Simply put, the political movement necessary to make reparative payments to American blacks—either to slave descendants and/or those who suffered under Jim Crow—would be better spent on other reforms with greater impact and lessen the damage caused by unintended consequences of any reparative effort.
Reparations could, in fact, make matters worse.
Jonathan Blanks,
Rare Contributor
(RARE) -- Any honest assessment of American history leads to the conclusion that much of the wealth the United States has enjoyed was built upon the stolen labor and property of blacks through slavery and subsequent practices of fraud, violence, and theft in the decades hence. The acquisition of property and wealth through unjust means is not made just over the passage of time due to the difficulty in meting out recompense to the victims and their would-be heirs. Moreover, the years of political terrorism and the ever-present threat of violence for even the slightest violation of hierarchical race-based social norms inflicted immeasurable harm on individuals and their families that undoubtedly had profound psychological and economic effects.