Reparations Betray National Ideals

To the editors:

While no one can honestly deny that blacks have suffered in the U.S.since its founding, slavery does not victimize present-day blacks. Geoffrey A. Starks ’02 admits as much in his op-ed (“Forty Acres and a Lexus,” April 15), saying that reparations would be targeted for “those in the black community who have remained cemented in the underclass,” and justifying reparations based on “on-going injustice.” Thus, he recognizes that many African-Americans today have become quite successful, despite the fact that all face the same aftermath of slavery. Therefore, if not all blacks are bound down by the historical fact of slavery, and if the true problem is “on-going injustice” in the form of racism, why would reparations for slavery be paid to African-Americans? What about Hispanics, Asian Americans and recent African immigrants?

If reparations are not necessary for the many blacks who have not been “cemented in the underclass,” but are rather intended to address the consequences of racism, where is the justification for excluding the tens of millions of other Americans who have suffered discrimination either individually or as groups? Many groups, not just blacks, have suffered at the hands of others in our history. Descendants of Chinese railway laborers, Irish famine refugees, American Indians, Jews and more recent Asian immigrants have all faced the same problems of racism and discrimination, and would have just as valid a claim on reparations.

This nation was founded on the as-yet unrealized premise that the law should treat all individuals equally. True progress in achieving this ideal will be less group-identity politics, and a nation that truly is blind to the skin color or background of its citizens. The movement for reparations, unfortunately, moves us in the opposite direction.

Jai L. Nair ’99-’01

Medford, MA

April 15, 2002