TEXAS -- How can a country begin to make amends for enslaving millions of people?
- Politicians starting to talk more about the idea
- What are reparations?
- Who should receive reparation?
More than 150 years have passed since the end of the Civil War, and again the question of whether the United States should offer reparations for the descendants of slavery is a hot topic issue for presidential candidates.
But the question isn’t that simple.
Over the weekend, Julián Castro, former San Antonio mayor and democratic presidential candidate, said if he is elected he would create a commission to look into how reparations could be issued.
“For many people, it hasn’t really been explained what the people who support reparations actually want,” Carey Latimore, Trinity University history department chair and African-American studies expert, said.
What are reparations?
Reparations are a way a government can attempt to make amends for previous wrongdoings it allowed against its people. In this case, reparations would attempt to repay the descendants of slaves.
How could reparations be issued?
Previously, the U.S. has given out financial amends to people harmed by governmental actions a handful of times. Japanese Americans held in internment camps during World War II were offered $20,000 after the war. The federal government also offered payment and medical benefits to Tuskegee participants and their descendants. Reparations can also be offered by individual states, as North Carolina offered for victims of forced sterilization and Florida gave to survivors of the Rosewood race riot.
One method is to write checks, or give a lump sum of money, to descendants.
“It’s difficult for a lot of African Americans, myself included, to put a value on my ancestors who were sold for a value,” Latimore said, who is a descendant of Virginian slaves.
Reparations could also be given in the form of tax cuts, scholarships, community benefits or other projects that would help descendants and their communities.
Who would receive reparations?
The government would need to decide if it would be looking to repay just the descendants of slavery or if it would also include those who suffered under the Jim Crow laws.
It’s also unclear how descendants could prove their lineage.
Some politicians said they don’t support reparations, but do support programs to help communities that include descendants of slavery. These types of programs could be seen as being class-based, rather than race based, because they would theoretically help a wider range of people.
Black Americans make up a large percentage of the Democratic voting base, but Latimore explains that the majority of Americans don’t support reparations. Many of those who don’t are also black.
“I would hate for it to just be used as a political prop. It’s much more important than that, it’s people’s lives,” Latimore said.
Latimore explained that just having the conversation of why reparations could be helpful and why some believe they are necessary could help all Americans develop a greater understanding of African-American history.
“Thinking about the reparations argument, whatever side you come up on, I think will provide us with a better understanding of what it means to be black in America,” Latimore said.
With the various ways reparations could be implemented, the negative ways it could affect race relations and the guilt it could cause descendants, Latimore explained voters should be asking questions.
“Not supporting reparations doesn’t make you a racist,” Latimore said.