Drawbacks of Reparations (Rough Draft)
Some say that the descendants of slaves should receive reparations for the colonial past, but I believe this is not a practical way to improve the lives of African Americans due to the persisting racism. These reparations can include giving money or land to families or people whose ancestors were oppressed by slavery. While the sentiment is good, it will not actually solve the inequalities that black people face and it will only attempt to cover them up. Not only this but it will reveal issues of unfairness when it comes to who is selected and it will lead to more controversy than it will solutions.
To start, many descendants of slaves are mostly white or mixed with white. For example, I am mixed, with the majority of my ancestry being white, but I still have ancestors that were enslaved in America. This is not uncommon in today's society. Many people can even be much more “white-passing” than myself but still have ancestors that were slaves. To give these people benefits when they likely face little to no racial discrimination today would probably be a controversial decision. This is not the only point of contention when it comes to who qualifies for reparations. David Frum in his Atlantic article about “The Impossibility of Reparations” describes the complexity when it comes to deciding who can receive reparations. He asks “Does a mixed-race person qualify? How mixed? What about recent immigrants from Africa or the West Indies? What about future immigrants?” All these questions pose serious threats to the practicality of reparations and reinforce the need for a longer-term solution. In addition, because of the sheer amount of descendants of slaves, it is not economically feasible to give everyone impactful reparations.
During and after the Civil War, many slaves, and their families left the country, going up North or back to Africa. People also have emigrated to other countries for many years since that time as well. These slaves suffered as much as those who remained in America, but they would most likely not receive reparations because they are no longer citizens. It is not practical to give reparations to all descendants of slaves because of the way they have dissipated over time, but it is also not fair to only make amends with those who live in America. Therefore, if we really want to solve inequities that black people experience in America we should take a lot at the many ways they are set up to fail, including the education system and prisons.
A type of reparations has actually been attempted in America in the past with Affirmative Action. This is a program that gives preference in employment and admissions to African Americans. The idea of this is not bad but it is impossible to overlook the negative effects and impracticality. Affirmative action can give African Americans a leg up, but it also prevents them from being entrepreneurs and according to Frum, “Black Americans are less than half as likely as white to own their own businesses.” Affirmative action only creates a wider divide between races and it has a variety of drawbacks that we have seen in the past years.
It is possible to argue that other races of people in America have suffered as much or in similar as African-Americans. For example, Japanese Americans went through years of suffering during World War II. They would not be compensated with these reparations. Is this fair that one race receives benefits for their ancestor's adversities but others do not? Furthermore, other races and ethnicities such as Hispanics, Indians, and Middle Eastern people experience a lot of the same discrimination in present-day society that African Americans face. Giving only one group reparations will most likely provoke indignation from other groups. Frum claims that “Within only a very few months of the implementation of the Philadelphia plan, preferences of various kinds were extended to women, Hispanics, and other groups.” Reparations now not only cover a large amount of African American ancestors but also includes other groups which only inflates the impracticality. We need to create a solution to improve the effects of institutional racism for all people instead of just trying to give benefits to one group. Reparations will likely not only marginally improve the lives of the descendants of slaves, but it will also not solve racism in our country as a whole
Reparations are not practical in the 21st century because there are so many deeper issues that will not go away. Institutionalized racism has always been a part of American History and reparations will not fix this. The effects of years of oppression have led to strong disparities in African Americans. According to The Atlantic’s David Frum “Young black Americans spend on average 4.5 hours more per day with electronic media”. This has negative effects on their lives and will not be fixed with reparations. Therefore, we need a deeper solution to actually improve the lives of black people. Reparations may work as a temporary fix but they will not solve these larger issues. Therefore we need to come up with ways to end the discrimination and racism that still exists today and can lead to poor quality of life for black Americans.
It is not realistic to make happen in a powerful way. Giving people reparations does not ensure prosperity and success for these people in the future, or even at the time. To give an example, Kyle Smith in his Forbes article describes how giving away land to families in a land lottery did not lead to success for those families in the future. He says “one generation after the distribution of the Georgia land, sons of winners have no better adult outcomes (wealth, income, literacy) than the sons of non-winners”. This is evidence that is reparations are not the best long-term solution because other issues will still persist. In the case of reparations for slaves descendants, racism will still persist and they will still struggle to thrive in American society. Reparations may help in the short term but they will not actually solve any problems.
It is undeniable that black Americans have faced extreme atrocities throughout American history, but I do not think that reparations are the most impactful way to solve these problems. Instead, we should focus on solving the inequities that continue to occur today. I argue that we should put programs in place and focus on helping all people of color who are suffering. To truly solve the problem we need to look deeper and solve the institutional racism instead of simply covering it up with handouts that will ultimately be temporary.
