For me, the best argument against reparations--besides the most obvious argument against reparations--is that this country already paid in the form of the Civil War. Henry Gates (of "black professor vs. Cambridge cop, resulting in beer summit" fame) has a new book out which addresses the issue
in a reasoned way.
I'm rather surprised to see Prof. Gates come over to the side of reason. I am sure this won't play well with the Reverend's Sharpton, Jackson and Wright because it treads on their messages that the problems of the African American community are some how always the fault of evil white racists. To actually allow the facts of past and continuing African involvement in procuring slaves as well as being slaves rocks that boat soundly. This also flies in the face of how races have intermarried. Do we deny one eighth of a reparation section based on ones white great grandpa? Do we insist that the descendants of immigrants who came after 1865 participate? While we may have control over our own decisions, we cannot control the decisions done in the past by other people. This is a simple case of visiting the sins of the father on his children. There is no way this is right.
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