How America's changing demographic reality makes reparations a non-starter
Reparations for slavery are having a moment. Progressive Democrats made support for reparations a key part of their 2020 pitch, and nearly 200 cosponsored a House resolution to create a commission to study the idea. State and local governments have weighed whether and how to give their black residents remuneration for their ancestors' enslavement. California has organized a state commission. From Boston to St. Paul, cities are doing the same.
The return of reparations to the public debate has raised old questions. Should black Americans get reparations for slavery? If so, how much should be paid, and to whom? One question, though, has received too little attention: From whom will all that money—as much as $15 trillion, the amount of the black/white wealth gap—come?
As I argue in a recent Manhattan Institute report, that question poses a thornier problem for reparations advocates than they might like to admit. Many Americans—as many as 70 percent, by my estimates—are descended from immigrants who arrived to the United States after the Civil War. This includes many of the wealthiest, including recent immigrant billionaires and high-earning ethnic groups like Jewish Americans. Reparations would hold as responsible for slavery individuals who can claim limited or no benefit from it—a fact that will only become more challenging to the reparations project, and historical-injustice-based redistribution generally, as America further diversifies.
Continue reading the entire piece here at The Washington Free Beacon
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Charles Fain Lehman is a fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a contributing editor of City Journal. Based on a recent report.
Photo by Peter_Cho/iStock
