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EIP

Do Black Lives Really Matter? The Cost of Reparations for Slavery, or Lack Thereof

Chantel Lynn
Professor Malcolm Campbell
English 1103
December 6, 2016

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The classroom was hushed by an eerie silence and blanketed with relentless questions,
fears, and doubts. Why cant they just protest peacefully? said one. I dont understand, I just
woke up to the chaos, explained another. I, in the midst of such confusion, sit back and think
about the destruction that took hold of my city, less than twenty four hours ago. Keith Lamont
Scott is Sixth Person to Die in Police Shooting in Charlotte this Year, read the NBC News
headline. Keith Lamont Scott was killed by Two Gunshot Wounds, Family Autopsy Find, says
The New York Times. Sitting in my Origins of American Stereotypes lecture hall I thought about
how nice it must feel to wake up and not have a clue about whats going on in the world. To not
have to worry about if your father or brother will be the next victim of two gunshot wounds.
Keith Lamont Scott was not killed by two gunshot wounds, he was murdered at the hands of a
police officer, along with thousands of other African Americans, not six. It must be an amazing
feeling to live your life without having to explain how the media manipulates peaceful protests
so that they appear to be violent. Or why having an African American president does not
eliminate all traces of racism around the nation. This my friend, is called racial battle fatigue, a
term found in the Encyclopedia of Race, Ethnicity, and Society, created by William Smith and
defined as:
a theory attributed to the psychological attrition that People of Color experience from
the daily battle of deflecting racialized insults, stereotypes, and discrimination. [Racial
Battle Fatigue] is the cumulative effect of being on guard and having to finesse
responses to insults, both subtle and covert. In academia, we discuss having an arsenal
of responses to protect ourselves. This arsenal is deployed as tools of self-protection
from racial microagressions and racialized aggression. (Smith)

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For the majority of my life, I have heard the popular belief that we as a nation have
progressed so much since the Civil Rights Era. If this is true, why are African Americans still
waiting on their reparatory justice for slavery? African Americans such as myself, are still
suffering from the aftermath of slavery because ever since its abolishment in 1865, we as a
people have been at a disadvantage economically, socially, politically and academically due to a
system of oppression based upon race, otherwise known as racism. The Universal Declaration of
Human Rights (UDHR) states that if a nation commits an international crime such as invasion
and exploitation, they must make amends to that group of people as well as their descendants if
those descendants are still suffering from the consequences. I doubt it is pure coincidence that
America is one of the few nations who hasnt signed the UDHR. Has shame taken hold of the
mighty pen that bleeds of freedom and liberty? Its time that we address the elephant in the room
instead of acting as if it isnt a problem. Why have African Americans not received reparations
for slavery?
According to the Shorted Oxford Dictionary, a reparation is an appeasement or
compensation for wrongdoing. We as a nation so boldly proclaim to be the land of the free but
when legislators brashly turn a blind eye to the fact that our First amendment neglects those of
African descendent when deciding to shoot an innocent man multiple times for simply being
black, or even the alleged fair trial promised in the Fifth Amendment, eyebrows should be raised
and questions need to be asked. The Second Amendment, right to bear arms, is one of the aspects
of the Bill of Rights that certainly does not apply to African Americans. If African Americans
did have the right to bear arms, the death of Keith Lamont Scott would be nonexistent. This
father was killed because an officer assumed that he was carrying a concealed weapon. Even if
Lamont was carrying a gun, this should not have been the police officers concern because as an

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American, the Bill of Rights grants him the freedom to, especially in an open carry state.
Unfortunately, Keith Lamont Scott and many other African Americans do not have the liberty to
be free in this society. According to Merriam Webster, freedom is defined as the liberation from
slavery or restraint or from the power of another. Whereas, liberty is defined as freedom from
arbitrary or despotic control. The difference between the two is that in constructing the
Constitution, the founders drafted a number of freedoms that each American citizen had the right
to. However, certain demographics such as African Americans arent given the liberty to take
part in these freedoms because they are discriminated against by those in power such as police
officers. One must not forget that the Founders did not intend for the Bill of Rights to include
slaves. In fact, while writing the Bill of Rights, Founders such as George Washington and James
Madison had plantations waiting for them at home. It is clear that today, law makers and
enforcers do not intend for the nation to include African Americans either.
The Nuremberg Tribunal essentially defines crimes against humanity as the murdering,
extermination, enslaving, deportation and similar inhumane crimes against a civilization. Many
scholars have attempted to justify slavery with Biblical references and the like but in reality,
even a blind man could see that slavery was a crime against humanity with the invasion of
African civilizations, the horrific middle passage ordeal and beheading of an entire language and
culture, not to mention the slavery aspect. The Middle Passage was a key component of
American slavery because it was the part of the Triangular Trade that transported Africans to
America to become slaves. The conditions of the Middle Passage were revolting and many
Africans died during the passage. According to the informative website, Discovering Bristol and
Transatlantic Slavery, the victims were chained in pairs and forced to lay in the bottom deck of
the ship. The Africans were so tightly packed that there was no possible way for them to have

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any privacy to use the bathroom, thus, forcing them to lay in their own waste and the waste of
others, inevitably making them sick and causing an avoidable disease and death. One trek alone
took an average of six weeks but that could easily multiply if the ship came up against bad
weather.
In 1789, The Interesting Narrative--the autobiography of Olaudah Equiano, a renowned
African author-- Equiano wrote the shrieks of the women and the groans of the dying, rendered
the whole a scene of horror almost inconceivable. This is just a brief glimpse into the agony felt
among the ships. The slaves were referred to as cargo and on average, ten to twenty percent of
lost cargoat least one or two million Africansdied on ships during the Middle Passage due to
illnesses, suicides, and murder by crew members. Little did the surviving African captives know,
this was only the beginning of centuries of long, heart wrenching, and foul oppression.
While one may argue that the Emancipation Proclamation and the Forty Acres and a
Mule proposition was just compensation for freed slaves, I would beg to differ. According to
Points of View, the plan was to provide the newly freed slaves with forty acres of land and one
mule to ensure that they have something tangible to jump start their integration into society.
General William Tecumseh Sherman promised each slave this upon their freedom but this is yet
another example of a broken promise because Reconstruction was a terrible period for African
Americans which made it nearly impossible for them to thrive. This is obvious because during
the seventeen hundreds newly freed slaves did take office and were voting. This was all taken
away when lower class white southerners became fearful that they would suddenly become the
demographic at the bottom of the social and economic ladder of society, otherwise known as
American Outsiders. Such intimidation sparked the creation of the Ku-Klux-Klan (KKK)those
who were against reconstruction.

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Points of View highlights the fact that in 1877 after a split vote in the Electoral College,
Rutherford B. Hayes, became president. Hayes was strongly disliked because his platform was
based on equality regardless of race and status. States opposed to Hayes policies implemented
de facto segregation to ensure segregation. By taking the law into their own hands, states
disenfranchised African Americans by creating Jim Crow laws among many other scare tactics.
African Americans tried to legally combat this but in the 1986 Supreme Court case, Plessy v
Ferguson, separate but equal was justified. Such carelessness for slaves and their integration into
society birthed generations upon generations of African Americans who were forced to live a life
of subordination under systematic oppression. During the first half of the century, blacks were
impoverished and they could not vote or have a say in public policy. In 1965, one decade after
the Emancipation Proclamation, Civil Rights activists forced the federal government to throw
away segregation with the Civil Rights Act of 1965. Obviously, given the recent police brutality
incidents, the Civil Rights Act did not eliminate the racism around the nation.
Restitution is not an unfamiliar concept to the world. In 1952, Germany paid $222
million to Israel as compensation for the Holocaust and in 1990, Austria gave an additional $25
million to Holocaust survivors. Similarly, Japan gave South Korea compensation for their
invasion during World War II and the UN Security Council did the same for Iraq because of the
Kuwait invasion. In 1988 the U.S passed the Civil Liberties Act, giving restitution for Internment
Camps to Japanese descendants totaling $1.2 million. According to Anthony Giffords The Legal
Basis of the Claim for Slavery Reparations, slavery gave rise to poverty, landlessness, the
crushing of culture and language, loss of identity, and the inculcation of inferiority among black
people. There are no legal barriers preventing a claim for reparations for slavery. In fact, both
African and Caribbean governments could make a claim for reparations like Israel did.

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There have been many appeals for slavery reparations but de facto exclusion has
prevented any substantial action. The first official request for reparations for slavery was in
1969. James Forman, the leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) led
the Black Manifesto. This was an initiative demanding half a billion dollars from churches and
synagogues that played a role in slavery. The Black Panthers and Black Muslims followed suit,
to no avail. To think that the people who lead the Civil Rights Movementa movement that
opened doors for so many other civil rights movementswill never receive just compensation is
heart shattering. In 1988, only one year after the Civil Liberties Act, US Representative John
Conyers proposed a bill regarding reparations for African American slaves that was voted down
by nearly everyone in the House. To this day, Senator Conyers is still advocating for the bill. The
bill simply proposed the creation of a committee with the sole responsibility of discussing the
logistics of providing African Americans with reparations for slavery, but even that has not
gotten approved. Questions that could have been addressed in Senator Conyers proposed
committee would be regarding who should make the claim and who the claim would be against.
The questions of what court should hear the claim and the form of reparations are also valid
questions. In 2000, law school graduate, Deadria Farmer-Paellmann, filed a lawsuit against
companies such as Aetna Insurance, CSX Railroads, various banks, insurance companies, and
agencies for their profits from slavery. The companies never paid anything because they refused
to claim responsibility for their ancestors mistakes, regardless of the fact that they profited from
them. Over four years later, a federal judge in Chicago disregarded the case and threw it out after
deciding that the statute of limitations on slavery reparations had ended in 1865 (Points of
View). When will this topic be open for discussion?

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It seems as if other nations are discussing the topic of reparations for African slavery in
America more than Americans. Ricardo Sunga, chairperson of the UNs working group of
experts on people of African descent and his colleagues in Geneva, did an interview with NPR
during September of 2016. Their platform is based on the idea that racial injustice is not just in
the United States but theres an urgent need for it to be addressed in this nation. Reports contest
that racism is one of the main explanations of the police brutality targeted towards African
Americans. Sunga went on to argue that there needs to be a continuous, open dialogue about the
exploration of reparatory justice because there needs to be public acknowledgment of past
injuries. This is one of the reasons Senator Conyers continues to rally for the creation of a
committee for discussion of reparations.
Those who support reparations for slavery argue that for the first seventy years of the US
government, slavery was protected as well as de jureunder the law-- segregation. Slaves were
not paid for two hundred sixty-five years of forced labor so their descendants should receive
their inheritance. Supporters also believe that private companies should be held accountable and
thus should have to pay the reparations. Since African slaves are obviously dead, their
descendants should be the recipients of reparations because we still suffer the repercussions of
slavery. High rates of poverty, crime, and low education in African American communities can
be attributed to slavery.
The arguments of those against reparations for slavery is that there is no federal
documentation that could be used to trace slave lineage, therefore there is no evidence that one
African American deserves the reparations over another because many African Americans
immigrated to the US after slavery was abolished. Also, apparently the reparations for the
Holocaust and Japanese Internment Camps cannot be equated to slavery reparations because

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those that were affected were alive to receive themit is clear that these people forgot the
definition of systematic oppression, otherwise known as racism. One of the most popular
arguments is that African Americans receive their reparations through welfare, as if we are the
only groups of people in America receiving it.
Ever since slavery and Forty Acres and a Mule, society has neglected African
Americans. But, with the first African American president and a generation of forward thinking
millennials, this trend is bound to change. Many representatives and polls suggest that the debate
over reparations for slavery will become more of an open minded discussion over the course of
the next generation. Many modern day supporters of reparations for slavery argue that reparatory
justice is not limited to compensation and can be in the form of public restitution. This could be
by the forgiving of debts that are disproportionally forced upon blacks who are arrested and
thrown into prison because they cant afford to pay the required attorney fees. Similarly, the
government could create a fund for African American students to be able to attend college debt
free or for homeowners to get loans. Each of these forms of restitution will inevitably combat a
fraction of the systematic oppression that African Americans have endured for decades,
preventing them to thrive in society.
Discussion is definitely essential in this debate because both sides need to listen to the
other. There is potential for a compromise but being fair towards African Americans is the
ultimate goal and needs to be recognized, nationally. In a peer reviewed journal, Shelly Campo,
Theresa Mastin, and M Somjen Frezer, conducted research on the public opinion of American
slavery reparations. To no surprise, their research proves that the opinions of slave reparations
are highly associated with race. However, these opinions are not as polarized as the media
depicts them to be. Most people are against reparations given directly to individuals but not as

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inclined to deny them in other forms. Some of these ideas include a slavery museum and a
community development program. However, there is also already a permanent memorial in New
York City that honors the victims of slavery and the transatlantic slave trade. I can remember
visiting the African American Wax Museum in D.C. at a young age and being terrified as I
walked through the wax ship and saw a visual representation of the conditions of the Middle
Passage. The amount of fear and sadness inflicted upon me at such a young age is unfair which is
why I am against the idea of slavery museum as the sole form of reparations. Sure, it would be a
fantastic memorial, but it wouldnt be doing anyone justice. Similarly, there already are
community development programs such as the Boys and Girls Club. It is true that these
organizations give African American youth hope, but these children shouldnt have to worry
about having hope. Its not exactly consolation if you are forced to grow up in a society that
doesnt want to see you succeed, thrive or live. According to Newsweek, Thomas Craemer, a
researcher at the University of Connecticut conducting research revolving around the question of
how much money would the reparations equate to? Craemer effectively combats the idea that
it is impossible to calculate the exact amount of money sufficient for reparations. He did so by
calculating the hours each slave including men, women, and children, worked from the nations
establishment in 1776 to the abolishment of slavery in 1865. Craemer then multiplied this figure
by the average wage at that time and made up for inflation by adding a compounded interest rate
of three percent per year. This research resulted in the cost of slave reparations being between
$5.9 trillion and $14.2 billion.
Though it is true that this conversation is very complex, this does not mean that it is
grounds for dismissal. Senator Bernie Sanders has been at the center of attention regarding this

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issue ever since Ta-Nehisi Coats exposed Sanders in his article in The Atlantic, The Case for
Reparations. Coats stated that
"Unfortunately, Sanderss radicalism has failed in the ancient fight against white
supremacy. What he proposes in lieu of reparations job creation, investment in cities,
and free higher educationand his platform on race echoes Democratic orthodoxy."
(Coats)
Essentially, Coats was saying that Sanders was so eager to promote so many different radical
issues but when it came down to issues such as reparations for slavery he did not support it,
alluding to the idea that Sanders supports white supremacy instead. According to Politifact,
when confronted about this issue, Sanders only deflected the question by pointing out the
obvious, that there is social and economic imbalance across the nation and that neither President
Obama or Hillary Clinton support reparations for slavery. Sanders went on to suggest that the
issue at hand is not slavery but disproportionally high rights of poverty and unemployment in the
African American community. His solution to this inequality is to invest in rebuilding cities,
creating a litany of well-paying jobs, not charging students for their college education and
providing federal resources to the communities that need it the mostAfrican Americans.
Sanders proposal may not be the typical form of reparations that people expect but if anything,
this idea is much better.
Sanders essentially combined all of the arguments for those in favor of reparations in his
platform on the issue. Ensuring that African Americans will truly be able to not only live but
thrive in this nation for once would be the best form of reparation and what Sanders wanted.
Restitution does not always have to be in the form of money. Similar to have Native Americans

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simply want their land back, African Americans want to be valued in a nation that they
essentially built and fight for every day. Why shouldnt their lives matter?
According to Politifact President Obama agrees with Sanders on the idea that the best
form of restitution would be to invest in African American communities. Obama explains that
slavery will forever be an ugly stain painted on our American flag and nothing will completely
compensate for or erase that stain. He goes on to say that if reparations were paid, it would open
the door for people to tell African Americans and the rest of the world to get over slavery and
will spark even more of a disregard for racial injustice. President Obama truly pushed for
universal health care because he wanted to start a journey of making strides towards societal
improvement and the next step would be to ensure that all Americans should have an equal
opportunity to go to college, regardless of their race. Similarly, Clinton believes that addressing
poverty and rebuilding African American communities is the best form of reparations.
Sanders saying that he is against the idea of reparations for slavery for the same reason
and President Obama and Hillary Clinton. This reason being that it is more beneficial for African
Americans if we effectively revamp the African American community by providing jobs,
decrease poverty rates and improving the educational systems. This is a respectable plan because
while slaves suffered tremendously, they are dead and their descendants are the ones suffering
now. Also, it is clear that the government does not want to give African Americans any money
because if they did they would have proposed it by now. Recently, another proposition was
announced. One of, if not the best ways to ensure that the racial imbalance is eliminated is to
give African Americans weighted voting. Slave owners did not want slaves to count as people
but instead wanted their property to count as a vote which would inevitably increase the
Southern states representation in Congress. This was done by implementing the Three-Fifths

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clause in the Constitution which declared that slaves would equate to the value of three-fifths of
a free American. With that being said, to compensate for slaves being regarded as three-fifths of
a person, they should now count as five-thirds when voting.
Popular to contrary belief, the controversy over reparations for slavery is quite divisive
within the African American community as well. In fact, According to The Washington Post,
only sixty percent of African Americans believe that the government should make reparations in
the form of cash. Sure, affirmative action in schools and places of employment has been
implemented but it doesnt account for or combat the structural disadvantages and systematic
oppression that African Americans must endure each and every day. After testing many potential
scenarios and extensive research, The Washington Post has concluded that there would be a
drastic change in how our election results turn out. This drastic change is due to the fact that the
problem of racial injustice is drastically large. The Economic Policy Institute created a report
titled The Unfinished March which proves that the level of poverty, unemployment, and
housingor lack therofis on the same level as it was in 1963. Its a shame that even though
African Americans are only thirteen percent of the nations population, twenty-seven percent of
them are living below the poverty rate and less than five percent of white Americans are
unemployed. After conducting studies on the weighted vote, The Washington Post, concluded
that this would increase voter turnout rates among the African American electorate. Politicians
would also have to focus their platforms more on issues related to improving African American
communities because they would have to compete more for their vote. If anything, the five-thirds
vote could compensate for African Americans who were unjustly imprisoned or murdered at the
hands of racism.

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Weighted reparations would ensure that African Americans never felt inadequate again.
In fact, each year they would have the obligation to turn out to vote because their ancestors were
stripped of that freedom. Drawbacks of the five-thirds vote proposal is that in a society who gets
infuriated at the thought of the Black Lives Matter movement, it is not likely that this weighted
movement will make any progress past the drawing board. Similarly, Senator Conyers has been
vying for the creation of a Congressional committee to simply discuss the idea of reparations for
slavery for decades and that has not progressed either. So, it is unlikely that such an extreme
proposal will be approved either.
I would have to agree with the other forty percent of African Americans who are against
reparations in the form of money. The idea of paying someone off for such an inhume crime is
just as detestable. How do you place a price on slaveryon stealing someones life, liberty, and
property from them? The institution of slavery cost more than anyone can imagine and African
Americans are still suffering from the consequences. The fact is that if reparations were rightly
paid, trillions of dollars would be spent and dispersing that money among African Americans
would be even more tedious than this projected. With that being said, it is a much better idea to
simply invest that moneythe money that is rightfully oursinto the improvement of African
American communities.

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Reparations." PBS NEWSHOUR: Race Matters. PBS, 12 May 2016. Web. 16 Oct. 2016.
Johnson, Theodore R. We Used to Count Black Americans as 3/5 of a Person. For Reparations,
Give Them 5/3 of a Vote. The Washington Post. WP Company, 21 Aug. 2015. Web. 04
Dec. 2016
Main, Douglas. Slavery Reparations Could Cost Up To $14 Trillion, According to New
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