Reparations: Calculating the Cost of a 400-year-old crime

By Tammy Joyner

What would reparations look like for 40 million black Americans?

Using the 40-acres-and-a-mule rule-of-thumb, the bill comes to about $6.4 trillion.

If that amount doesn’t seem appropriate, consider this one.

A former University of Ottawa physics professor determined reparations actually total $59.2 trillion. He calculated the value of the stolen labor at $3.7 trillion, or 2 million slaves working 10 hours a day, 365 days a year for 70 years (between 1790 and 1860) at a rate of $7.25 an hour. Applying a 2 percent interest rate compounded annually, he reached the $59.2 trillion figure. And that calculation was made four years ago. So one can imagine what the invoice would be today.

Don’t feel like cutting a check? Perhaps a well-funded foundation that would finance college for black people who want to further their education?

Or, what about no taxes for 30 years — sort of like what our federal, state and local governments do for Big Business?

That said, no amount of fancy financial finagling can make up for the misery, humiliation, suffering and sacrifice black Americans have endured since landing here four centuries ago.

Without us, there would be no:

- White House or Washington, D.C. (Benjamin Banneker laid out the city and slaves built it)