Should America Pay Reparations for Slavery?

An idea that only makes sense if you don't examine it too deeply.

by Rod D. Martin
September 23, 2015

The question comes up again and again: should the U.S. government pay reparations to the descendants of African American slaves? There are a variety of arguments for this, the most obvious of which is the obvious horror of slavery itself. Speaking as a member of the Party that freed the slaves and consistently opposed segregation, I am especially sympathetic to those who make this case.

And yet, reparations is one of those ideas that really only make sense if you don't examine it too deeply.

The biggest problem is responsibility. No African American alive has been a slave, nor has any white person been a slave owner. Slavery was abolished in 1865, and several hundred thousand white people died in the war that led to their freedom. Since they were freed, a century and a half has passed in which countless millions have immigrated to the United States, having had no responsibility for American slavery (though they all came from places that enslaved people,…