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Education Not Reparations

If someone told you that you were eligible to receive money from the government with little or no trouble, would you take them up on the offer? I know I would. The issue of slave reparations has stormed our nation's capital. Many supporters of the ongoing battle for black civil rights have looked toward slave reparations as a step to provide more equality for black Americans. They believe such reparations will place blacks on equal turf with white Americans of similar socioeconomic situations. Supporters also claim that, had emancipated slaves been allowed to possess and retain the profits of their labor, their descendants might now control a much larger share of American social and monetary wealth. While agreeing that racism has not been expunged from the fabric of American life, I believe that the force of the civil rights movement and the '64 Civil Rights Act have knocked down most barriers blocking blacks from the economic mainstream. Reparations are not the answer to more equality. Black Americans, using the success of previous pioneers as a pedestal, need to seek aspects of expanding their human potential and not seek freebies or compensation as a means towards equality. Education, not reparations, is a practical solution to more socioeconomic equality.

If the reparations idea continues to gain traction, its most obvious effect will be to intensify ethnic antagonisms and generate new levels of racial resentment rather than alleviate them. So then, why are many blacks still in support of it? The root cause of this, says Walter E. Williams, Professor of Economics at George Mason University is, "Black people are taught that every waking thought of white America is racist; black people are perennial victims of white oppression ; we have no control over our lives and destiny. The only way black people can achieve anything is to prey upon white guilt, and seek special privileges like quotas, handouts, and lately reparations and apologies for slavery"(WilIiams)....