Kenton Gibbs
Kenton Gibbs
Slavery was an abomination that will forever be a black eye on American history. It predates the signing of the Declaration of Independence and its legal end did not come until 1865 with the ratification of the 13th Amendment. The events that followed did not help heal the scar.
State governments then created and strictly enforced Black Codes and Jim Crow laws that helped ensure the oppression of black people. To briefly recap, our government had a direct hand in enforcing 89 years of slavery and 107 years of laws intentionally targeting black people. So why have reparations not been given already?
Arguments against reparations have not been exclusive to any race, political affiliation, age group or any other categorization. As shocking as that may be, I am delighted to prove how the most common or noticeable of these arguments are either slightly wrong or boldly preposterous.
The most frequent one is that there are no slaves or slave owners alive today. If a person were born the day before slavery was abolished, they would be 150 years old. We all know living that long is impossible. Those who use this argument have ignored that slavery was not the last human rights violation perpetrated on a mass scale against black people. The aforementioned “Black Codes” were ended in 1972. Anyone over 44 years old was affected by these laws but that is not the only thing that makes this point egregious.
The 13th Amendment abolished slavery, except when someone is incarcerated. The same year, Black Codes were passed that intentionally targeted and imprisoned black people. For example, laws prohibited black people from owning land in many states. That coupled with vagrancy laws making homelessness illegal is quintessentially the type of traps laid against black people. What is there to do besides go back to the plantation where not much has improved or go to jail if you cannot own land or be homeless?
The next argument that repeatedly came up in my research is the idea that a demand for reparations would be pushing the victim role onto African-Americans. Well I don’t know if people know this or not, but we are victims of intentional systemic targeting. Long after slavery ended, redlining (denying services directly or indirectly through selective price gouging to residents in an area based on racial/ethnic makeup), predatory lending and other financial traps of that nature. Many large banks such as Wells Fargo and AIG have had to pay out settlements for these misdeeds as recently as 2012.
How many years have these practices been going on and how many people were not compensated for their racist treatment? So yes, reparations would be appropriate in this situation because the companies have amassed astonishing amounts of money with these practices. The targeting of victims was evidently racial so why would the reparations not be as well?
Some may not remember Sen. Thom Tillis’ remarks on reparations but he stated that welfare is “de facto reparations.” This claim was so uninformed and factually incorrect, it makes me wonder how someone capable of producing such a statement is an elected official.
If welfare is de facto reparations, wouldn’t that mean that they are exclusively, or at least predominantly, for black people? This becomes problematic because according to every statistic from every legitimate source, more white people receive government assistance than black on an overall population basis, according to a 2013 US Department of Agriculture study. So the idea that welfare is reparations is both racist and wrong.
The most outrageous argument I saw came from political activist Alan Keyes. In 2002 he said, “You want to tell me that what they suffered can actually be repaired with money? You’re going to do the same thing those slaveholders did, put a money price on something that can’t possibly be quantified in that way.” To that, I have a few questions that need to be answered.
There have been other racial or religious groups that received reparations in the past. Why was theirs not seen as them trying to repair a wrong with money? Jewish people received reparations from the German government and that was not seen as them trying to monetize their internment. When Japanese-Americans received reparations after their imprisonment in internment camps, no one said the atrocity can’t be quantified with dollar signs.
If their struggles cannot be monetarily compensated for, how should we be compensated for it? Keyes’ statement clearly indicates that there was immense wrong done but for some reason the wrong is too large to quantify? I doubt that Keyes would call for physical retribution so what is the alternative?
It is safe to say reparations will probably never be issued because discreet racism is socially acceptable. If I am wrong we would not have a senator in this state who believes government assistance is “de facto reparations.” It is sad to see many of these arguments are so easily debunked yet will never be gotten over.
When slaves were freed they remained silent out of fear for their lives. Now it is the fear of backlash as far being labeled as too radical or militant that discourages more discussion on the subject.