The reparations movement: Racist and anti-american

Walking on the National Mall in Washington D.C. several weeks ago, I encountered one of the few things that come close to making me feel ashamed to be an American. It was Saturday, August 17th, and the so-called reparations movement had gathered in front of the Capitol for a torrent of anti-white and anti-American epithets poorly disguised as a rally for racial justice.

As I passed the Capitol walking on 3rd Street SW, I saw a group of people selling shirts and other reparations paraphernalia. Though I would never spend money on such items, I had to admire these individuals for their entrepreneurship. They chose a rather unfortunate method of making a profit, yet they sought to make an honest living—unlike the small crowd gathered across the street in support of the most fraudulent legal shakedown in America's history. Yet even if reparations took the form of (more) taxpayer money for college scholarships rather than payments to individuals, it would still make no sense for one group to compensate a second group for the suffering of a third group at the hands of a fourth group. However, such an incoherent scheme is exactly what reparations advocates support.

I also passed a man pushing a stroller on which was mounted a sign that read "Money for Reparations, Not War on Iraq." I could not help but wonder what his baby would think of its father when it grew up: a non-slave pretending to suffer because of slavery and opposing action to stop a brutal dictator. The man apparently did not know that slavery in America ended more than 100 years ago and that Saddam would delight in murdering the baby with VX, Anthrax, or Smallpox. Maybe the baby wouldn't even get to grow up at all—a genuine victim of the next catastrophic terrorist attack, perhaps financed by Saddam himself, that could have been prevented had America resolved to defend itself.

Instead of spending time with their families and enjoying their freedom as Americans, those on the Mall that day chose to express their hatred of America and of Americans whose skin happened to be a different color — white. The reparations movement, supposedly about compensation for the unpaid labor of slaves, is really about advancing a racist, anti-American agenda. This was made obvious by the hate-filled speeches delivered at the event, and by the attendance of Louis Farrakhan, the very personification of rabid, mindless, yet politically correct anti-white racism.

Compensation of former slaves is justified — some African governments may want to think about this once they get around to ending the slavery that still exists on their own soil. However, black Americans alive today are not former slaves — they were born free like the rest of us in America, a country which recognizes their individual freedom and individual rights. Reparations for slavery would undermine those principles by holding Americans collectively responsible for the crimes of a minority of slaveowners—some of whom were, in fact, black. Even a mere apology on the part of the US government is inappropriate, for it was responsible for ending slavery by winning the Civil War. Why should a rescuer apologize for the wrongdoing of the victim's attacker?

However, the point is moot because generous apologies have already been made anyway. As David Horowitz noted in FrontPage Magazine(www.frontpagemag.com) on August 19th, the dedication of a national holiday to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was "a powerful symbol of the guilt Americans felt for the crimes of slavery and segregation." Far from failing to apologize for slavery, America has been tireless in its efforts to make up for the racial injustices of its past. Indeed, reparations have already been paid to black Americans.

They have been paid in the blood baths at Gettysburg, Shiloh, and other heroic battles to end the Confederacy.

They have been paid in the legal precedent for desegregation of Brown vs. The Board of Education.

And they have been paid in the trillions of dollars spent on social programs, transfer payments, preferences, quotas, set-asides, and other attempts to "level the playing field."

Yet all of this means nothing to those who stubbornly refuse to acknowledge the incredible progress that black Americans have made since the end of slavery and segregation.

An incisive thinker on the reparations issue, Horowitz has predictably been marginalized by the media for his non-politically correct views. He was unfairly labeled a racist after writing "10 Reasons why Reparations for Slavery are a Bad Idea, and Racist Too," a document whose ideas are more fully developed in his book, "Uncivil Wars: The Controversy Over Reparations for Slavery." As the book makes clear, the reparations movement is an affront to those who suffered under slavery and to black Americans as well. Its crude demands for government handouts trivialize the deplorable dehumanization of both slave and master by reducing it to an issue of money. It must be stopped. Eric Harkleroad is a physics major from Overland Park, Kan. He can be reached at eharkler@princeton.edu.