Slavery's Legacy: How and Why to Design a System of Reparations

Only 15 minutes into Thursday...  That's almost as scheduled!

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     The matter of reparations for Slavery has been on my mind for some time, ever since I learned that, going sufficiently far back on my paternal grandmother’s side of the family, I am descended from slaveholders.  I’m considering how much of our society is still influenced by the material consequences of slavery (obviously most of our social landscape seems to still be derived from antebellum conventions), and what injustices are still being perpetrated with regard to this.

Let’s begin with a restatement of conditions- Between the 1600s and 1800s, about 12 million African-Americans were kept in chattel slavery.  Emancipation was not accompanied by any measurable wealth transfer, and while some progress has been made, the Black Community is not on anywhere near as sound of economic or political footing as is white America.  Much of this comes from continuation of racist policies by private individuals, governments, business, media and law enforcement, and that needs to be discussed.  But what I am writing about today is the direct economic effects of Slavery.

     How much wealth was produced by the system of Slavery, whom did it go to throughout the years, and where is it now?  I think of it this way- go back to the last generation of my family to own slaves and ask “how much wealth did they own/control based on slave labour?”  This includes the profits of years of exploitation, any dwellings that were constructed by slave labour, profits from selling human beings, and the like.  Next we must ask “what happened to this wealth after emancipation?”  The answer would seem to be- it was passed down through generations, and as a fungible- i.e., one dollar is much the same as another, adjusted for inflation- commodity, may be said to still be with the family.  Next we ask- what opportunities have been available to my family because of this wealth?  How much of my life is expedited by this leg up, provided by the American system of Slavery?  I don’t know exactly how much, but I’d be willing to bet it is considerable.  By this metric, I am continuing to DIRECTLY benefit to some extent from Slavery, to say nothing of the social and political privileges that come with being white.  This is enough to convince me of the necessity of a system of Reparations.  The value extracted from slave labour has enriched the descendants of slaveholders without being used or re-appropriated to serve the descendants of those whose oppression created it.  

   

             This is a thorny matter, ethically speaking, as we certainly don’t want to assign a monetary value to human suffering, nor should we (white descendants of slaveholders) claim absolution from our legacy of oppression once such a sum has been paid, but there are real, lingering economic effects of Slavery, to say nothing of the ways African-Americans continue to be economically exploited.  If Emancipation had been accompanied by land and wealth redistribution, perhaps this wouldn’t be necessary, but I think it truly is.  I’m uncomfortable trying to calculate the economic value of a moral wrong, but we can certainly figure out the current value of Slavery’s profits.  Then the question becomes- who should pay, and who should receive?  Remember, this is to deal with Slavery’s legacy, not everything that has happened since then.  I think some genealogical and financial surveys may be needed here- generally speaking, I’d say anyone who is descended from any slave is entitled to some compensation.  But then we have to consider- are they to be compensated for what was taken from their ancestors, or just as part of the community of the exploited?  That is, should descendants of slaves who were more successfully exploited receive more reparation than those whose forefather’s oppressors were less successful?  A similar question occurs when we ask whether transfers of the remaining balance on slaveholders' advantages are sufficient to correct this particular legacy?  Obviously the government bears some responsibility for allowing this to occur, but as I’ve demonstrated, the descendants of slaveholders, like me, continue to benefit from the system of Slavery, so we should pay some greater share of the costs that those whose family histories are untainted by the sin of slaveholding.  The question here is should the government add compensation for allowing slavery on top of the reparations from those who continue to profit from Slavery's legacy?  This is straying towards assigning monetary value to human suffering, but the government certainly derived benefit from Slave labour- what's the value of the White House and Capitol Building, for example?  They were built by slaves.  This could work much the same way, and I think tax revenue collected from slave trading should certainly be paid back adjusted for inflation and interest.

     I suppose this would have to be accomplished through an inheritance tax- we probably can’t legally make it retroactive, but we could hypothetically determine how much of an estate is derived from slavery, (remembering that money is fungible), and tax it away.

     I’d like to conclude with a description of German reparations to Israel after the Holocaust- they were approved largely due to the argument of compensation for loss of wealth, not monetizing the murders of 12 million people, which I think is the healthy way to look at this.  They were paid for out of government revenue as well as fines on corporations that had made extensive use of slave labour.  It’s worth noting that some compensation was extended to non-Israeli, diaspora Jews as well, but the sources I’ve consulted make no mention of payments to Romani communities, surviving Gays of Berlin, or (for some reason) Communist political parties, all of whom were also persecuted and murdered by the Nazis in great numbers.  In any case, a comprehensive look must be taken at all victimized populations.  To some extent this is not a problem in our case- the American system of Slavery was confined to Black Americans, but I think a similar program could be helpful if aimed at the Native American population.

     A problem, of course, is that in this case the victims are not represented by their own nationstate, which significantly reduces the chances of the program being realized.  Another concern is that since 159 years have passed, tracking down who owes what to whom will be much more difficult, than it was in the German-Israeli case, to say nothing of the fact that most perpetrator’s descendants are probably ignorant of their family’s history in this regard, and of course uncertain of the exact total involved.  The variables involved here are exponentially greater, due to the elapse of time.  Finally, any system constructed on these lines could probably also be used as a template to offer reparations to First Nations people. 

     Slavery’s economic impact is still with us- still hurting the Black Community, and still benefiting those who, like me, are descended from the bastards who first benefited from the oppressive system.  We need to recognize this and confront it- no one should be allowed to directly benefit from Slavery’s legacy.  Reparations may be the only way to correct this.

To conclude- 1. Evaluate total value derived from Slavery
2.  Identify slaveholders' descendants- I've gone ahead and identified myself as the first, saving everyone a great deal of time.
3.  Apply Inheritance Tax upon death of present generation, creating a Reparations Trust fund.  Augment with balance of value derived from slavery by federal and state governments
4.  Identify descendants of slaves
5.  initiate payment.

Solidarität, Genossinnen und Genossen

Kamerad Graham