Slave Reparations

A federal judge Monday dismissed one of the cases where descendants of African-American slaves sought financial reparations against corporations who they feel profited from the slave labor.

The issue of reparations is a thorny one - the GOP loses its breath just at the mere mention and even liberals tend to be quite divided, as are many descendants of those brought here or born here to slavery. There was indeed that never-kept promise about 40 acres and a mule.

To say simply, "cutting a check won't solve the core of the issue" - an often used argument, and one I've thought - is demeaning. I don't believe anyone really passionate about the feeling that reparations must be made is in it for a fat check. But what is right to do?

Over the little more than three centuries since the white man arrived here to change the continent, we've screwed a lot of different groups: from the native Americans blacks, women, Asians, Jews, the Irish, and it continues today. Should everyone be cut a check as reparations?

As someone who fits in at least three of the above-referenced categories, I'd rather see substantive changes that try to ensure that we don't ever allow ourselves to engage in that terrible behavior again than to receive a check. But we aren't going to do that. We were sure we would never repeat other dark moments in history and yet... we have. Then we fold our arms and agree sagely that "this time, we've learned our lesson"... until we do it yet again. We're incredibly imperfect beings, we humans.

Still, I'm not sure how cutting a check helps. It doesn't change the past. It won't change the future. The "right thing to do" eludes me.