Reparations? 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

A London school headmistress is the first speaker to make a case against reparations, and her arguments are as follows.

First of all, the West agrees today that slavery was evil, in agreement with her opponent. But the fact that slavery was practiced in the West does not mean that they should pay reparations.

Second, "the West" was far from being alone in slave traffic. She notes that Brazil, for example, took in 5,000,000 slaves. Arabs enslaved over a million white European Christians. Africans enslaved Africans for thousands of years. Native Americans (20,000) sided with the South in America's civil war for the right to preserve slavery. About 4,000 free blacks owned slaves in America's South. Clearly, slavery was not all about race.

Third, it's difficult to define who should get the money. She, for example, is the descendant of both slaves and slave owners. And sometimes those who should get the money are defined simply as "black." What about people of mixed race?

Finally, "it's bizarre to suggest that human beings should inherit the outrage of the deeds of their parents. Should the child of a mass murderer be sent to prison for his father's crime? No. We do not inherit the sins of our fathers."