Questions about the topic of reparations

Reparations for the descendants of slavery is an idea that pops up every few years (Thomas Elias, December 9), but then fades again, once subjected to logical examination and careful analysis.

To begin, it can be successfully argued that such payments have already been made, in the form of the multibillion dollar Great Society and War on Poverty initiatives that have taken place since the mid-sixties. Programs like Head Start, JTPA, and greatly expanded Aid to Families with Dependent Children were specifically designed to fulfill President Johnson’s desire to mitigate past injustice and neglect.

We also have to determine who would receive such benefits. Would the descendants of the 3,500 Blacks who themselves were slaveholders be eligible? How about recent immigrants from Africa and the Caribbean, not to mention our growing group of citizens whose racial background is mixed? Would their allotment of reparations payments be pro-rated?

And who shall pay? Would we all be taxed to fund the reparations, even those of us whose families had already sacrificed a son on the Union side in the war to end slavery? What about Americans of every color whose ancestors arrived many decades after slavery had ended — should they bear a tax burden also?

Finally, if we have the resources to fund a broad reparations program, why not use this money instead to specifically target the high homicide rates, persistent levels of illiteracy, and chronic health problems that remain in some ( but not all) of the areas where African Americans reside?

— Carl Ochsner, Chico