by Devin Keller

Created on: July 24, 2009   Last Updated: July 25, 2009

The debate as to whether today's America owes restitution to the descendants of slaves is still alive. Considering it has been well over 100 years since slavery was abolished, it is rather surprising that there are people that feel restitution is due.

Let's first ask the question, "what is restitution?" I'm not sure I understand what people are referring to when they use this term. If we're discussing matters of civil litigation, money, or material items come to mind as restitution. Assuming this is the case, let's examine what that might mean. First, a system would have to be developed to determine the identity of all slave descendants in this country. I'm not sure how such a process might be conducted, but generating a list and subsequently validating the accuracy of that list would be an arduous and complicated task, not to mention expensive. Second, once a list has been compiled, someone would have to determine which descendants are eligible for monetary restitution. Would this just encompass the eldest descendant, closest in lineage to their ancestor, or would it be for all living descendants? And if it should be for all living descendants, why not for the next generation as well? Third, and perhaps most important, we would have to determine an appropriate dollar amount to be given, a task that requires its own examination.

How would we, in today's society, place a dollar amount on the suffering of slaves more than a century ago? There is no one alive today who can comprehend the amount of torture, shame, and despair that slavery inflicted on its victims. Many of us can't even imagine a society where blacks and whites didn't share the same bathrooms, seats on buses, or schools. Aside from the difficulties of assessing a dollar amount based on experience, should everyone be given an equal distribution? If so, why? Would it not be true that some suffered more than others and thus, by the eyes of the law, they require greater restitution to make them whole? What about those that spent a lifetime in slavery versus those that spent a few years before being emancipated? I'm not sure there is enough evidence that remains today to argue even a sliver of these cases.

Can we even afford to put a price tag on this? Let's say that we could achieve the impossible, and sort out all of these above issues, how would restitution be delivered? A check from the IRS? Cash? Bonds? Restitution in the form of money could only be given in a manner that

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>