Question

A national debate is taking place about whether African Americans should be given reparations for the historic experience of slavery and its aftermath. Some have filed class action lawsuits seeking damages against current corporations who benefited from slavery. How has the African American experience with reparations compared with other oppressed groups? Do you think the US government should provide some form of reparations for slavery? Why or why not?

Answer 1

National debate at the African Americans slavery:

The debate over reparations for African Americans in the United States. We state the point in this way because there is little consensus about the cause of action for which reparations are sought, whether for slavery or segregation; for that matter, there is little agreement on the type of remedy reparations might effect. This raises the question of political mobilization for and popular views of reparations for African Americans. It is well known that whites and African Americans have very different perspectives on this issue. We seek to address the underlying reasons for and significance of this dissensus, stressing peculiarities of American political culture. Less discussed, however, have been the consequences for the reparations debate of recent historical developments in the United States—in particular, the election of Barack Obama as president of the United States. In addition to assessing the significance of these developments for the debate over reparations, we point to several new directions that the notion of reparations appears to be taking. We conclude with some thoughts about how reparations—understood chiefly in terms of their larger aim of enhancing racial equality—might realistically be achieved.

Reparations, Pro and Con

Many people and groups have voiced their opposition to the whole idea of slavery reparations. Major arguments against reparations include:

• There are no black slaves living today. Slavery ended more than 160 years ago at the cost of several hundred thousand lives lost in the Civil War. It is unfair to ask American taxpayers, many of them from families that came to the United States after slavery ended, to pay for the wrongs of slavery.
• The problems faced by African Americans today are not the "legacy of slavery" or even racism. Many blacks have succeeded very well in American society. The problems of poor African Americans are caused by social ills within the inner city, such as the breakdown of families, high crime rates, and dependence on welfare.
• Federal and state governments have already spent billions of dollars on social programs such as welfare, subsidized housing, health care, employment development, affirmative action, and education. These programs have benefitted African Americans.
• African Americans, particularly the young, need to overcome their problems through their own efforts and not depend on more government handouts and benefits.
• Reparations would be too expensive, depriving the country of the opportunity to fix the Social Security and Medicare systems and meet other budget needs that benefit all Americans.
• Any reparation plan would lead to unfairness and huge administrative costs. Who would receive reparations? Descendants of slaves? All blacks? Would well-off African Americans receive payments? If a fund were set up, who would administer it? Would those unhappy with the plan call for even more reparations or file lawsuits?

Advocates for reparations reject these arguments. They contend:

• The claim for reparations is not against white Americans or even individual Americans. It is a claim against American government and society, which has continued from the time of slavery. As all members of society share in society's benefits, they also must share the burdens in the form of taxation. Through slavery, African Americans were terribly wronged and modern blacks were robbed of their inheritance. Further, blacks face racism every day. They deserve to be compensated.
• The problems faced by many blacks today come from slavery and society's ongoing racism. Blacks were uprooted from their homes in Africa and brutalized in America by a system that destroyed the family structure and degraded the individual. When slavery ended, African Americans owned nothing. Isolated and discriminated against, they were denied education, contacts with society, and economic opportunity. Compared to whites, blacks remain in a disadvantaged position and will remain so until they receive compensation and society's racism ends.
• Welfare, subsidized housing, affirmative action, and other previous efforts to address socio-economic problems of the black underclass have been too little and too late. They failed because society has failed to come to grips with the central problem--its own racism and discrimination. In some cases, social programs, though well-intentioned, actually increased black isolation and further degraded the black community. In addition, these programs benefitted other groups, not just blacks. By doing so, they failed to address the unique claims based on slavery that African-Americans have.
• Reparations will not promote dependency. Instead, they will give individual African Americans and the community as a whole a chance to create their own economic base and become self-reliant.
• The cost of reparations may be great, but a debt is owed and must be paid. The moral claim for reparations at least equals that of any other government program. America is a rich country, and if the will exists, the money can be found.
• Just as it is too early to decide how much is due in reparations, it is too early to agree on how to distribute the reparations. Fair methods can be worked out once society acknowledges its obligation to provide reparations in the first place.

Reparations would compensate Black Americans for the lost wages and suffering of their ancestors, American slave laborers.

• The US received an enormous, unacknowledged economic boost from slavery.
• Subsequent biased policies—including segregation, labor discrimination, redlining, and mass Incarceration—have disadvantaged Black Americans, preserving a racial wealth gap.
• The one Federal reparations attempt was discontinued after President Lincoln was assassinated
• More than150 members of Congress support a bill to create a commission to study the issue; a slight majority of Americans favor this approach, as well.
• Native Americans and Japanese internment victims received Federal reparations.
• Current proposals for Federal reparations include payments to African Americans and economic development investments in the Black community.
• In 2020, California became the first state to commission a task force to study and develop reparations proposals