On Reparations

On Reparations

        I have written peripherally about this once before, but Mona Charen's column (linked to at the end of this post) seems to do a good job of discussing things which I mentioned, but not in the depth she has done in this column. This column has something to offend everyone who is close minded on either side of the issue, and gives it a superficial read without measured reflection. It also has what, I think, is a cogent analysis of an extremely complex and contentious issue.  

        It is especially noteworthy to me that the "plan" suggested by Dr. Darrity at Duke, a world-renowned economist, also has built into it the thing I stated, perhaps six months ago that I also thought was problematic. That is the fact that requiring proof of slave ancestry could become an extremely divisive issue among Black Americans. This also implies that all the hindrances faced by Black Americans were, and, are faced solely by the descendants of slaves, a blatantly false assumption. I suggested in my essay that perhaps a better way to deal with the issues, which are marginally approached by the way some native Americans were treated as well, would be to "pay it forward."

          What might that look like" For a start it would mean enforcing and applying existing Constitutional guarantees equally across the entire spectrum of our population. It could mean that rape and other crimes are prosecuted and punished without regard to the defendant's color, economic status or "potential." It could mean federal control of state redistricting to guarantee equal vote impact for all. It could mean reenacting and enforcing the voting rights act.

         The idea that a wad of money will spontaneously raise any individual or group to new heights of achievement overlooks the real issues in the matter. There actually is a sort of "test case" in this area, which was the reparations paid to Japanese Citizens who were interned during WWII. Since many of these individuals were relatively well educated and economically successful pre-war and returned to that status over time after their full civil rights were restored, the $20,000 paid to each survivor was simply, for the most part, a nice windfall.

       That said, it was a far simpler task to deal with Japanese reparations for several reasons 

first: the nature of the injustice was well defined, concrete, and universally consistent.

second: The perpetrator (there was only one) was also easily identified.

third: The victims were easily identifiable.

fourth: Many of the direct victims were still alive.

fifth: The injustice took place during a relatively short time period. (under three years, vice 1619 to the present)

        In the case of slavery reparations, it is easy to identify relatively few of the numerous perpetrators of these injustices. In fact, there are so many that it might be difficult to persuade any one perpetrator to pay reparations.

        Not only that but many millions of the most egregious maltreatments are/were person to person as in intolerant acts based on individual racists, for whom no government entity is really accountable. At minimum, perpetrators include the U.S. federal government, the governments of every state that ever permitted enslavement of African Americans, and every individual who ever treated a person of color unfairly. More broadly, they also include municipal governments (White citizen's councils?), private businesses, educational institutions and churches. Added to this is the fact that, post 1865, the maltreatment of Blacks in the Jim Crow era in the South was mirrored to a significant extent in the North to Irish, Italian and Central European immigrants. Socially it was in much the same way, but white immigrants had an edge in that they were, by appearance, not "different."

        As I said above, money will not wipe out racism in those whose hearts and minds are so tragically damaged that they see race as a determinate of human quality. We cannot legislate away individual bias, but we can acknowledge that it's illegal and morally wrong and raise our children to understand the unity of mankind. This must be a federal initiative and enforced strenuously at every lower level. And this also means you need to vote in every election for men and women of principle.  Give this article a read:

https://townhall.com/columnists/monacharen/2019/09/20/why-reparations-talk-is-harmful-n2553395