Slavery Reparations: Hacking At Leaves, Ignoring Roots

January 24, 2008 by Stephen Palmer

Associated Press writer Ashley M. Heher recently reported that, “Lawyers for slave descendants asked a federal appeals court Wednesday to revive a landmark reparations case that demands 17 of the nation’s insurers and banks publicize and pay for their roles in the country’s slave trade. The case, which names Wall Street behemoths JP Morgan Chase & Co., Aetna Inc., Bank of America, Lehman Brothers and others, says the companies’ predecessors issued loans to slave owners and, in some cases, owned, insured and transported slaves…all at a financial profit that helped ensure their success today.”

Slavery was an awful stain upon the fabric of our nation, and it continues to negatively impact us today. Yet if we are to move beyond the suffering and heal the wounds caused by slavery, it will take

voluntary heroism by individuals, not misplaced and misguided governmental force.

Everyone born into this life has a fundamental choice that determines their happiness and success, or lack thereof. That is the choice between victimhood and heroism. Admittedly, this is easy to say relative to the issue of slave reparations for a person whose ancestors didn’t come from slavery, but the principle applies nonetheless.

If all of us were to seek reparations for atrocities committed on our ancestors, where would the chain of victimhood end? Why shouldn’t we have groups seeking reparations from companies in Britain who helped finance the war against the colonies? Where are the lawsuits against France for the Napoleonic Wars? Should Rome sue Germany for the Germanic tribes that sacked Rome?

Gratefully, we still have commonsensical judges who recognize how ridiculous is the concept of reparations from historical abuse. Said Circuit Judge Richard Posner involved in the case, “If you think you’ve been wronged, it shouldn’t take 100 years to investigate the conduct of Aetna, Lehman Brothers and the like. There are a lot of people living today whose parents were wealthy in the 19th century who have nothing.”

It’s also unclear how money will solve the problems of those seeking reparations. Receiving money will do nothing to help them make the decision to be heroes instead of victims, neither will it allow for volitional charity from individuals and corporations who may have contributed to the evils of slavery and racial oppression. Without a fundamental change in consciousness, increased amounts of money do nothing but exacerbate existing problems. Reparations for slavery are like putting a band-aid on a gaping, traumatic wound that actually requires surgery.

Public and private virtue stemming from personal, voluntary choice in the minds and hearts of individuals is the only thing that can deeply and truly heal the pain caused by slavery. For example, companies who have blights in their history from slavery could voluntarily create programs to help struggling black youths, and people seeking reparations must choose to be heroes instead of victims.

It sounds simplistic on the surface, yet this prescription is, in fact, the most difficult method for solving human problems. It’s easy to look outside of ourselves for solutions, but painful and exhausting to turn inward.

As Marianne Williamson said, “The most important factor in determining what will happen in our world is what you decide to let happen within you. Every circumstance–no matter how painful–is a gauntlet thrown down by the universe, challenging us to become who we are capable of being. Our task, for our own sakes and for the sake of the entire world, is to do so.”