African Americans From The Institution Of Slavery example essay topic

Many questions can come up when the word reparations is brought up. Why should American taxpayers who never owned slaves pay for the sins of ancestors they don't even know? And what about those whose ancestors arrived here long after slavery ended? And how would the economy be affected? How do you put a price tag on 2 1/2 centuries of legalized inhumanity? In what form would reparations be paid?

How would you establish who's a descendant? It all still comes down to one basic question, Should the descendants of slaves' masters have to pay for their ancestors' direct involvement and economic compensations from the institution of slavery in America? The answer is yes, reparations should be paid to the descendants of slave's. Since descendants of slaves' masters still live off the wealth of companies, products, and labor that slaves generated over the course of four hundred years there should not be a doubt in anyone's mind that slavery should be compensated. Alternatively, since it was initially the ancestors of Caucasian's that enslaved African's their descendants should not have to compensate African Americans for what they performed. The descendants did not have any direct involvement in any way and can not change the actions of their past and should not be held liable.

If Caucasian's were to give reparations to African Americans how would they know for a fact they were giving it to the descendant of a slave? Most African Americans can not trace their history back telling if their forebears were in deed slaves so Caucasian's would be giving reparations of a speculation that one's antecedent was a slave. Though this may be the case, the descendants of slave masters still reap the benefits from the institution of slavery. Many companies, products, and labor that slaves established were taken from African's while slave master's claimed it as their own were which Caucasians have prospered from. These inventions and companies made African's slave master's wealthy individuals causing them to be apart of the elite; meaning their money is being passed down from generation to generation and where they will still have wealth even if they choose not to work.

Another aspect of reparations is that Africans / African Americans were denied education for centuries. Reparations can be in the form of free college education. Although African Americans have the free will to receive an education now it took an extended period in time to receive that privilege. Moreover, when people think of reparations the first thing that comes to mind is money. Reparations is the compensation in not only money but also materials payable by a defeated nation for damages to or expenditures sustained by another nation as a result of hostilities with the defeated nation. African Americans do not have to be compensated with money, and I think African Americans should not be compensated with money.

Businesses and inventions that were originally created by Africans / African Americans can be the form of reparations. An instance of this is Black Wall Street in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Black Wall Street was formed long before Wall Street as we know it and was run the same just by Black businessmen / women. This business district was burned down and then came Wall Street in New York. African Americans that suffered from this never received reparations from this occurrence. On the whole, descendants of slaves' masters should have to pay for their ancestors' direct involvement and economic compensations from the institution of slavery in America.

There are many questions to be addressed but generally reparations is in order. There are plenty of ways to compensate African Americans from the institution of slavery besides giving people a check. Until Caucasians come to realize that although they had no direct involvement in the institution of slavery that they still harvest the profits of the actions of their ancestors.