Reparations for Slavery: Historical Perspectives.

Updated March 29, 2001

As you consider the "debate" over "reparations for slavery" consider this:

Since the passage of the original Civil Rights Act in 1964, many billions of dollars -- even trillions -- have been paid to U.S. blacks in the form of racial job quotas and racial preferences which have mandated that a certain proportion of blacks be hired and/or promoted over whites. The U.S. Goverment Accounting Office and the Office of Management and Budget are reluctant to publish these politically incorrect figures, but they are an historic and undeniable fact.

Additionally, hundreds of billions of dollars have also been paid to poverty-level black families via welfare entitlements during this same period. The U.S. Government Accounting Office and the Office of Management and Budget figures on this score are quite telling.

Since these huge "reparations" have already been paid, and if blacks still feel they are not succeeding in the U.S., one must logically ask: Who, really, is responsible for their perceived failure?

Consider the following historic facts regarding slavery of blacks (nominally Africans) over the centuries:

The West African state of Benin was known in the 17th century as "Dahomey", and they ruthlessly rounded up tribespeople and sold them to Spanish, European, and American slave traders. 20th century Benin recently apologized for the role it played in the American slave trade. Luc Gnacadja, Benin’s minister of environment and housing, told a Richmond, Virginia, audience "We cry for forgiveness and reconciliation" during a state visit on Saturday, April 29.

But American blacks aren’t very impressed by Benin’s acknowledgment of its role in the slave trade. The reason? Benin is a poor country and has no money to offer for "reparations". The reported per capita income in Benin today is $400 per year. Thus, American blacks really don’t care how much responsibility the West African state of Benin may have had for selling their fellow Africans into slavery. So much for justice.

During the height of the slave trade, the African nation of Senegal profited greatly by using its island of Goree as a major shipping point for slaves bound for many foreign markets, including the U.S. To date, not one American black has demanded payment of "reparations" from Senegal. Hmmm.

According to author and racial historian David Horowitz, "It was not whites but black Africans who first enslaved their brothers and sisters. They were abetted by dark-skinned Arabs ... who organized the slave trade. Are reparations going to be assessed against the descendants of Africans and Arabs for their role in slavery? There were also 3,000 black slave owners in the antebellum United States. Are reparations to be paid by their descendants too?"

Also according to Horowitz: "American blacks on average enjoy per capita incomes in the range of 20 to 50 times [2000% to 5000%] those of blacks living in any of the African nations from which they were kidnapped."

Also according to Horowitz: "West Indian blacks in America are also descended from slaves, but their average incomes are equivalent to the average incomes of whites (and nearly 25 percent higher than the average incomes of American-born blacks of all classes). How is it that slavery adversely affected one large group of descendants but not the other? And how can government be expected to decide an issue that is so subjective—yet so critical—to the case? The fact is that nobody has demonstrated any clearly defined causal connection between slavery or discrimination and the "disparities" that are alleged to require restitution."

The buying and selling of African people into slavery had been practiced for hundreds, and even thousands, of years before the United States even existed! Furthermore, many of the "buyers and sellers" were not white or even European. Since the U.S. didn't exist at that time, and since the volume of Africans sold into slavery in the pre-U.S. period far exceeds the number of slaves sold to U.S. citizens, shouldn't the bulk of "reparations" be paid by this historic enslavers and not by U.S. citizens?

The majority of U.S. citizens alive today (both non-white and white) descended from post-Civil War immigrants to this great nation! The descendants of these post-Civil War immigrants thus have no ancestors who ever participated in any way in slavery.

The largest historic surges in immigration to the U.S. took place after 1880 (15 years after the Emancipation Proclamation), and after 1960 (95 years after the Emancipation Proclamation). Should not the descendants of these immigrants be excluded from paying "reparations"? Should not the black descendants of these post-slavery black immigrants be excluded from receiving "reparations"?

END More Historic Facts Against Reparations