On Reparations

There has been increasing discussion on the subject of reparations to the decedents of slaves. The other night Bret Baier interviewed Robert L. Johnson, the founder of Black Entertainment Television, on his plan for reparations. Presumably the billionaire entrepreneur would forego his share, if he is eligible for the $357,767 he is proposing to give to all black US citizens who are decedents of slaves. A cool fourteen trillion dollar outlay.

The key to this or any other reparations scheme is who will get it and who will pay for it. Obviously the US taxpayers will ultimately pay for it, which by the way most of the people receiving it would be as well. I know kind of silly isn't it. A more practical way, if it was serious would be to give those eligible a permanent tax exemption as reparations, but for how long? How many generations must citizens pay for the offspring of slaves?  But let's look at some other difficulties in this scheme other than the total un-American, unfair idea of making people pay for the sins of their fathers, or actually great, great, great grandfathers.

To be fair, it seems that only actual decedents of slaves would be eligible right? If so, you know who would not qualify? Barack Obama. Not only was his mother white, making him biracial, more on that later, his father, though black, was famously from Kenya. Now his wife, Michelle would be entitled to her share, but what about their daughters? Perhaps they would be entitled to a half share since they like their father are biracial at least as regards to slavehood status. On that subject, in the United States 2.7% of the population identify as biracial. That would be nearly nine million people. A large portion of them would be Black and Caucasian. These people would have to be identified and adjudicated proportionately.  I assume that the white portion of such individuals would pay reparations to their black portion. Silly isn't it? But we have only scratched the surface of the absurdity.

To be fair, we could not possibly penalize the descendants of people who were in no way responsible for America's original sin. Now we are not talking about the progeny of people who were opposed to slavery, or even the decedents of people who might have fought or perhaps even died to end slavery, they would not get a pass. Why? Because these ancestors were Americans when the original sin transpired so they must be held accountable. Abraham Lincoln's offspring are just as responsible for this great transgression as Jefferson Davis. Grant, who once owned a slave, is no less responsible for this than Lee. So, to simplify the reparation codes, all white Americans descended from white Americans prior to the civil war should pay for the sin. Fair enough? The 1860 census of the United States showed that there were 31,443,321 persons in the United States, both North and South. But what about the 77,968,368 individuals AND THEIR OFFSPRING, who migrated to the United States since the 1870? Will you have to prove that your family is post CW American? What about the sixty million plus Hispanic Americans or the nearly twenty million Asian Americans are they responsible for America's original sin? Perhaps they can get some sort of tax break, once their necessary heritage documentation is approved by the authorities. What if I could prove that I have 1/32nd slave blood through some ancestor who was a slave holder but raped a slave of whom I am an offspring? Do I get a cut of the the reparation pie? Far fetched? Thomas Jefferson may have had as many as six children with Sally Hemmings, one of his slaves. Now where do these offspring belong in the reparations debate. Do the get a special dispensation due to the fact that they are the black children of a slave holder. Perhaps they will get a bonus, because a great, great, great grandmother whom they never knew was the mistress of a great, great, great grandfather of a slaveholder that they never knew. Of course we would have to check to see if they had any additional white blood that has contaminated them in the proceeding generations. This would be required in order to determine the proper percentage of slavehood each person has suffered and to be properly compensated.

Sounds a bit like NAZI Germany determining the level of Aryaness or the Jim Crowe south determining whether you are white enough to sit at the front of the bus or drink from a white fountain. Oh and is the Virginia Governor a black man or a member of the KKK? Might be important when they hand out the checks.

When will this all end, it will end when we truly judge people not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character..... on all sides.