Reparations

The first thing that may come to mind when you hear the word “reparations,” “is this an idea whose time has come?”  “No” gets you back to your can of beer and your TV remote, while “Yes” is a much heavier lift.

The next thing that will likely pop into your mind is the obvious question, “should we pay reparations? Yes or No?”  Once again, a “No” is an easy way to dodge the hazards of this question.

This post is NOT about whether we should pay reparations; this post is about the difficulties involved in answering Yes to the question.  Be clear, the fact that a Yes demands thoughtful time and energy is NOT an argument against Reparations.

Before we go further, we should be clear what we mean by “reparations.”  Reparations are better-late-than-never compensation for the sin of slavery, either the fact of it or the slave-wages that were never paid.  Other Americans than African-Americans have suffered greatly from European-Americans’ imagined superiority, but we are here concerned only with reparations due to slavery.

• Who will receive the benefits of reparations?  Only African Americans.  But there are African Americans who are not the descendants of slaves.  Example, President Obama.  And there are African Americans who have white ancestors as well (nearly all African Americans have white blood because of master-rape).  Shall a man with more black blood count as a child of slaves more than a man with mixed blood?  Was rape not a big enough insult to count a mixed blood black man as fully black as a man 100% the child of slaves?  Shall all African Americans receive reparations?  Surely, Oprah Winfrey does not need reparations, financial reparations anyhow.  Should a man receive more or less reparations based on his socio-economic circumstances?  What factors should be considered in determining how much reparations a man shall receive?
• What form will reparations take?  Currency?  Real property?  Education?  Jobs?  Respect?  Dignity?  Can a society ever make up for the harm that some have done to others?  Continue to do to others?  I think not.  Millions of American whites would have made willing Nazis.  What should be done with them is outside the bounds of this post.
• How much reparations should be paid?  Estimates vary between $1.4 trillion and $97 trillion.  As 13.4 -16.2% of our population is African American, there are some 50 million African Americans living in the United States.  If we were to grant lump-sum payments to every African American living today, each would receive between $28,000 and $2 million.  $28,000 is insulting and perhaps $2 million would need to be spread out over time.  The reason that these individual amounts seem instinctively inadequate is because the number of slaves in the USA never surpassed 4 million, and those 4 million have some 50 million descendants.  Clearly, how much reparations should be paid and how they ought to be distributed will require a serious study.
• Who will pay the reparations?  Taxpayers.  Federal taxpayers?  But what about the taxpayers from the slave states?  Surely, citizens of Massachusetts should not have to fund reparations.  And equally surely not every citizen of Virginia is the descendant of slave holders.  And what is the point of taxing a direct descendant of slave holders who is himself living a life of poverty?

Any real attempts at reparations will come up against the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection clause, on both sides of the equation.  But the 14th Amendment was originally drafted to protect freed black men, and it has done a rather poor job of that.  Maybe we will need to ignore the “equal protection” of the 14th Amendment.

One final consideration: until we tax wealth – at the federal level and the state level – the real financial beneficiaries of every damned thing that we have ever done will get off scot-free, as our wealthiest few pay no income taxes at all anywhere anyhow, because they have no taxable “income.”  Fix THAT before considering paying reparations on the backs of the already over-burdened white working-class and white lower- and middle-classes.

One more final consideration.  We have too damned many haters in this country.  Racially motivated haters.  Who own firearms.  While it is technically possible to end “systemic racism” (by legislation), what can we do about the racism that feeds on the need to feel superior to the “other”?  The only solutions that I can imagine for that problem (other than splitting the Union into two hostile camps) cannot be discussed in a public forum.

Addendum: Thursday, 04/22/2021

I decided to quantify the total cost of reparations based on slavery.  Here are my assumptions:

Technically, slavery began in 1619 and ended in 1870 with passage of the 13th Amendment; so, 250 years.

At its peak, in 1870, there were 4 million slaves in the USA.  I assumed an average of 1.75 million slaves.

I assumed an arbitrary wage of $12 / hour.

1,750,000 slaves * 250 years * 52 weeks / year * 75 hours / week * $12 / hour = $20,000,000,000,000.

Total Cost of Reparations: $20 trillion.  If distributed as lump-sums (for sake of argument) to 50 million African Americans, that would be $400,000 / person.

Keep in mind, this is not compensation for injustice based on race, it is compensation for the unpaid wages of slavery.

Addendum: Monday, 01/29/2024

At the top of this post, I put aside the question of reparations for native peoples, who surely suffered as much if not more at the hands of white European settlers as Black Americans.  If the descendants of slaves deserve reparations, and I believe that they do, surely descendants of native peoples deserve the same consideration.  But where do we stop?  Not just here but everywhere?  I don't pretend to have an answer.

But I know this: as long as white trash (not all of whom are poor) needs an other to feel superior to, the problem will persist; as long as there are enough white trash to swing an election, any election, we will not have paid due reparations on our nation's original sin.