparations be based on such fractional makeups, like the 1/16 Native American scholarship eligibility? It’s just a huge can of worms, and one that few I think is really worth opening at this point, unless of course an African American family can conclusively prove their direct and “undiluted” lineage to a slave. The part in quotes will most likely pose a problem.
    2 final thoughts: -The trailer park whitey having to pay for middle to upper middle class former slave, how much would that do to defuse the growing White Nationalist Movement in this country?
    -You know it’s been about 4000 years since the Hebrews were released from slavery, and I don’t remember them getting reparations or having a very historically easy time after that. Right now Israel is remorselessly bombarding their Muslim and Arab neighbors. Would it be possible that this is the result of a Hebrew ‘vengeance mentality’ for their lot in history?

    PapaFigue
    07/11/06 at 10:14 am

  2. African americans do deserve reparations because some jews recieved them. Another point is that everyone says racial ineqaullity was in the past in people should keep it that way. If that is such a fact then why just 2 years ago black people had to face Gena Six in 2006. Everyone should know know what that is the town where blacks were treated uneqaul, as if it were back in the day when MLK was still alive. How could that school allow nooses to be hung from trees? and young men to be charged with murder for a school fight that was initiated by whites? our people are hurt educationally, financially, and mentally. Our ancestors were stripped of their education and spirit so why can’t our people go to college for free because reparations are needed more for poor black americans education than anything else. It is not all about just recieving money, but i guess it is in WHITE AMERICA.

    Lynasia k Stewart
    09/16/08 at 3:38 pm

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