References: U.S. judge blocks $4 billion debt relief program for minority farmers (msn.com); American Action :: Reparations are racist; Let’s call reparations what they really are: Anti-white racism – The Strident Conservative ™; The reparations fraud by Thomas Sowell (townhall.com); Amherst creates fund to pay reparations to Black residents – The Boston Globe
We hear all this talk of reparations for blacks, and apparently some governmental entities have embarked on some sorts of reparation adventures. The reality, however, is that reparations – being government payments of some sort to blacks or to entities for the purpose of ameliorating allegedly historical “systemic” racism – is the very definition of racism itself. They are taxpayer funded anti-white racist boondoggles for the supposed benefit of blacks with no connection to slavery at all paid for by mostly white people with no connection to slavery at all.
In addition to the many reasons why reparations are, at the least, unlawful and/or just a stupid idea, trillions of dollars have already been spent – often fruitlessly – by the guilted government to assuage black feelings. As David Horowitz noted 20 years ago:
Since the passage of the Civil Rights Acts and the advent of the Great Society in 1965, TRILLIONS of dollars in transfer payments have been made to African Americans in the form of welfare benefits and racial preferences (in contracts, job placements and educational admissions) – all under the rationale of redressing historic racial grievances.
As if that wasn’t enough, President Biden has embarked on a crusade to effectively mandate some further level of “reparations” through various means, including executive orders and the so-called American Rescue Plan Act (“ARPA”), which among other things provides debt relief to “socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers”. That part of the ARPA has been enjoined by the courts because it is simply unconstitutional for the government to provide benefits to anyone simply because they are black.
If a debt-relief program specifically targeted for minority farmers is unconstitutional under an “equal protection” theory, according to the courts, then so are virtually all forms of reparations that can be conceived. There is no principled difference between the two. So let’s just forget this foolish notion of reparations and focus on moving forward rather than obsessing about something that is just unrealistic as well as unlawful.