Last month, the House Judiciary Committee voted to advance H.R. 40, the Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African-Americans Act. This bill was first proposed more than 30 years ago but never gained any real traction until now.
Reparations for slavery are destined to be one of the more polarizing issues of our time. There are two overarching questions to address. The first question is whether reparations are owed. It would seem difficult to contest the claim that uncompensated slave labor conferred substantial wealth on slave owners and possibly their beneficiaries. Assuming the first question is answered in the affirmative, the second question is one of forensic accounting: Who should be paid reparations, how much should they be paid, and by whom?
Opponents of reparations often go directly to the second question, arguing that because it is virtually impossible to reconcile these matters in a coherent fashion, the entire question of reparations is moot. Germany managed to affect reparations despite the absence of living relatives to receive payment; it paid reparations directly to Israel. In the case of reparations for slavery, payments to historically black colleges and universities warrant consideration.
More than 155 years have passed since slavery was abolished with the ratification of the 13th Amendment. While reparations are not without precedent, the payment of reparations by those several generations removed from the actual perpetrators raises questions of social equity.
In a 1985 speech, then-German President Richard von Weizsacker called for intergenerational responsibility in the payment of reparations to the Jewish people for Germany’s role in the Holocaust. “All of us, whether guilty or not, whether old or young, must accept the past. We are all affected by its consequences and liable for it.”
Some in Israel, including future Prime Minister Menachem Begin, argued vehemently against accepting German reparation payments because they felt it was demeaning to the Jewish people. Then-Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion took the long view, reasoning that reparation payments were in Israel’s strategic interest. The reparations were used to place the fledgling state on sound financial footing, bolster its defenses, and ensure that the words “never again” would have real teeth.
Even if it were possible to defend intergenerational responsibility for slavery, the majority of whites living in the United States today are believed to be descendants of individuals that immigrated to this country after the Civil War. Proponents of reparations, invoking critical race theory, attempt to sidestep this issue by arguing that the taint of slavery continued well past 1865 through the Jim Crow laws and is present in modern-day America.
Another dimension to the forensic accounting question is the prospect that reparations have already been paid. Almost 2.5% of the U.S. population perished in the Civil War. Union troop deaths exceeded 400,000, with an additional 282,000 injured. With 4 million slaves in the U.S., this equates to one Union troop killed for every 10 slaves freed. What is the exchange rate for Union blood shed on the field of battle?
Programs that confer blacks with an economic advantage include affirmative action, set-aside contracts for minority-owned businesses, and racial preferences in college admissions. This is a zero-sum game: An advantage for blacks is a disadvantage for whites. Black participation in public assistance and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (“food stamps”) is more than 3 times and 2 times that of whites, respectively. To the extent this disparate participation is “compensation” for discrimination that is derivative to slavery, it constitutes de facto reparations.
Should a just nation remedy one injustice by creating another? This is the seminal question raised by reparations for slavery. The ledger of reparations should reflect a fair and accurate accounting of the high price this country has paid in various currencies to abolish slavery. Should objective analysis find that reparations are owed, it is only net reparations that should be paid.
Dennis L. Weisman is professor of economics emeritus at Kansas State University.
