A "white" case for reparations for Blacks from slavery

Race, or the continuing effects of slavery, is, without paralell, America's singularly great national trauma. (Unlike the murdered natives, slavery left many descendants, and the nation had wanted to make use of their people, not be rid of them). America's racial divide is a wound that affects all of us.

I almost want to say that for me personally it has been the greatest historical societal trauma, and I am white. It goes beyond personal guilt or innocence, as traumatic experiences generally do. For me, and I know I am far from being alone in this respect, part of the trauma has been that of being, and fearing to be, a victim of people who are themselves victims. For in fact social problems and conflicts are never so simple as heroes and villains, nor are they solved by some claiming innocence. Innocence is a path to hate when the other is thought guilty.

An important reason for reparations is to offset the structurally caused relative poverty of Blacks. But the symbolic effects may be more important still. Reparations should be paid partly as a declaration of a national will to right an injustice. They should be paid by the nation more as recognition of a debt having been incurred than a way to close accounts. It is partly a way to say, "Yes, we know that slavery's legacy is real, but it is not that that we will." Then we must create forms of real equality, such as in public schools, which could easily be federally funded equally for every child.