It is almost 4 years since I started writing this blog with the laudable goal of promoting moderation over extremism. Most of the examples of extremism I have addressed have been on the Right. Though the Right is more prone to extremism on a variety of issues, the Left is not immune. This post is about a case of extremism on the Left - the notion that the descendants of slaves in the US should be compensated for the exploitation they suffered.
At first glance the idea of compensation for slavery seems reasonable. "40 acres and a mule" comes to mind. The California Reparations Task Force was set up in 2021 to study the issue and made its recommendations last year. The Task Force came up with a way to identify the beneficiaries but did not specify the amount of money they would receive. There was speculation that the amount would be $1.2 million for each individual. I am not going to get into the details but I think it is safe to say that the process of computing the harm done to former slaves and their descendants and translating it into a dollar amount is beyond the capabilities of a society which cannot resolve issues such as the federal budget. Or whether storming the Capitol in Washington, DC, to disrupt the certification of the result of the 2020 Presidential election was an insurgency or a tour of the Capitol which got out of hand. Logistics aside, what about the underlying rationale? If the descendants of former slaves are to be compensated, what about the descendants of the original occupants of the continent? Is there enough money in the world to even begin to atone for our collective sins? Surely there is a more rational solution. President Lincoln's second inaugural address is famous for the expression "with malice toward none, with charity toward all". Let's be clear - "charity" referred not to free handouts but to a magnanimity of heart. And the intended recipients of that sentiment were the former Confederates States which had lost the War. What if we decided as a people and a nation to include the descendants of former slaves and the original owners of the land we now call the United States of America in that embrace? What if we stopped discriminating against them by denying them their due representation in state and federal legislatures? What if we made an effort to bring the infrastructure in Native Reservations up to par? What if we finally, after over two centuries, extended the promise of the words "all men are created equal" from the Declaration of Independence to all individuals - men and women? I believe most blacks, Native Americans and other minority groups would prefer that to monetary compensation. Besides, there is no guarantee such compensation would ever actually materialize. Which takes me back to the "forty acres and a mule" deal after the Civil War. Apparently, 400,000 acres of coastal land from South Carolina to Florida was distributed to freed slaves. However, Andrew Jackson, who succeeded Lincoln after his assassination issued an executive order rescinding the offer. The former slaves were evicted from their newly-acquired land which was returned to the former slave-owners. As the saying goes, shoulda, woulda, coulda, but didn't. Let us not repeat a historic mistake but learn from it.