Reparations: An Unsound Idea
 ~ by James Banzer

   Political correctness comes in many forms, and takes
all kinds of twists and turns. One of those directions
taken by the purveyors of PC thought is to find a way
to place blame. The blame game has been growing like a
cancer. The person or persons or institutions being
blamed need not be morally blamable, as long as the
parties casting such blame perceive a way to benefit
monetarily.

   Brown University, one of the most prestigious
institutions of higher learning in the United States,
is embarking upon a two-year study of what links it
might have to slavery. The move comes on orders of
university president Ruth Simpson, following demands
for reparations by a group which wants retaliation on
behalf of people whose ancestors were slaves. 

   This is materializing just at a time when the
reparations issue had simmered down in the aftermath
of a decision of a Chicago federal judge who decided
that some elite American corporations did not owe
reparations to descendants of slaves.

   The logic of the Chicago decision makes sense. Many
people were involved in slavery in the early days of
American history, but that was then. Now is now. We
should not be held accountable for what our great-,
great-great-, or great-great-great-grandfathers may
have done. 

   Ruth Simpson is black. Whether her race, or the fact
that her ancestors were slaves, will have any impact
upon her eventual decision as to where to go after the
study is finished remains to be seen. Only she can
really answer that question. She ordered the study
without saying what might happen should ties between
Brown and slavery are found.

   If it were a study aimed only at ascertaining facts,
that might well be appropriate. If it is aimed at
finding a reason for a payback, it is disturbing.

   This country does not need any new wedges between the
races. Any eventual decision in favor of reparations
would simply be another instigator of hard feelings.

   If someone tells me I owe money to them because of
something my granddaddy's father or grandfather did,
I'm going to get rather angry, and with plenty of good
reason. I don't know enough about my genealogy to be
able to say what all of my ancestral predecessors
might or might not have been up to, and that's the
position of most Americans.

   Hold me accountable for what I do. If Brown University
could find a living founder who helped promote
slavery, it should go after them. Since that's not
going to happen, the concept of handing out
reparations is a silly issue. Slavery was ended long
ago, and not a living person was responsible for it.
No one alive was a slave during that dark time in
American history. Get over it.

   Maybe there will be one positive note to come out of
the study though. Surely the probe will make a report
on the fact that many people in the original 13
colonies were involved in slave trade. This fact
deserves to be publicized as part of real history. The
idea that slavery was just a product of plantation
owners in the south is blatantly wrong. 

   There are reasons to believe that founders of Brown
University had a hand in slavery. It is probable that
the Brown study will conclude that its own history is
tainted. If that turns out to be the finding, it will
be nice to see the study likewise surmising that
nobody today owes anybody anything because of that
blemish.

033104

James Banzer has enjoyed a long career in broadcast
news and is now writing on his observations about the
world around us. He is currently residing in
Louisville, Kentucky. You may send an e-mail to him at
jamesbanzer@yahoo.com .

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