By Michael A. Dingwall

While the reasons for considering the calls for reparations for the so-called crime of slavery as ridiculous are well-known and well-grounded, there is one important reason why we must end this nonsense call for slavery “compensation”. Demanding reparations is a good reason for our descendants to condemn us for so-called crimes that we may be doing today.

I know that it is hard for most of us to correctly contextualize and thus understand history. As such, it is easy for those who don’t understand history to condemn the actions of past generations for their involvement in slavery.

However, we must understand that the average person at the time saw the institution of slavery as moral, socially acceptable and legal. As such, those of us who continue to condemn slavery are doing so at great risk. What is this risk, you may ask? It is the risk of giving more sustenance to this wrong habit of allowing each succeeding generation the right to condemn past ones for their supposed sins. In other words, we are helping our own descendants to condemn us in the future.

It is hard for us to conceive of supposed crimes that our descendants, centuries from now, may condemn us for in the future. However, history is replete with many examples – including this claim for slavery reparations. However, I can think of a few.

For one thing, the constant debate over the relevance and morality of the death penalty. Another is our unequal treatment of minorities like homosexuals and immigrants. A third may be our treatment of people based on class. Who knows, maybe a fourth could be our perceived need to kill animals for food. Many of our societies take these actions for granted as morally acceptable. But will future generations be so kind to us in this respect?

Just as we would not want our future descendants to condemn us for supposed crimes that we may be committing now, so too should we today not condemn our ancestors – both European and African, for so-called crimes that they have committed. We, today, can do our part in helping to end this inter-generational condemning by rejecting this call for slavery reparations.

Humans are very interesting creatures. One of the reasons why humans are superior is the fact that their moral structures are not static – we evolve. Evolution, including moral evolution, is indeed a learning process. All societies are structured to solve particular problems – including slave societies. Therefore, no one has any right to condemn these past societies.

Let us therefore help stop this cycle of condemnation-madness with our generation and demonstrate our desire to promote inter-generational understanding by rejecting this claim for reparations.

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IMAGE: samhundley.com