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Should America Pay?: Slavery and the Raging Debate on Reparations
Growing interest in reparations for African Americans has prompted a range of responses, from lawsuits against major corporations and a march in Washington to an anti-reparations ad campaign. As a result, the link between slavery and contemporary race relations is more potent and obvious than ever. Grassroots organizers, lawmakers, and distinguished academics have embraced the idea that reparations should be pursued vigorously in the courts and legislature. But others ask, Who should pay? And could reparations help heal the wounds of the past? This comprehensive collection -- the only of its kind -- gathers together the seminal essays and key participants in the debate. Pro-reparations essays, including contributions by Congressman John Conyers Jr., Christopher Hitchens, and Professor Molefi Asante, are countered with arguments by Shelby Steele, Armstrong Williams, and John McWhorter, among others. Also featured are important documents, such as the First Congressional Reparations Bill of 1867 and the Dakar Declaration of 2001, as well as a new chapter on the current status and future direction of the movement.
416 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2003
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March 30, 2012
...the short answer: YES. doi.
May 12, 2024
AN EXCELLENT SELECTION OF ESSAYS ON ALL SIDES OF THE DISCUSSION
Raymond Arnold Winbush (aka Tikari Bioko) is an American-African scholar and activist who is Research Professor and Director of the Institute for Urban Research at Morgan State University.
He wrote in the Introduction to this 2003 book, “the reparations movement, historically considered a fringe issue in the American Black nationalist community, is now firmly established among various constituencies in the United States as well as in African communities around the world… Though the movement is picking up speed, compensatory measures for Africans have been elusive because of the entrenchment of white supremacy in world politics that provided legal sanction for this crime against humanity. Africans around the world have watched groups such as the Japanese, Jews, and others receive reparations for government-sanctioned crimes against them, while eyebrows are raised and arguments dismissed as nonsensical when similar justice for Africans and their descendants are made… It is clear that the payment of reparations is … firmly rooted in international law, which the United States recognizes. It is also important to note that … conservatives heads of state---President Ronald Reagan, for example---have endorsed them for victims of crimes against humanity.” (Pg. xi)
He continues, “[This book] acquaints the reader with the many voices in a movement whose momentum is growing geometrically… This book will give you in-depth knowledge of where the movement has been, where it is now, and where it will be in the future. The contributors present facts… and reveal their ideas about a volatile subject. Some will anger you, while others will leave you with a feeling of empowerment about what you ought to do next. Some readers will wish they’d embraced the movement earlier, while others will be dismissive … If any of these emotions come to you, and I am sure they will, we have done our job well in providing you with information that will be central to any dialogue about race during the first quarter of the twenty-first century.” (Pg. xiv-xv)
Molefi Kete Asante explains in his essay, “it becomes clear that the basis for [reparations] is interwoven with the cultural fabric of the American nation. It is not un-American to seek the redress of wrongs through the use of some form of compensatory restitution. For example, the MORAL ideas of the argument are made from the concept of rightness as conceived in the religious literature of the American people… Using LEGAL ideas for the argument for reparations, one relies on the judicial heritage of the United States. Clearly, the ideas of justice and fair play, while often thwarted … characterize the legal ideal in American jurisprudence… I believe that the idea of reparations… is a restorative justice issue. The ECONOMIC case is a simple argument for the payment to the descendants of the enslaved for the work that was done and the deprivation that was experienced by our ancestors… Finally, the POLITICAL aspect of reparations is wrapped in the clothes of the American political reality… the underlying fault in the American body politic is the unresolved issue of enslavement… A concentration on the political term for reparations will lead to a useful argument for national unity.” (Pg. 4-5)
He continues, “It is possible to argue for reparations on the following grounds: (1) forced migration, (2) forced deprivation of culture, (3) forced labor, and (4) forced deprivation of wealth by segregation and racism… Africans often lost their freedom … were between the ages of fifteen and twenty years---robbery of prime youth. A second factor is based on the loss of innocence where abuse---physical, psychological, and sexual---was the order of the day in the life of the enslaved African… Thirdly, one has to consider … the severe loss of life in transit… Fourthly, the factor of loss due to maimed limbs… Thus, to have freedom, will, culture, religion, and health controlled and denied is to create the most thorough conditions for the loss of ancestral memory. The Africans who were enslaved in America were among the most deprived humans in history.” (Pg. 11-12)
He continues, “One way to approach the issue of reparations is to speak about MONEY but not necessarily about CASH… it will not have to be the giving of billions of dollars of cash to individuals, although it will cost billions of dollars… Among the potential options are educational grants, health care, land or property grants, and a combination of such grants. Any reparations should deal with long-term issues in the African American community rather than a onetime cash payout. What I have argued for is the establishment of some type of organization that would evaluate how reparations would be determined and distributed.” (Pg. 12)
Jon M. Van Dyke observes, “The world has long recognized the enslavement of one person by another as one of the grossest violations of the fundamental human rights of individuals. The international community has also reached a solid consensus that all violations of human rights must be investigated and documented, that the perpetrators of human rights abuses must be punished, and that the victims of human rights violations have a right to compensation… thus a new enlightened government that replaces a bad authoritarian government has a duty to punish the human rights abusers from the previous government and to compensate its victims.” (Pg. 57) Later, he adds, “It is true that it would be inappropriate to pursue individual guilt at this point, but the collective responsibility of our government cannot be denied, nor can it be denied that white people, speaking generally, continue to benefit from the burdens that were imposed for hundreds of years on Blacks.” (Pg. 72)
Robert Westly notes, “it the land redistribution program pursued by Congress during Reconstruction had not been undermined by President [Andrew] Johnson, if Congress’s enactments on behalf of political and social equality for blacks had not been undermined by the courts, if the Republicans had not sacrificed the goal of social justice on the altar of political compromise, and Southern whites had not drowned Black hope in a sea of desire for racial superiority, then talk of reparations---or genocide---at this point in history might be obtuse, if not perverse.” (Pg. 125) He continues, “Because it is my belief that Blacks have been and are harmed as a group, that racism is a group practice, I am opposed to individual reparations as a primary policy objective. Obviously, the payment of group reparations would create the need and the opportunity for institution building that individual compensation would not.” (Pg. 127)
He acknowledges, “a plan for Black reparations could be attacked on the grounds that Blacks who enjoy relatively privileged and discrimination-free lives would benefit at the expense of underprivileged whites and non-Black nonwhites… This criticism substitutes class status rather than racial group status as the proper basis for remediation. One difficulty with this approach is racially identifiable class stratification, with Blacks disproportionately absent from and whites overly represented among the privileged classes… Nonetheless, it would be undeniably troubling if a relatively privileged group insisted on pressing its entitlement claims in a context in which the underprivileged and truly disadvantaged would have to pay.” (Pg. 130)
Armstrong Williams takes a contrary view: “Despite the marked socioeconomic progress black Americans have made in this country over the past half century, the reparations movement, at bottom, encourages minorities to believe that they are really lost souls. The leaders of this movement do not talk about how such a distant crime has led to specific damages in the present lives of most minorities. For them, feelings of victimization in general, not damages in the specific, are the point. So they fervently maintain that all full-grown, capable minorities ought to blame the missed opportunities of their lives on the slavery that transpired centuries ago as though their pains were interchangeable with those endured by slaves… the reparations movement encourages minorities to regard themselves, collectively, as helpless victims.” (Pg. 165-166) He continues, “reparations make no distinction between the American black who has been successful and the American black who has floundered. It holds… that every man, woman, and child with black skin should be outed by the government as a victim whether they know it or not.” (Pg. 169)
John McWhorter also opposes reparations: “throughout [Randall Robinson’s book ‘The Debt’] we are taught---by a black man---that the residents of four dozen countries speaking over one thousand languages are all simply ‘Africans.’ There is an ideological reason for this lumping tendency. If we treat ‘Africans’ as a single culture, then we can claim the literate and technologically advanced societies of Egypt and Mali as ‘our ancestors.’… It is safe to say that not a single African American is descended from an ancient Egyptian, and only a very small proportion of slaves were brought to America from as far north as present-day Mali… But current work in anthropology demonstrates that the reason most West Africans … had not created the kinds of ‘civilizations’ that Europeans and some other groups had created was largely an accident of geography… But the most glaring omission in Robinson’s uplifting depiction of my alleged African homeland is the fact that Africans themselves were avid and uncomplaining agents in the selling of other Africans to whites… most slaves---were obtained by African kings in intertribal wars, and were sold in masses to European merchants in exchange for material goods.” (Pg. 184-185)
Shelby Steele in a similar vein argues, “The worst enemy black America faces today is not white racism but white guilt. This is what encouraged us to invent new pleas rather than busy ourselves with the hard work of development. So willing are whites are willing to treat us with deference that they are a hard mark to pass up. The entire civil rights movement establishment strategizes to keep us the wares of white guilt. If these groups had to rely on black money rather than white corporate funding, they would all go under tomorrow.” (Pg. 198)
Yaa Asantewa Nzingha suggests, “Totally eliminating the damage done to African people during the slavery and continuing into the twenty-first century is virtually impossible. Yet there are programs and opportunities that can and must be put in place to at least begin the process of repairing the damage. I have concluded that the core of the problem in educating black children lies in the lack of connecting them to their African identity. Most of them simply do not have a clue as to who they are culturally, historically, spiritually, or socially.” (Pg. 312)
Nontombi Tutu wrote in the Afterword, “Why is it that the demands of African states for reparations from the colonial powers have been ignored for over forty years?... Part of the answer must be found in the world’s willingness to ignore demands for justice by people of color. Rather, it has been easier to offer CHARITY, which maintains a system where people of color as seen as RECIPIENTS of the largesse of the West rather than CLAIMANTS to what is rightfully theirs… The problem with charity… is that it is reliant on the goodwill of the benefactor. When the charitable feelings end, as has clearly happened in the United States with regard to affirmative action, there is no incentive to continue to give until the wrongs committed have been righted. A demand for justice … [is based on] the right of the recipients to be compensated for crimes against them.” (Pg. 232-233)
This well-balanced collection will be of great interest to those studying the issue of African-American reparations, and related topics.
Raymond Arnold Winbush (aka Tikari Bioko) is an American-African scholar and activist who is Research Professor and Director of the Institute for Urban Research at Morgan State University.
He wrote in the Introduction to this 2003 book, “the reparations movement, historically considered a fringe issue in the American Black nationalist community, is now firmly established among various constituencies in the United States as well as in African communities around the world… Though the movement is picking up speed, compensatory measures for Africans have been elusive because of the entrenchment of white supremacy in world politics that provided legal sanction for this crime against humanity. Africans around the world have watched groups such as the Japanese, Jews, and others receive reparations for government-sanctioned crimes against them, while eyebrows are raised and arguments dismissed as nonsensical when similar justice for Africans and their descendants are made… It is clear that the payment of reparations is … firmly rooted in international law, which the United States recognizes. It is also important to note that … conservatives heads of state---President Ronald Reagan, for example---have endorsed them for victims of crimes against humanity.” (Pg. xi)
He continues, “[This book] acquaints the reader with the many voices in a movement whose momentum is growing geometrically… This book will give you in-depth knowledge of where the movement has been, where it is now, and where it will be in the future. The contributors present facts… and reveal their ideas about a volatile subject. Some will anger you, while others will leave you with a feeling of empowerment about what you ought to do next. Some readers will wish they’d embraced the movement earlier, while others will be dismissive … If any of these emotions come to you, and I am sure they will, we have done our job well in providing you with information that will be central to any dialogue about race during the first quarter of the twenty-first century.” (Pg. xiv-xv)
Molefi Kete Asante explains in his essay, “it becomes clear that the basis for [reparations] is interwoven with the cultural fabric of the American nation. It is not un-American to seek the redress of wrongs through the use of some form of compensatory restitution. For example, the MORAL ideas of the argument are made from the concept of rightness as conceived in the religious literature of the American people… Using LEGAL ideas for the argument for reparations, one relies on the judicial heritage of the United States. Clearly, the ideas of justice and fair play, while often thwarted … characterize the legal ideal in American jurisprudence… I believe that the idea of reparations… is a restorative justice issue. The ECONOMIC case is a simple argument for the payment to the descendants of the enslaved for the work that was done and the deprivation that was experienced by our ancestors… Finally, the POLITICAL aspect of reparations is wrapped in the clothes of the American political reality… the underlying fault in the American body politic is the unresolved issue of enslavement… A concentration on the political term for reparations will lead to a useful argument for national unity.” (Pg. 4-5)
He continues, “It is possible to argue for reparations on the following grounds: (1) forced migration, (2) forced deprivation of culture, (3) forced labor, and (4) forced deprivation of wealth by segregation and racism… Africans often lost their freedom … were between the ages of fifteen and twenty years---robbery of prime youth. A second factor is based on the loss of innocence where abuse---physical, psychological, and sexual---was the order of the day in the life of the enslaved African… Thirdly, one has to consider … the severe loss of life in transit… Fourthly, the factor of loss due to maimed limbs… Thus, to have freedom, will, culture, religion, and health controlled and denied is to create the most thorough conditions for the loss of ancestral memory. The Africans who were enslaved in America were among the most deprived humans in history.” (Pg. 11-12)
He continues, “One way to approach the issue of reparations is to speak about MONEY but not necessarily about CASH… it will not have to be the giving of billions of dollars of cash to individuals, although it will cost billions of dollars… Among the potential options are educational grants, health care, land or property grants, and a combination of such grants. Any reparations should deal with long-term issues in the African American community rather than a onetime cash payout. What I have argued for is the establishment of some type of organization that would evaluate how reparations would be determined and distributed.” (Pg. 12)
Jon M. Van Dyke observes, “The world has long recognized the enslavement of one person by another as one of the grossest violations of the fundamental human rights of individuals. The international community has also reached a solid consensus that all violations of human rights must be investigated and documented, that the perpetrators of human rights abuses must be punished, and that the victims of human rights violations have a right to compensation… thus a new enlightened government that replaces a bad authoritarian government has a duty to punish the human rights abusers from the previous government and to compensate its victims.” (Pg. 57) Later, he adds, “It is true that it would be inappropriate to pursue individual guilt at this point, but the collective responsibility of our government cannot be denied, nor can it be denied that white people, speaking generally, continue to benefit from the burdens that were imposed for hundreds of years on Blacks.” (Pg. 72)
Robert Westly notes, “it the land redistribution program pursued by Congress during Reconstruction had not been undermined by President [Andrew] Johnson, if Congress’s enactments on behalf of political and social equality for blacks had not been undermined by the courts, if the Republicans had not sacrificed the goal of social justice on the altar of political compromise, and Southern whites had not drowned Black hope in a sea of desire for racial superiority, then talk of reparations---or genocide---at this point in history might be obtuse, if not perverse.” (Pg. 125) He continues, “Because it is my belief that Blacks have been and are harmed as a group, that racism is a group practice, I am opposed to individual reparations as a primary policy objective. Obviously, the payment of group reparations would create the need and the opportunity for institution building that individual compensation would not.” (Pg. 127)
He acknowledges, “a plan for Black reparations could be attacked on the grounds that Blacks who enjoy relatively privileged and discrimination-free lives would benefit at the expense of underprivileged whites and non-Black nonwhites… This criticism substitutes class status rather than racial group status as the proper basis for remediation. One difficulty with this approach is racially identifiable class stratification, with Blacks disproportionately absent from and whites overly represented among the privileged classes… Nonetheless, it would be undeniably troubling if a relatively privileged group insisted on pressing its entitlement claims in a context in which the underprivileged and truly disadvantaged would have to pay.” (Pg. 130)
Armstrong Williams takes a contrary view: “Despite the marked socioeconomic progress black Americans have made in this country over the past half century, the reparations movement, at bottom, encourages minorities to believe that they are really lost souls. The leaders of this movement do not talk about how such a distant crime has led to specific damages in the present lives of most minorities. For them, feelings of victimization in general, not damages in the specific, are the point. So they fervently maintain that all full-grown, capable minorities ought to blame the missed opportunities of their lives on the slavery that transpired centuries ago as though their pains were interchangeable with those endured by slaves… the reparations movement encourages minorities to regard themselves, collectively, as helpless victims.” (Pg. 165-166) He continues, “reparations make no distinction between the American black who has been successful and the American black who has floundered. It holds… that every man, woman, and child with black skin should be outed by the government as a victim whether they know it or not.” (Pg. 169)
John McWhorter also opposes reparations: “throughout [Randall Robinson’s book ‘The Debt’] we are taught---by a black man---that the residents of four dozen countries speaking over one thousand languages are all simply ‘Africans.’ There is an ideological reason for this lumping tendency. If we treat ‘Africans’ as a single culture, then we can claim the literate and technologically advanced societies of Egypt and Mali as ‘our ancestors.’… It is safe to say that not a single African American is descended from an ancient Egyptian, and only a very small proportion of slaves were brought to America from as far north as present-day Mali… But current work in anthropology demonstrates that the reason most West Africans … had not created the kinds of ‘civilizations’ that Europeans and some other groups had created was largely an accident of geography… But the most glaring omission in Robinson’s uplifting depiction of my alleged African homeland is the fact that Africans themselves were avid and uncomplaining agents in the selling of other Africans to whites… most slaves---were obtained by African kings in intertribal wars, and were sold in masses to European merchants in exchange for material goods.” (Pg. 184-185)
Shelby Steele in a similar vein argues, “The worst enemy black America faces today is not white racism but white guilt. This is what encouraged us to invent new pleas rather than busy ourselves with the hard work of development. So willing are whites are willing to treat us with deference that they are a hard mark to pass up. The entire civil rights movement establishment strategizes to keep us the wares of white guilt. If these groups had to rely on black money rather than white corporate funding, they would all go under tomorrow.” (Pg. 198)
Yaa Asantewa Nzingha suggests, “Totally eliminating the damage done to African people during the slavery and continuing into the twenty-first century is virtually impossible. Yet there are programs and opportunities that can and must be put in place to at least begin the process of repairing the damage. I have concluded that the core of the problem in educating black children lies in the lack of connecting them to their African identity. Most of them simply do not have a clue as to who they are culturally, historically, spiritually, or socially.” (Pg. 312)
Nontombi Tutu wrote in the Afterword, “Why is it that the demands of African states for reparations from the colonial powers have been ignored for over forty years?... Part of the answer must be found in the world’s willingness to ignore demands for justice by people of color. Rather, it has been easier to offer CHARITY, which maintains a system where people of color as seen as RECIPIENTS of the largesse of the West rather than CLAIMANTS to what is rightfully theirs… The problem with charity… is that it is reliant on the goodwill of the benefactor. When the charitable feelings end, as has clearly happened in the United States with regard to affirmative action, there is no incentive to continue to give until the wrongs committed have been righted. A demand for justice … [is based on] the right of the recipients to be compensated for crimes against them.” (Pg. 232-233)
This well-balanced collection will be of great interest to those studying the issue of African-American reparations, and related topics.
September 16, 2024
I’ve been a little more generous with my ratings, but this compilation of essays really does do a masterful job of encapsulating a rather complex discussion. It was also a treasure trove for more books to read on the topic, which is what is usually the test for as to whether a nonfiction book is any good, if it doesn’t inspire you to keep reading, then it didn’t do its job.
About this book, specifically, I had heard the term reparations and assumed it just meant paying people for the wrongs committed, but on a deeper dive, money won’t solve the systemic racism ingrained in the US.
About this book, specifically, I had heard the term reparations and assumed it just meant paying people for the wrongs committed, but on a deeper dive, money won’t solve the systemic racism ingrained in the US.
January 5, 2009
I really enjoyed the way this book compared so many different perspectives on the issues.
December 27, 2010
Good informational read. Input from many different writers. Very informative and informational
February 25, 2019
For anyone that has ever wondered about the origin of “40 acres and a mule” (like Spike Lee’s production company) then this book would be a great place to start.
Should America Pay? is a collection of essays from people who largely support the idea of reparations for descendants of African slaves in the U.S. The book approaches the issue from various angles and even has three rebuttal essays (by Armstrong Williams, John McWhorther, and Shelby Steele). The book is very thorough and covers reparations more than just anecdotally. It establishes the need for reparations, the possible avenues of achieving reparations, the form that reparations would take, and of course the obstacles.
I appreciate the informative nature of the book. Reparations has always been a word that I’d hear ever so often just in the course of conversation with no real sense of viability to it. It was usually spoken in a wishful tone, if not an angry tone. Reparations had never been a passion of mine. This book didn’t change that for me but it at least gave me a better understanding of its history and its necessity.
Should America Pay? is a collection of essays from people who largely support the idea of reparations for descendants of African slaves in the U.S. The book approaches the issue from various angles and even has three rebuttal essays (by Armstrong Williams, John McWhorther, and Shelby Steele). The book is very thorough and covers reparations more than just anecdotally. It establishes the need for reparations, the possible avenues of achieving reparations, the form that reparations would take, and of course the obstacles.
I appreciate the informative nature of the book. Reparations has always been a word that I’d hear ever so often just in the course of conversation with no real sense of viability to it. It was usually spoken in a wishful tone, if not an angry tone. Reparations had never been a passion of mine. This book didn’t change that for me but it at least gave me a better understanding of its history and its necessity.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews