Politics > Reparations

Reparations: Who Pays Whom?

Underneath the feel-good politics of it, the practical questions sink the whole enterprise.

John Perry | May 22, 2026

Reparations, its proponents insist, are payments white Americans owe black Americans for enslaving them, a practice that ended 163 years ago.  These advocates would have us believe that seven or eight generations after the fact, the limitations and inequalities of slavery still hold slavery’s descendants back and deny them their chance at the American dream.  And somebody has to pay.

Setting aside the logic of that claim for the moment — while noting its similarity to the familiar liberal mantra: “Vote for us, and we’ll give you stuff!” — let us consider the practical question: Who exactly should pay whom?   

Since only the wealthiest people could afford slaves, the legal and moral argument on the subject was academic, not practical, for the vast majority of citizens at the time.  That being the case, few among today’s population, even in theory, should have to pay reparations to descendants of slaves.

According to the 1860 census, on the eve of the Civil War, under four percent of American households owned one or more slaves.  That means about ninety-six percent of the population owned none.  So the descendants of that ninety-six percent should be off the hook.  But what about people whose ancestors were members of slaveholding families yet personally opposed slavery?  On the other hand, what about people who would have liked a slave but couldn’t afford one?

If descendants of slaveholders should foot the bill, who among us today is descended only from former slaveowners?  Odds are that after seven generations, it’s nobody.  Why should descendants of........

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