Okay, I'll give you a good argument.
My disclaimer is that I am a lawyer, and I enjoy arguing for a living
I would like to begin by presenting "reparation" as it has been used both by the modern American government and several others. That is to say, reparations have been used by both our government and several others. The case for reparation is not exclusive to African Americans.
Perhaps the most poignant example in favor of reparation is the recognition that something in the past occurred which systematically and severely disenfranchised a category of people. Their circumstances in today's world are so directly related to that disenfranchisement that there is sense in making the action to offer reparation.
We learned, the hard way, why we always make reparations. Especially to those who seemingly deserve it not at all. Look no further than Germany in WWI. The United States, and several other countries, imposed severe restrictions on Germany as punishment. This gave rise to the extremely bitter sentiment that allowed the Nazi party to thrive. Our actions had created a group of extremely disenfranchised people who felt that their very core identity had been attacked, and the payment of their debts made economic recovery so agonizing that quite a lot of people liked what the Nazi party had to say.
Twenty years later, we corrected course after WWII. We very specifically and very
correctly knew that the path to healing, the path without further war, would come only from reparation.
And here, I have two asides:
The first is that I am in no way claiming that the African American community is equivalent to Nazi Germany. That would of course be ridiculous.
The second is that reparations serve a very calculated political purpose: it makes the losing party less likely to retaliate. They feel that they "got even" even if they lost.
China and Japan do not enjoy a healthy relationship today in large part because the Chinese feel (quite correctly) that an apology for Japan's actions in WWII did nothing to actually help with the horrors committed.
Apologies are nice but no one cares about them. They want retribution, acknowledgment, financial aid, or some combination of the three.
Finally, I would like to point out that reparations to the African American community need not be financial. I think the best reparation that can be offered, right now, is for the GOP to cease its voter suppression in the south.
That sort of acknowledgment, of historical racism plaguing African Americans in the south, would not cost anyone a dollar in cash. It would instead acknowledge that a problem exists, it has existed as a result of historical events, and it would put to an end so much of the injustice committed as a consequence.
So, there you have it. A very brief and incomplete history of reparations, a case for reparations today, and something that would end so much of the hostility in this nation.
You don't
want elected GOP officials to continue denying your countrymen the right to vote, right?
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