There has been a lot of talk about slave reparations and the possibility of their disbursement among African-Americans in this country.
This entire idea is ludicrous. The plan calls for dozens of companies to pay $1.4 trillion to the entire African-American population. The idea is that if one drop of blood in that person came from a slave, then they deserve reparations.
On the surface, this sounds kind of nice. It sounds like those who held slaves during a dark time in our nation's history must finally pay for their crimes against humanity. Unfortunately, those people are long dead, and so are the slaves they owned.
But when digging farther to discover the truth, disturbing truths emerge. The first of these truths is the economic impact, and the second is far more profound.
If every company that ever owned a slave or has acquired a corporation that owned a slave, then most of America's largest and most proud corporations would be subject to this request for reparations. Unfortunately, this would have an impact on everyone.
The products and services we enjoy every day from soft drinks to clothing would become exponentially more expensive. Companies would have to raise their prices for every product they produce to offset the loss faced through payment of reparations.
The greater and more sinister consequence of these reparations is social destruction. I ask any African-American to answer this one question: How will $1.4 trillion heal the wounds of slavery? How will receiving money make that injustice OK?
Of course nothing that can ever be said or done can ever make up for the narrow-minded attitude that allowed one man to be owned by another. No reward, cash payment or governmental proclamation can ever replace the dignity and years of life stripped from slaves by their owners. So, the deeper, harder and more important question is, why even try?
There is no easy way to explain the motivation for such legal action. Many believe this entire plan is another extortionist operation by Jesse Jackson. A recent book titled "Shakedown" sheds light on Jackson's operations and makes clear his procedures are all over this reparations lawsuit.
There is great danger in this lawsuit. First, considering the enormous cost of pursuing such action, it stands to reason that the actual awards to the descendants of slaves will be quite small. Secondly, there is the social impact of a decision in one direction or another.
A decision in favor of slave reparations will most likely cause a sweeping resurgence of racism in many people who had nothing to do with slavery and oppose the very concept of it. A decision against reparations will be labeled as the victory of the white establishment over the oppressed black man.
A decision in favor or against slave reparations will have long-running and dangerous consequences. A verdict for either side will likely cause riots and looting across the country as angry people show their disdain for such a decision.
Regardless of the decision in such a case, there are two apparent and clear losers. The first is the relationship between African-Americans and whites. Their interactions will suffer for decades because of such a decision, and the unanticipated biggest loser is every American, black or white.
Write to Russell at rlgreim@bsu.edu
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