
			Slavery Reparations Are Wrong

        Ladies and gentlemen; I don't believe that anyone in this 
 chamber would move to disagree with the idea that slavery was an 
 atrocity, committed from the depths of the darkest parts of the human 
 sole.  Africans were seized from their native land, and sold into 
 lives of servitude into a foreign land.  Indeed, it was a tragedy on 
 such a scale that cannot be measured nor quantified.  And it is this 
 very notion of unquantifiable tragedy which speaks to the matter of 
 reparations for slavery.  To be quite blunt, reparations, even if they 
 may be deserved, are not feasible under any system or economic tangent 
 - indeed such an undertaking would only not remedy the situation, but 
 it would sink Africa and her people deeper into the cycle of poverty 
 and oppression that they have so struggled to free themselves.  While 
 the arguments against reparations may seem shallow or self-serving to 
 advocates of such a system, upon examination, the logistics of what to 
 give, and whom to distribute it to, preclude any potential benefits of 
 such a system of indemnity and requite.  The point of the follow 
 critique is not to say that Africans were not mistreated, nor that 
 they are not worthy of reparations, but that perhaps reparations are 
 not an adequate solution to this situation, and indeed will only serve 
 to worsen.
         Africa is a continent in dire straits.  European colonization 
 and colonialism damaged the native structure and society - some might 
 say that this simply proves that European man caused, and ought to pay 
 for, the damages done to Africa and her people.  However, I would 
 argue that simply placing a 'band-aid' blanket over Africa, would 
 serve only to mask their problems, and relieve us of our guilt.  It 
 was this same attitude that the early European missionaries took with 
 Africa - that they are not capable of dealing with their own problems 
 and situations.  Authors suggest that reparations should take the form 
 of capital transfers and African status in the International Monetary 
 Fund (Mazuri, 22).  Does this sound like mending the deep running 
 wounds and damage done to Africa, or like a transfer of monetary funds 
 in order to "fix" Africa?  Indeed, this idea of presenting money to 
 Africa in order to "apologize" for what we have done is nothing more 
 than a quick fix solution - it is not a long-term remedy for the 
 underlying structural damage.  The very center of Africa has been 
 changed, for better or for worse.  Surface solutions, while some may 
 claim they are "a good beginning" or perhaps just a token of our 
 apologetic state, will only further social damage and entrench abusive 
 African regimes.  A cognate situation with African Americans is with 
 that of Afrocentric history (Asante, 174); many suggest that perhaps 
 we ought to provide black student with their own curriculum, such as 
 to instill in them a sense of pride that will improve their education. 
 The U.S. News and World Report comments: 

     "The Afrocentric curriculum is usually presented as an 
     attempt to develop pride in black children by giving them a racial 
     history  But what kind of pride and self-esteem is likely to grow 
     from false history?  And how much more cynical will black children 
     be if they discover that they have been conned once again, only 
     this time by Afrocentrists?  It is a sure-fire formula for 
     separatism and endless racial animosity (Leo, 26)" 

 This author suggests that indeed, conferring upon youths of African 
 descent their own "different" history will not only further the racial 
 segregation, but also provide them with a false sense of history, 
 fueling the animosity.  If the rest of the world were to suddenly step 
 down and bestow upon Africa special privileges and grants, it would 
 only create a sense among the global village that Africans are 
 'different' and require some sort of special assistance in order to 
 succeed.  This type of compensatory system would not only be 
 insufficient to ever repay blacks for the injustice to them, but also 
 further the rigid separatism that plagues African Americans today - 
 what they need is equality, not special programs catered to what 
 guilty-feeling Europeans feel they "owe" them.
         Aside from any philosophical or idea-based arguments against 
 reparations, there exist a number of logistical barriers to repaying 
 blacks for their suffering. Immediate questions arise in the realm of 
 distribution - it is intuitive that such reparations would be 
 difficult to distribute, much less to decide how much, or where to 
 place the funds or assistance.  The questions are impossible to 
 answer: who was the most oppressed? Which family or group of people 
 received the cruelest treatment - should they get the most money or 
 assistance?  Such questions cannot be decided, nor is it fair to 
 quantify or compare the suffering of different people - if we started 
 to hand out assistance, some would invariably demand more than others. 
  Some of African descent were never taken into slavery, nor were 
 oppressed by whites - even if one believed they are deserved of 
 reparations, it would be impossible for an international body to 
 distinguish or properly disburse the requite among Africans of diverse 
 backgrounds.  Some Africans have indeed become wealthy within then 
 white world and do not require assistance - yet it would be unfair to 
 slight them their share - did they not also once suffer?  It is 
 equally impossible to prove whether or not someone actually was a 
 slave, or how long they had been slaves; no records of such history 
 were ever kept.  Also worth of addressing is African involvement in 
 slavery - it ought be decided whether those Africans deserve 
 reparations. Some historians agree that many early slave traders 
 justified their actions because of African involvement in the trade 
 itself - these African kings were bought by guns and technology from 
 the Europeans (M'Bokolo ??).  By this logic, even if they were forced 
 to sell these slaves, they did indeed contribute to the effort - are 
 the nations which contain these former kingdoms today deserved of 
 repayment?  Indeed, it is unfeasible to say who did and who did not, 
 as any logical observer would note.  It is equally unworkable to 
 decide whether or not they too were victims of the slave trade, the 
 arguments either way would be morally irreparable - for are they 
 responsible for the actions of their ancestors?  In total, no 
 governing body can be sure of who these reparations ought to be 
 distributed to, nor what form they ought to take.  One might argue 
 that just general monetary grants should be given to African nations - 
 but that leaves African Americans out of the process, who formerly 
 suffered as Africans.  While perhaps the ideas that Mazuri presents 
 are perhaps worthy of noting or discussion, we find that there are 
 many unanswered questions in the issue - the risks of the distribution 
 process outweigh potential benefits.
         The final case against the organized business of reparations 
 for slaves is that the indemnifiers the question of who ought to bear 
 responsibility for repaying the slaves for their oppression and abuse. 
  Is there a certain group of people that ought to be most responsible 
 for the reparations - should the average citizen pay for slavery?  
 Both are questions which cannot be sufficiently responded to.  No 
 single person ought to be paying more for slavery than another; in 
 fact few people alive today has ever committed slavery or owned 
 slaves; they ought not to be held responsible for the actions of their 
 ancestors who perhaps once did have slaves.  Also worth noting is the 
 idea that those nations most responsible for slavery are unable to pay 
 for it, such as Belgium and Portugal, while relatively benign 
 countries like Great Britain are economic powers in Europe (Mazuri, 
 22). This makes the interesting point of such, and I feel that Britain 
 does not have to pick up the slack and pay for what other nations did 
 - it is equally unfair as giving reparations to Africans who were not 
 slaves.  One of the suggestions that is also raised (Mazuri, 22) is 
 that of establishing an IMF fund for African nations.  However, it is 
 the tax money of average citizens paying for these reparations - no 
 one say that these people were actually the ones who contributed to 
 slavery.  The hard earned taxes of the middle class should not go to 
 foreign funds to deal with guilt for African tragedies, but to 
 education for all people, without regard to race or discrimination.  
 The point is, that all in all, those who did not contribute to slavery 
 ought not pay for it - neighbors of criminals do no go to prison for 
 being near the criminal, nor the children or grandchildren of 
 criminals serve time to society.
         I would, once again, like to make clear that I do not disagree 
 that slavery was an act of near genocide, and ought never be forgotten 
 nor trivialized - we owe the African of our day a great apology.  Nor 
 do I disagree that perhaps Africans contributed to global markets in 
 the early days of European expansion (Miller, 71).  However, I do not 
 think it right that we bandage Africa in requital of our own guilt, 
 thusly entrenching the very notion of segregation and discrimination 
 that we are discussing here today.  African peoples and nations may be 
 deserved of recompense, but it will never truly be possible to requite 
 the losses in any form of goods or services by a foreign power.  If 
 Africans need money, it need not be asked for under guise of slave 
 reparations.  We ought not bestow these requites of shallow money and 
 assistance on Africa - it would distinguish them as something 
 different, and entrench the mindset of racism, and the paradigm of 
 separate treatment.  Indeed, the point of this address was to display 
 to the chamber the impracticality of providing such "quick-fix" 
 solutions, and of ever hoping to properly distribute these funds 
 within a reasonable timeframe of effectiveness.  Indeed, I believe 
 deeply that Africans have been abused and oppressed - yet we ought not 
 buy the forgiveness of Africa, nor should Africa have to accept our 
 payments.  I urge you, to please have the foresight to not entrench 
 the very notions of which it is so paramount that we battle, but to 
 find an alternative solution to Africa's dilemma. 

