First – this will never pass. @LostInParadise: “Are they going to give money to all slave descendants, including the wealthy?” Besides not happening, the idea of what form reparations would take is still completely undecided. But yes, I personally agree that reparations should go to all ADOS. The liberal reflex to means test everything should be pushed back on – even here. @LostInParadise: “Does giving payments settle the score regarding slavery?” No. And that isn’t the point of reparations. @LostInParadise: “Why should people who are not descendants of slave owners, including recent immigrants, be required to give their tax money to the descendants of slaves?” First, you’re taking the right-wing “tax money” framing. This makes low-income people feel as though they’re being robbed to pay for the crimes of rich people in the past. Don’t do this. “Tax money” doesn’t need to mean that we increase taxes on poor people – or anyone at all. The issue of funding is something completely separate and should not play into the question of whether reparations are due. Second, people in the US who were not descendants of slave owners benefited and continue to benefit from the fact that the US had a slave labor force in the past. Third, we don’t need to even show benefit to descendants of slave owners to consider reparations. The horror of slavery and the fact that labor was stolen for a hundred years is enough to warrant compensation. This should be a very easy question for people. The fact that reparations is the slightest bit controversial is proof that the US has never even attempted to come to terms with what it has done and continues to do. @LostInParadise: “Reparations would not be discussed if Blacks were not disproportionately among the poor and if there was not still racial discrimination. These issues should be addressed, but not because of the existence of slavery in the past.” You can’t discuss economic and racial inequality without dealing with slavery. The only way to address racial inequality without dealing with the fact of slavery is to pretend that it didn’t happen. And that is just another injustice. Slavery is not history. It’s the foundation that we all walk on today.