Gayle,

You put a lot of thought into your response and I appreciate it. I used to be of a mind that reparations were a thing that was never going to happen so for practical reasons I never paid attention to people demanding them. As I learn more and more about US history, my mind had changed because I wasn’t previously aware of all that had been done to black people, well beyond the simple existence of slavery, but all the other things done to slaves, after that the Black Codes, after that Jim Crow, and still voter suppression and more.

Not only for things done to black people, but reimbursement for the labor that literally built much of the infrastructure of this nation. Slaves and recently freed slaves built most of the Southern railroad system while their owners (including the railroads in many cases) reaped the benefits. Forced breeding led to great profits for the owners and great risk to slave women at a time when near 25% of slave women died during childbirth.

The United States has given reparations in the past to Native Americans and the Japanese, they even gave reparations to Southern plantation owners who fought a war against this country, giving them back their land and sometimes paying them for lost assets. I’m not trying to compare how badly peoples have been treated but am making the case that we are the last that should be left out.

You used Jewish people as an example. They were given a homeland and the protection of some of the most powerful nations in the world. No, their reparations didn’t come from the Nazi’s but still, they came.

Thanks again for taking the time, hope to keep hearing from you.