Is money always the answer

Is money always the answer?

September 6, 2001

'Smatter of Fact
By Katharhynn Heidelberg

Few doubt that racism is malignant and ugly. Fewer still would doubt that the institution of American slavery based the imprisonment, torture and marketing of other human beings primarily on skin color. Indeed, this institution was in part responsible for the Civil War.

In 2001, there’s another battle brewing: Reparations. Few black slaves were ever paid for their backbreaking labor; they were not compensated for outrageous emotional and physical suffering, or for several other "items" on a laundry list of civil rights abuses.

There are few, if any, former slaves still living, however, and there lies the rub. Should financial compensation be made to their descendants? Should there be an official apology?

These serious questions, alas, are only being given the gloss of serious consideration. Many African Americans — and many white Americans — are rightly disgusted with current racism, and have hopped aboard the reparations bandwagon. Few of them have asked: "Who will be paying?"

There are essentially three choices: White people, all tax-paying Americans (synonymous, after all, with "the government"), or the descendants of slave owners.

The first choice holds an entire group of people financially responsible based on the color of their skin. In this P.C. world, surely that’s no good — after all, this is the very definition of racism. (Right?)

The second choice is fundamentally absurd. "American taxpayers" include African Americans — why should they pay their own reparations?

The third choice punishes certain white people for the sins of their forefathers by holding them responsible for a past they had no control over. Unless it can be proved that the current wealth of these individuals was directly en-riched by the free labor of slaves, this choice is as problematic as any other.

One can reason that, since Holocaust survivors, and the Japanese Americans interred during World War II are getting reparations, some sort of compensation should be offered up on the altar of human decency. Certainly, some modern African nations see it that way — several have joined in the push for slavery reparations.

These governments are missing not one point, but two. First, the reparations in the above instances were made to direct victims, not indirect ones. It is true that African Americans have suffered since slavery ended. It is true that slavery as an institution has vanished, but the ideology remains. However, the reparations are being sought for slavery itself, not for racism in general.

The second point being missed is the concept of supply and demand. Slaves were originally sold to Europeans by other Africans. One wonders if modern African states would be so supportive of reparations if they were asked to help foot the bill. I wonder if they might send some of the cash my way. After all, the ancient Egyptians kept white slaves, and I might be descended from one.

As for an apology, I know of no one who isn’t sorry that slavery happened. I know of no one who doesn’t regard slavery as the antithesis of what America stands for. But again, it’s a question of whom. Who can apologize to the dead, on behalf of the dead? And, does an apology change history?

It does not. It cannot. How much then, can cold, hard cash?

The only reparation remotely adequate has already been paid, and it is beyond monetary value. It is equal opportunity.

Leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. forced a reluctant population to acknowledge this constitutional right as applying to people of all creed and color, not just to whites. Dr. King urged African Americans to fight for that right...and to do something with it.

Some of today’s black leaders are "doing something" by encouraging young people to demand cash in the loudest voice possible. That black slaves likely wanted freedom and dignity more than money is a fact that has fallen by the wayside. That those who demand reparations were never slaves themselves is ignored altogether. The beauty of the argument is that anyone who questions it may be dismissed either as a traitor or a racist.

Intentions aside, reparations supporters have missed something even more fundamental. The love of money is the root of evil, not the cure for it.