"...Anyone who actually reads David Horowitz's carefully reasoned and factually based ad will understand why his critics did not simply reply to him and try to prove him wrong.  His logic is too air-tight and it demolishes the idiocy of those who are calling for reparations.

           "...David Horowitz's attempt to inject some sanity into the reparations issue is very valuable, not only for this issue but also for exposing the whole mindset of those who are using slavery for ideological or political purposes.

           "Nothing we can do in the 21st century can redress the wrongs done by people long dead against other people long dead.  So we might as well put aside these sweeping definitions of "whites" and "blacks" that extend back through history and talk about those particular whites, blacks and others who are alive today.

          "As one of those black Americans, I consider it as ridiculous as it would be phony to pretend I am worse off than if my ancestors had remained in West Africa and I had been born there.  They themselves might well have been better off remaining in Africa, but they are not the ones who would get any reparations.

           "Then there is the question of who would pay the reparations.  ... Even among those white Americans who lived during the era of slavery, most never owned a slave and didn't have the money to buy one if they had wanted to.  Should their descendants be taxed?

          "Slavery existed for thousands of years on every inhabited continent.  Its victims included Europeans, Asians and the indigenous peoples of the Western Hemisphere, as well as Africans.

           [Regarding the censorship of Horowitz's anti-reparations advertisement, Sowell concludes:]  "The painful irony is that those who are crying out against the slavery of the past include many who are trying to impose an enslavement of the mind today through storm trooper tactics.  Those in academia and the media who are cowed into silence look pathetic when compared with those who fought against slavery in the past."

Excerpted from "Storm Troopers vs. Free Speech" -- Washington Times Commentary by Thomas Sowell
Published on Page A12 Saturday March 24, 2001.

[Last known link: http://www.washtimes.com/commentary/commentary-200132491445.htm ]

Related Reading:

Comprehensive List of Facts and Arguments against Reparations
[Link: http://www.adversity.net/reparations/reparations_for_reverse_discrimination.htm]

News Coverage about the Horowitz Ad
[Link: http://www.adversity.net/reparations/news1.htm]

Full Text of the Horowitz Ad
[Link: http://www.adversity.net/reparations/anti_reparations_ad.htm]