Allen Guelzo
C-Span 2 Book TV aired a 2 hour discussion by American historian Allen Guelzo (Princeton). He specializes in the American intellectual history and the US Civil War. At 1:33:47 to 1:44:51 (~11 minutes), Gelzo answered a caller question about payment of reparations to Black Americans for past injustices. His take on the issue is interesting. A short summary is below.
Start with the definition of the kind of reparations to be paid
There are two distinct kinds of reparations, (i) for slavery, and (ii) for discrimination and injustices what came thereafter. Most people focus on reparations for slavery. These are the key questions that need to be answered as best they can be answered.
Reparations for slavery - it's complicated
1. Who will pay
Fed gov was not a slave owner
Slavery was up to the states and state laws
White descendants of slave owners are usually not capable of paying much in reparations
Pennsylvania was a slave state far longer (> 200 years) than Alabama (~60 years), therefore PA has much more responsibility than AL
But, for example, PA moved to abolish slavery and AL did not
The Civil War took ~750,000 total lives (average estimate); ~340,000 lives were lost on the Union side → all the lost lives were part of the cost of the war to end slavery (Lincoln: Every drop of blood drawn by the lash is being paid for by a drop of blood drawn by the sword)
How does one value those lost lives, including Lincoln's life, and reckon that against the reparations to be paid? And, if one omits this reckoning and reparations is just about getting a check, then one ignores the Civil War itself in the calculation.
2. Who gets paid
Many modern blacks Americans are descendants of slave owners → On average, black Americans are 20-25% white by descent due to sexual slavery and widespread rape under slavery
Blacks who are not slave descendants would get nothing
If a person today is a descendant of a slave and a slave holder, to whom does that person pay and how much do they pay?
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