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The Problem with Reparations, and King’s Better Solution
Anyone who knows US history knows black people were treated abominably. Today, as a group, they are almost as poor as Native Americans. After the Civil War, the plantations should’ve been broken up and the land given to homeless people.
But implementing reparations is impossible now.
1. If you give money to all American Descendants Of Slaves (ADOS), you would give money to rich ADOS and only help the 1/4 of poor people who are black. No one who wants to end poverty can support ignoring the 3/4 of the poor who are Native American, Asian, Hispanic, and white.
2. If you give money to all ADOS, you would create a new racial hierarchy in which all black people are richer than the poorest whites, Asians, Hispanics, and Native Americans, but the upper class would stay disproportionately white, Asian, and Jewish.
3. There is no practical way for everyone who is ADOS to prove it because we do not have genealogies for everyone. Should reparations go to everyone whose DNA tests link them to Africa? To everyone who can prove they meet the one drop rule? To everyone who is darker than a brown paper bag? And should the descendants of black people who owned slaves get reparations?
4. If instead of giving money to all ADOS, you created programs that focused on…
