Reparations in The United States - Essay Example

Introduction Reparations claims refer back to the time of slavery experienced by the African Americans during the time of slavery. 1 It refers to proposal requesting for a number of compensation that must be offered to the children of imprisoned people in the Unites States to compensate the forced and uncompensated employment their descendants did in the past.2 The compensation was proposed in different forms from land ownership to monetary compensations. Several scholars have expressed that, the United States government was directly accountable for the tireless inequality experienced by the African Americans. The government not only condoned slavery for nine years since 1776 to 1865, but it also imposed slavery’s destructive legacy across its offenses both in and after the Civil War Restoration age.3 The four million slaves who were freed were poor, and mainly illiterate. They were not offered the support, and public rights securities necessary to start successful well-being as free individuals following liberation.4 This essay presents reasons why should the United States pay out reparations as a way to address the legacy of slavery, segregation, and lynching in the country. 1 Supporters for reparations claim that it is not meant to go against the Americans or specific Americans. It was established to demand for compensation from the American regime, and people from the period of slavery to when it was stopped because as the society felt the benefits of their society they should also share burdens through taxation to pay for their past actions. When the African Americans were taken in as slaves, they were denied their inheritance, they face racism and therefore, they need to be compensated.5 2 The life challenges the African American are facing today are because of slavery, and the life they underwent during slavery.6 This is because they were taken from their homes in Africa, and abused in America by a regularity that ruined the structure of their families, as well as destroying the individual. When the American decided to end slavery, the African American were left with nothing, denied education, segregated making them experience a lot of economic challenges. Compared to the Europeans, the African American remained disadvantaged in the society, and it is said that they are likely to remain like that until the government compensates them.7 3 The provided welfare and affirmative action, as well as other effort established to address socio economic challenges of the African Americans have been too small.8 These efforts have failed because the society has failed to tackle the main challenge affecting the African American people. This is because of racism and discrimination they present to the African American people.9 To some extent the social welfare programs were established for good intentions. However, have largely contributed to the isolation of the African American people, and further destroyed the African American society. Furthermore, the established programs only benefited other people leaving out the African Americans.4 Supporters for reparations noted that, reparations were not going to promote dependence. However, they were going to offer the African American people an opportunity to develop their own economic foundation and become independent.10 According to McCarthy, reparations were meant to restore past injustices, to amend the harms imposed, and to socialize their victims. This is because several existing African Americans went to isolated schools that had limited resources. In other circumstances where they went for higher education, then it was upon them to choose a black collage or not attend college at all.11 The African Americans experienced discrimination in job appointments, and they experienced poor access of information. They were categorized as second class citizens in the United States. McCarthy noted that this reparation took two forms the collective compensation and collective responsibility.12 Under collective compensation government in charge of reparations supported a type of collective compensation that would control the formation of trust finances, reforms, strategies, and programs devised to increase African America institutions, and offer resources for overwhelming deeply disparities inherited from prejudice. 13 This is because historically, the African Americans were harassed and victimized because they were Africans in a lawful political platform that assumed that they were not worthy of equal respect and kindness because of their color.14 5 When a society discriminates people because of their color, they face several challenges in their lives. Given that the African Americans experienced a lot of harm, and were disadvantaged as a community or as a group they deserve compensation as a group or a society. However, McCarthy noted that, Janna Thompson concept of Trans-generational obligations, and responsibilities, where she advocated for compensation owned to specific person who are members of the family of the descendants that experienced the discrimination because of racism.15 6 Another form of compensation takes the form of collective nature of the harm experienced by the African American people. The movement identifies the discrimination that was a main feature in the United States society, and did not reduce with the changes made in the laws in 1960s.16 This changed laws left out the patterns, and structures of discrimination that affected the African American citizens, which can be achieved through provision of individual resources. Therefore, there was need to compensate the African American as a group, and it was going to reduce the challenge of paying them one by one.17 In collective responsibility, McCarthy defends the ethical political situation for reparations. In this case, she noted that the case of reparations should make use of systematic information that the United States is a state with a constitutional history that is not broken, and that the African American were not given a similar protection like the white Americans under these laws.18 The compensations subject did not increase more animosity of African American. Most citizens acknowledge that slavery was an ethically outrageous system that inflicted severe discomfort, and misery on African American citizens. Several city ruling body in Dallas, Chicago, Los Angeles, Oakland, and other municipalities in the previous years have taken decisions supporting a centralized commission to investigate the issue of reparations.19 There were no state protest when the government crafted special insurance payments, offered land, and societal service welfares to African Americans incarcerated during the slavery.207 The proponents and opponents of this compensation acknowledge that slavery, and its consequences of legalized discrimination, which was harmful affected the African American. This was a historical claim that needed to be compensated. It is evident that, the schools the white attended were well equipped, and had many resources unlike the schools the black attended, which were of poor quality, and offered low quality education. This led to the creation of African Americans who were not qualified to fit in the developed world. There was a difference in social environments occupied by the whites, and those occupied by the African American citizens21 Historically, slavery ended in the year 1865. However, the heritage of slavery remained in the United States of America. A report conducted in Washington DC by the Conference for Community and Justice discovered that, the African Americans are still experiencing racial discrimination, and they live in a segregated community.22 They are also denied housing loans, business loans, as well as promotions in their places of work. They even attended segregated schools, and live in extreme poverty than their white counterparts. 23 Several Americans believed that the request, and demand for compensation for the African American was a crusade that originated from the holocaust compensation movement or the fight to obtain an apology from the white American citizens who conducted many injustices during the time of slavery. The demand for compensation preceded the Second, World War, which originate because of civil movement.248 Proponents of this compensation argue that, that reimbursement assured to slaves when they were released was not fully implemented. 25 Supporters quote the years of hard work, awful situations, rape, and challenges in the hands of their proprietors, and genuine creation of the state as causes for the debt that is unsettled. Therefore, the African American needed to be compensated on what they underwent during the time of slavery.26 The opponents for these compensations explain that, the African Americans who were not slaves are allocated compensations from white taxpayers whose descendants did not possess slaves. Approximations of the sum of compensations allocated are largely based on America’s wealth believed to have been obtained from slavery. Compensations supporters have requested for compensations extending from billions to more than four trillion dollars. Varying on the conditions of the payment, the African Americans were going to receive from 50,000 dollars per household to 500,000 dollars as an individual. Instead of monetary fund, some proponents advocated for loans, scholarships, business, housing loans, land loans, health facilities services, as well as other community empowerment incentives.27 Several compensations activists concentrate on the perceived injustice of a substantial transfer of riches by claiming that the past injustice of bondage cannot be observed separately from the present difficulty of African Americans, who are still distressed by the inheritance of oppression. Scholars like Conyers, who noted that, African American still experience racial discrimination from the present society. 9This is because of the discrimination they inherited from their descendants, just like the whites inherited good education, life developed life experiences, and wealth obtained from slavery. 28 According to proponents for reparations, the historic despise unveiled by the U.S. regime for the African American civil rights has contributed to lasting impairment of the African American economic, political, and economic comfort. 29 The developed centralized social law presented in the year 1960 as mentioned earlier, contributed to the wealth gap between the white Americans and the African Americans. Other researchers noted that racial discrimination in this country contributed to poor economic development of the African Americans who experienced massive lack of employment, and extreme poverty. According to several advocates, based on this social factors compensation is the only manner in which important fairness within the American community can be realized.30 These historical injustices committed to African Americans in past years as slaves are indisputable, but opponents of the compensations do not see a relationship between the injustices committed in past times, and the contemporary economic position of African Americans. 31 10 Those scholars arguing against this compensation argued that, most of the compensation was made during the war at the Antietam and Gettysburg.32 They explained that the cultural, and social inequalities of Jim Crow rules regulations were compensated in the American Civil Rights regulation, and social conscience. The government of United States spent a lot of money to established digressions, affirmative action, equal opportunity plans that have acknowledged the crippling consequence of favoritism, and tried to amend the injustices. 33 Compensation was to be made to those who are not living at present. This is because those victims, and the executors of oppression are all dead. The current generation is helpless to support the dead. It would be very difficult to quantify the compensation, which turns out to be inappropriate, even with the identification of specific offspring of the specific slaves. Some opponents felt that this compensation would worsen the process of racial discrimination. Whereby, the white Americans would feel that they are not responsible for the past actions, and continue discrimination the African American citizens. Therefore, the debate of reparations revives old injures, and an awareness of oppression on the part of African American citizens. 34 There is a problem in determining who gets what, and who does not get the compensation. In that, it would be difficult to determine if reparations can be in the form of some difficult to calculate values of compensation of forced labor imposed on the slaves. In cases where the descendants are not, it would be difficult to pass the compensation to those who did not have relatives as slaves. Lastly, the government should only focuses on the present needs of its citizens, and not the past needs. Therefore, the disputes against compensations focus on accomplishment of the past, focusing on Americans resources they have at the present, and finding the best approaches to concentrate on their few resources to assist everyone in the community. 3511 Reed argues that, the current call for reparations is more than an uncouth attempt at extracting compensation for people, as opponents on the right have rejected. It consists of robbing Americans of their resources in name of compensating the wrongs that happened in the past. Reparations demand replicates the influential appeal of African American nationalism among the African Americans. However, it is a source of social self-governing demand with foundations in worldwide law and past actions. Reparations have a base on the inheritances of slavery, isolation, unlawful urban desertion, and other confidential and national policies that have encouraged the vast inequalities of wealth between the white Americans and the African Americans.3612 Conclusion Reparations are described as the compensation provided for mistreatment or injury within a given community. The authorized perception of reparation has two sections. The sections are the victims’ right to obtain compensation, and the role of the society to provide compensation. Compensations can be pursued by people through legal techniques or through the policies prepared by the government. The first approach can be seen as an instrument of compensation while the second one considers the concerns of people. The issue of reparations remains a challenge in the American society because the government felt that there is no need to compensate the past wrong doings to those who are already dead, and those who committed the crimes are long dead. References Adolf, Reed Jr. The Case Against Reparations. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. De Greiff, Pablo. Justice and Reparations In Jon Miller and Rahul Kumar, ed., Reparations: Interdisciplinary Inquiries. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2007. Elazar, Barkan, The Guilt of Nations: Restitution and Negotiating Historical Injustices. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2000. Gordon, Adam. “The Creation of Homeownership: How New Deal Changes in Banking Regulation Simultaneously Made Homeownership Accessible to Whites and Out of Reach for Blacks,” The Yale Law Journal, 115, no, 67 (2005): 186–226. McCarthy, Thomas. “Coming to Terms with Our Past, Part II: On the Morality and Politics of Reparations for Slavery,” Political Theory, 32, no. 4 (2004): 750–772. Read More