Poli-ticks

Reparations over slavery consternate democratic presidential candidates

By Arlene Violet
Posted 4/26/19

Some 150 plus years after the ratification of the 13th Amendment the issue of reparations has dominated not only some college campuses but also the debate among several Democratic presidential …

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Poli-ticks

Reparations over slavery consternate democratic presidential candidates

Posted

Some 150 plus years after the ratification of the 13th Amendment the issue of reparations has dominated not only some college campuses but also the debate among several Democratic presidential candidates. At least three steps are necessary to evaluate the issue of reparations. The first step is to understand the horror of slavery and the effects of generations of discrimination and institutional racism. The second is to examine what, if any, counterbalance the abolitionists’ efforts should weigh in on the question. The third question is to parse just what solution(s) address the issue.

The horrors of slavery should never be forgotten, any more than the Holocaust. Slaves were warehoused into ships, forced to endure the filth of living in their own excrement amid dead bodies of felled slaves in stifling heat, while sleeping one upon the other in stacks of human bodies. To stifle hunger they were given sticks to gnaw on. If they made it to America after smallpox, dysentery and dehydration, their lives were wretched. Slavery has pockmarked the face of America. There is a case for reparations.

The second question, however, is to answer what counterbalance there should be to the persistent efforts like those of the Quakers or states like Massachusetts, whose highest court abolished slavery (1783), and Pennsylvania (1780), Vermont, and New Hampshire that took action to make slavery extinct? Some historians hold the opinion that the issue of slavery was finally settled by the Civil War at the cost of 600,000 lives. It is a mistake, they argue, to punish collectively all Americans based on race.

Yet, these historians are less clear about exactly what “exemption” they seek. Should, for example, the descendants of the Quakers not have to deal with reparations or the descendants of James Madison who wrote, “Slavery is a barbarism of modern policy”? The abolitionist cause became national and international in scope so nothing further needs to be done.

Still, the record is clear that institutionalized racism has perdured even to this day, notwithstanding the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Senator Kamala Harris has argued for the study of the effects of generations of discrimination and institutional racism in order to gauge an appropriate remedy. Senator Elizabeth Warren advocates a national full-blown discussion about reparations. Such a conversation is long overdue but it is too bad that the issue has arisen amidst a political campaign since it negates the seriousness of thought that needs to go into this matter.

Far too often folks respond to columns like this with what their opinions already are as opposed to trying to see the issue from the counterpoint to their view. That is why nothing ever moves forward, so intent are folks in confirming their own “rectitude”. Does throwing money as opposed to targeting reform help anybody? One has to look at what misdirected funds have NOT done for Rhode Island’s educational system.

Hopefully with the focus on this issue the United States can rationally propose real reform and not knee-jerk reactions that look good "on paper" but have little efficacy. A really serious reflection where everything is on the table and vetted would be welcome as to what helps not hinders progress on this serious question. Let the discussion begin!

Arlene Violet is an attorney and former Rhode Island Attorney General.

Arlene Violet

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