by Frances Taylor

Created on: July 17, 2008

First let's say what reparations are, and are not. Reparations don't cover entire racial, religious or cultural groups for historical events, such the Holocaust, the Trans-Atlantic slave trade or The Trail of Tears. No monetary amount could compensate a people for such events.

Reparations can only be made to specific individuals or groups in an effort to repair and repay for egregious acts of harm by government or legal entity that used its power immorally against a group of people.

The most famous reparation case is probably the US government's apology and compensation to Japanese-Americans who were imprisoned in internment camps and their property confiscated during WWII. Australia has recently apologized to its Aboriginal people for taking their children and sending them abroad for decades. It remains to be seen how the Australian government will compensate for that. Some attempts have been made to compensate the descendants of Holocaust survivors who worked as slaves for German companies that are still in business today.

The point is that reparations relate to specific circumstances. The debate in the US is whether and how African-Americans can and should be compensated for almost 300 years of slavery in the U.S. The short answer is that they can't be. But individuals and groups can be compensated for specific acts of immoral aggression on the part of a government that was legally bound to protect its citizens and failed to do so.

A primary example is Forsyth, Georgia, East St. Louis Missouri and Eatonville Florida where black communities in the 1920's and 30's were set afire, inhabitants lynched, and the entire population driven out. Census of records of the time would likely show who was living there at the time, and those people have probably have descendants who can and should be compensated through reparation and apology.

To often the debate over reparations degenerates a racial fight over who is guilty of what. The reality is that if a city, or a state or a government paid reparations using tax payer funds, African-Americans, who are tax-payers, would in some way be paying their own reparations.

The point is that African-Americans and others who seek reparations do so not for the money, but for recognition that a crime on a mass scale was committed and needs to be acknowledged.
The need for reparations ends or the time limit for collecting reparations arrives when there is an admission that a crime has occurred, and a sincere attempt at redress is made. It's not about looking backward, its about closing a chapter and looking ahead.

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