Unlike Holocaust reparations or Japanese internment reparations all of the perpetrators and victims of US slavery are dead. While one can argue that corporate perpetrators [under US Law corporations have infinite lifespans until dissolved] are still around, these entities were working in a historical period and legal system where slavery was legal.
I don't really see much upshot in these talks of reparations except perhaps feeding an attitude that history owes certain segments of the population something for "being oppressed."
Just a brief look at history shows that most cultures were at certain times both oppressors and oppressed. Should there be reparations? Should Italians give reparations to former members of the Roman Imperium? Should Spaniards [modern day descendents of the Vandals--at least in the Andalusian region] give reparations to Italians? Should African tribes give reparations to each other due to hundreds of years of intertribal slave raiding?
Reparation is not rooted in history as much as it tries to prositute it. Reparation is purely political just as foreign aid. As a US cabinet secretary said recently, over the years, the US has poured BILLIONS into "aid" with very little to show for it.
The malcontents that reparations are aimed at satiating will always find another gripe to champion. Instead of thinking in terms of reparations, why not expend that energy into creating a free market of ideas free from bias that readily rewards those who have the cunning, ambition, creativity and drive to rise above regardless of color, gender, sexual orientation, or religion.
Just my
