Negative Effects Of Reparation On African Americans

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Some experts say reparation being paid to slaves is a bad idea, while others say it is a good idea. The issue of reparations being paid to descendants of slaves is not a very wise idea, because of the problem of finding out who is a descendant. Few black Americans are aware of the names or even the life stories of their ancestors that lived before them (McWhorter 1). It is virtually impossible to find out to whose descendant owned slaves, because “Most living Americans have no connection (direct or indirect) to slavery” (Horowitz 2). In addition, Horowitz has explained that “There is no single group that benefited exclusively from slavery. The claim for reparations is premised on the false assumption that only whites have benefited from slavery” (Horowitz 1). …show more content…
Bittker examined closely, but in the end dismissed as unpromising, the idea of filing lawsuits over blacks’ past maltreatment. For Bittker, it made sense to pursue reparations not through litigation but through legislation funded from government revenues. And in the years that followed, the U.S. did just that, in a way by vastly increasing spending on social welfare, education, housing and urban programs, aimed primarily at relieving black poverty, as well as taking explicitly compensatory and race-based steps in the schools and workplace- though these were no specifically designates as reparations (Olson