In My Honest Opinion... Reparations for Slavery

- April 12, 2019

Recently, New Jersey Senator Cory Booker has introduced a bill that would begin to look at paying reparations to the descendants of former slaves. This isn't a new idea; there have been a few different pushes for reparations, dating all the way back to the 1860s, 1890s, 1960s, 1980s, and, obviously, more recently as well. While this isn't a new idea, we've never gotten as close to seriously considering and delivering reparations as we have in 2019. Georgetown University voted on April 11th whether they should charge their students a $27.20 fee to go towards a slave reparations fund. I believe that reparations for slavery would be an unnecessary idea.
First of all, I am a huge proponent of letting bygones be bygones. I understand our country is built on the disenfranchisement of many groups of people- Native Americans, African Americans, hordes of immigrants- but that doesn't automatically mean we should begin paying them for past transgressions. Reparations for slavery also brings up the question of citizens paying for many other minorities- Native Americans for the loss of their land and culture, Jews for the Holocaust and many others. What qualifies as an offense extreme enough to be deserving of reparations? Additionally, who are the people paying for this fund?
Reparations- if they were truly deserved- should have been delivered much earlier. Obviously, this would have been an incredibly hard piece of legislation to pass- especially when racial tensions in the United States ran much higher- but passing legislation now wouldn't be helpful to the people we are actually trying to help. Instead of it being too little, too late, it's a case of far too much, too late.
One of the main reasons why this bill is being introduced involves many African Americans being below the poverty line. Lately, the poverty rate has been steadily lowering- not an indication of people struggling to escape poverty. Reparations also will likely go to everyone who can prove that they were a descendant of slaves: rich, middle class, or poor alike. Not everyone needs reparations. It's spending money that we don't have, on something that isn't needed. Additionally, sending chunks of money to people in poverty is not the way to actually aid them. Instead, we should focus on education, job skills, trade schools, and finance classes rather than throwing cash their way.
While I think that reparations are a commendable idea, I don't think it's necessary. I believe that, while slavery was a horrible institution, it's not beneficial to simply send African Americans a fee pulled from the mass population. These funds should have been paid much earlier- it's almost meaningless to start them now. And throwing money at people in poverty is not the way to get them out of poverty- instead, we should focus our efforts elsewhere. I think it's important to cut back on government spending and focus efforts on perfecting programs that we already have in use instead of trying to add more to the plate.