If you believe that black citizens have been paid back for this situation because of welfare, you are sorely mistaken. Far more white people than black people have benefited from welfare, affirmative action, and similar programs, and certainly those programs have not assisted black families to the level that redressing the nation’s racial inequality would require. It is simply not possible to argue that the racial equality gap arising out of slavery and Jim Crow has been rectified by welfare and other government programs, or that black families have been given the chance to make that happen themselves.

I’m most disturbed that in a post about a descendant of U.S. slave traders calling for honesty and truth, you can say of U.S. slaves that you believe “only a hand ful of southerners owned them bought from africans.”

All enslaved Africans were bought from other Africans by European and American traders, and brought across the Atlantic in a hugely profitable business that enmeshed, among other regions, the entire northeastern part of the United States. These slaves were owned by a great many American families: in parts of New England, for example, up to 1 in 4 households owned at least one slave. There were, in the end, roughly 4 million slaves in the American South, and while not all southerners were wealthy plantation owners, every white southerner benefited from the economics of slavery — as did every white citizen in the North and Midwest, for that matter.

In that vein, I’d like to look at several of the facts you’ve packed into your short comment.

First, most black citizens of this country are not on welfare, and most welfare recipients, in turn, are not black.

It is true that black families in this country are disproportionately poor relative to white families, and thus are disproportionately represented on the welfare rolls. This is a direct consequence of our nation’s history of slavery and discrimination. The wealth gap between white and black families when slavery ended was profound, and we have made only modest progress, year-by-year, in closing that gap over the last 145 years.

Your suggestion, however, that black families “have been payed” for centuries of enslavement and brutal discrimination through welfare simply doesn’t square with the facts.

This isn’t a matter of whether you agree with welfare, or with efforts to compensate black families for slavery and discrimination. Paying black families for this history, whether a good idea or not, would involve at least partly closing the racial inequality gap, with resources dedicated to this purpose. Programs like welfare and affirmative action, on the other hand, have not done much at all to address that gap, and they are not intended to. Instead, these programs benefit mostly white families, and are intended to provide short-term support for any families requiring assistance, without regard to race.

As for your suggestion that “only a hand ful of southerners owned” slaves, this, too, is simply not true.

In fact, the image of southern plantation slavery has skewed the understanding which many people have of American slavery. slave owning was widespread in the South. Slavery was also quite common in the North, with up to one in four households owning at least one slave. In both regions, people of quite modest means, such as family farmers and craftspeople, would often own a slave.

More importantly, most people in colonial America, and in the United States up to the Civil War, were economically dependent on slavery. This is the issue with regard to culpability and to national responsibility today, not how many southerners owned vast plantations.

Finally, you mention “white slaves in the world today” and say that “no one is helping them.” In fact, there are approximately 27 million slaves in the world today, but the vast majority are not white. And while far too little is being done, many people and organizations are trying to end slavery and help those who are enslaved. See, for example, our page on actions you can take to make a difference.

You’re simply assuming that no amount of money, and no plan of action, can cure this problem.

My point, which you’ve acknowledged, is that there has as yet been no effort to try, and so there’s no reason to assume the effort wouldn’t work.

Therefore, we should stop throwing these things at the problem and let blacks figure out their own mess.

There are two problems with this suggestion.

First, the United States is simply not throwing money or resources at this problem. There are broad efforts to address poverty or to promote education, for example, among all American citizens. But these programs are carried out in a manner that is, by and large, independent of this particular history and its consequences. As a result, these programs lift all American families equally, and in fact, because they do not take much account of prejudice or structural inequities, may actually help black families less, in the long run, than white families.

This suggestion could not even be offered, I think, without the widespread myth in this country that black families are the recipients of disproportionate aid on the basis of race, or that programs like affirmative action disproportionately benefit black citizens. If you believe that aid programs for the poor, or programs to assist in building the middle class with aid for education or homeownership, are a waste of money, then that’s a separate issue. But these are simply not programs which grant excessive benefits to black Americans or seek to do anything to close the racial gap which this generation has inherited.

Second, the problems of black families in this country are emphatically not “their own mess.” We’re talking about racial inequality and related issues which are the direct result of centuries of slavery and another century of Jim Crow violence and discrimination. This history is not the fault of anyone alive today, and certainly not that of black Americans. This is a legacy that we, as a society, have all inherited, and it does not necessarily fall exclusively to the victims of this history to repair the harm that has been done.

I agree. No amount of government intervention, altruism, money, pity, or lawsuits can cure the problem. Therefore, we should stop throwing these things at the problem and let blacks figure out their own mess.

First, I don’t know how you can argue that the U.S. ought to allow impoverished African nations to pay reparations for slavery first, and then the U.S. can do likewise. Either the U.S. doesn’t owe reparations for slavery, or it does. Surely if the U.S. has such an obligation, then that debt isn’t dependent on other nations paying their own debts?

If this is simply a way of reminding everyone that African societies were full participants in the slave trade, then I would hope every visitor to this web site would learn that fact, if they don’t already know it. But unless you’re arguing that the U.S. should pay reparations, then it hardly makes sense to argue that African nations, which do not enjoy benefits from the transatlantic slave trade, should try to find the resources to pay reparations, and to do so first.

You do argue that the slave trade “originated” in Africa, but I’m not sure what you mean. The transatlantic slave trade began when Europeans first purchased slaves on the coast of west Africa to transport across the Middle Passage. If you mean that there were slave trades elsewhere on that continent before the arrival of Europeans, then the same is true of Europe, which had already been engaged in slave trading for thousands of years.

Second, I have no problem with your position that no one should receive reparations for what happened to their ancestors. Such a proposition would violate basic values at the core of our society.

However, this is a straw man argument. Contemporary proposals for reparations for slavery are almost always focused on harm suffered directly by people alive today. This harm is the result, in part, of slavery and the ways in which that suffering has been transmitted down through the generations. The harm addressed by reparations advocates is also that which originated in the brutality of the Jim Crow century, in which black families in all parts of the country suffered further discrimination, and were largely prevented from making progress towards equality. Finally, of course, there remains lingering discrimination today. All of this adds up to considerable harm endured by black families in 2010.

On the other side of the equation, of course, are the tremendous benefits garnered by this nation as a result of slavery and discrimination, most of which have found their way into white families. We can argue about what, if anything, can or should be done to address the dramatic inequalities arising out of this history, but it is hard to deny that substantial injustice has been transmitted down through the centuries.

Now, I raised these points before, but you’ve just returned and made much of this issue, saying “Reparations should only be made if the victims are still alive. Not generations later. That is all I’m saying.”

I’m not sure what isn’t clear about what I’m saying, but this is about addressing harm suffered today, and not about harm suffered in the past. In the language you’re using, the victims to be compensated are people alive today.

Third, while I’m not arguing for reparations, money has indeed been given in many instances after a government has apologized to those it has wronged, or to their descendants. Let’s consider an example closer to home: The U.S. government, under presidents Reagan and Bush, awarded $1.6 billion to the Japanese-American survivors of our WWII concentration camps, and in cases where the victims were already dead, to their heirs.

Fourth, you say “Every race is racist towards other races.”

This is not actually true. In fact, not only does prejudice towards other races vary tremendously from society to society, but not all societies even think in terms of “race.”

Europeans and Americans did not start out believing that blacks are inferior, or even that there were distinct races of white and black people. Many societies today do not see race in these terms at all, and many societies express what prejudice they have on a basis other than race.

You are of course correct that in this modern global age, with Western ideas of race so prevalent around the globe and the legacy of European dominance often defining how people of various ancestries are viewed, many societies do exhibit at least a degree of prejudice according to race.

Even in these societies, however, it is often not possible to term existing biases “racist.”

Fifth, and finally, you conclude by saying, “Making the world a better place for everyone and ensuring that everyone is treated right is what you and everyone of us should be working on.”

This is surely the right attitude to hold. However, you seem to be consistently downplaying the ways in which various groups in this country were not treated properly in the past, suggesting, for instance, that African nations bear more responsibility for what happened here than Americans did, or that many Americans were on the right side during the civil rights movement. You also seem to be downplaying the profound injustices that are still with us from this history.

Each person can have different ideas about how to address these injustices, or even whether they can be addressed at all. So I certainly understand if you reject the idea of reparations, especially the old-fashioned idea of payments to the descendants of slaves for the suffering of slaves (which most of us would reject, too).

But if you are truly committed to making the world a better place for everyone, and to ensuring that everyone is treated properly, then how can you simply brush aside the injustices in our society today that result from this history, saying merely that an apology would be all right “and that should be it”?

I’ll try to respond briefly to the various points you raise, so that you (and other readers) can have some idea of where we’re coming from.

First, this issue is not (at least in our minds) about guilt. I don’t know where you got the idea that our family suffers from “white guilt,” but I can tell you that I don’t remotely feel any guilt about what other people did centuries ago, and we don’t encourage anyone to think in terms of guilt.

This is about acknowledging our history as a nation and a society, and about accepting responsibility for the legacy of that history today.

Second, you quite rightly raise the concern that people should not have to “pay money” for things they didn’t do.

However, this issue is not about reparations for slavery, but about acknowledging and addressing the lingering harm caused by slavery and racial discrimination. This means, first, that it isn’t necessary to endorse reparations in order to tackle this issue, and second, that this has nothing to do with whether the members of our society were responsible for committing the wrongs which we’re trying to address.

The plain fact is that if you live in our society, then you benefit from this history at the expense of others. This isn’t your fault, but it’s a reality.

What, if anything, should be done about this reality is another matter. But it’s important to note that we all benefit in this society from the legacy of slavery and discrimination. This is true even if, to use your example, our ancestors immigrated here after the Civil War.

Third, I’m sure you’re not, in any way, racially prejudiced. But without meaning to, you sound like you’re perpetuating racial stereotypes when you make comments like this one:

These people only want money to get away from doing work and want to become instant millionaires overnight.

“These people” aren’t of one mind, any more than you and I share the same opinions.

Moreover, reparations advocates (and I’m certainly not one) aren’t arguing for a handout, and aren’t looking for a luxurious, work-free life.

When you imply that they are, it sounds as though you aren’t willing to recognize a central fact about our nation today: that there is a vast inequality between white and black families, in terms of education, jobs, housing, income, and wealth, and that this inequality can be traced definitively back to slavery and Jim Crow-era discrimination.

You can certainly disagree with reparations proposals, but to suggest that these are selfish requests is to deny, in effect, that there is a substantial injustice at the heart of these proposals.

Fourth, you’re quite right that there would be vast inequities involved in handing out checks to black Americans. However, the reparations proposals currently before Congress are focused not on checks for individuals, but on broader programs which would attempt to minimize lingering injustice while also minimizing any unfairness inherent in the solutions.

Fifth, you rightly point out that everyone’s ancestors have suffered at one time or another.

However, there is a significant difference between black families in this country and white families of various ethnicities. Black families, for the most part, have endured chattel slavery, imposed on them by our own nation and society. These families, again for the most part, suffered appalling discrimination for the next century. And all black families, even those who came after slavery and Jim Crow, have endured substantial racial prejudice, which continues, albeit less frequently, even today.

This history leaves most black families in this country at a significant disadvantage, one which can easily be traced back to actions by our government and institutions. The historic harm caused, by contrast, to certain populations in Europe is not one for which our society bears any clear responsibility. The discrimination experienced by certain European immigrant groups arriving in the U.S., meanwhile, was both much lighter and has long since been erased, to the point where it is hard to trace back harm or to find inequalities among families today.

I have, of course, omitted the experiences of other racial and ethnic groups which have suffered cognizable harm in our nation’s history.

Their stories are highly relevant here, however, if only because these groups, too, have sought (and in some cases, won) reparations from our nation for their suffering.

Sixth, it’s true that Africans sold other Africans into slavery. However, contrary to your suggestion, in our experience filming this documentary in Ghana, most Africans were quite willing to acknowledge the part their ancestors played in the transatlantic slave trade.

The point, however, is that this is not, and ever was, about race in the sense in which you mean it. Just as it would be unfair to simply give out cash to any American of African descent, this is about our nation’s responsibility for its actions, not white people’s responsibility. It makes no sense to excuse our nation for its own actions, simply because those actions weren’t solely the responsibility of white people.

Seventh, most black Americans, not merely “a few,” are happy to be in this country and to work hard to enjoy the American Dream. The problem is that, unlike most immigrants, black families in this country have inherited significant disadvantages from our own history. These cannot simply be wiped out in a single generation (or even two).

Eighth, you say that “American has paid its debt” to black Americans.

When did that happen? How was it done?

It’s true that black Americans benefit from laws which attempt to prevent further discrimination and injustice, at least in certain formal settings like schools, polling stations and workplaces.

It’s also true, however, that affirmative action and civil rights laws have operated mostly to stop further discrimination.

Simple math shows that these policies have barely made a dent in the socioeconomic gap between the races created by our history of slavery and discrimination.

How, then, has the nation “paid its debt” to its black citizens?

Ninth, you say that “America has also apologized to” its black citizens, and “admitted that the slavery issue was wrong.”

When did this happen? The last time I checked, Congress had still been unable to pass an apology for slavery. And no president had actually issued an apology in his own name, either.

Tenth, and finally, you conclude by saying:

please stop this nonsense about reparations and let’s encourage everyone to live the American Dream by working hard

Are you saying, James, that you believe that the harm caused by slavery and discrimination should simply be allowed to stand?

Are you saying that the answer is that black people should work as hard as they can, while everyone who has not suffered from this history (but, indeed, has benefited from it) also keeps working hard and staying ahead?

I’m not sure how else to interpret this conclusion, unless it’s based on a misunderstanding about the nature of the harm, or about what happens when some start with a disadvantage and everyone tries equally hard to get ahead.