Every time the topic of reparations for the descendants of enslaved people comes up, African Americans are met with the same responses:
And the most common: “Why do Black people believe they are entitled to a handout?”
If that is truly how America feels, then how did President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice suddenly find nearly $1.8 billion to compensate MAGA allies — including people connected to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol and others who claim the federal government improperly targeted them?
That contradiction says a lot about this country.
America sends a painful message
America continues to resist reparations for the descendants of enslaved people while showing a willingness to compensate people tied to an attack on democracy itself. To me, that sends a painful message: America would rather bury its history of slavery, lynchings, rapes, kidnappings, beatings, castrations, and racist medical experimentations, than seriously confront what is owed to Black Americans.
I’ve written about reparations for years, and every time I do, I receive hundreds of emails and texts explaining why descendants of enslaved people deserve nothing — even while other groups in America have received compensation for historic wrongs.
What I now wonder is whether the Trump administration will face that same outrage for its willingness to compensate people connected to Jan. 6.
Will Americans flood conservative talk radio shows demanding that taxpayers not foot the bill?
Will people argue that those involved should “move on” instead of dwelling on the past?
Will critics start advocating for personal responsibility instead of focusing on compensation?
Or will many of the same people who mocked reparations agree that government payouts are acceptable — depending on who receives them?
Why isn’t Black suffering worth redress?
For me, reparations have never just been about money.
The issue has always been about acknowledgment, accountability, and whether this country believes the suffering of Black people deserves repair.
For generations, Black Americans helped build the wealth of this nation through unpaid labor while simultaneously being denied opportunities to build wealth for themselves through segregation, redlining, discriminatory housing policies, unequal education, mass incarceration, and barriers to programs like the GI Bill.
Black families were also denied access to many life insurance policies before the Civil Rights era, further limiting their ability to pass wealth from one generation to the next.
Yet whenever reparations are discussed, the conversation is framed as though African Americans are asking for charity instead of asking America to confront a debt directly tied to its own history and policies.
What makes the debate even more painful is how quickly America finds money when it wants to. For instance, the federal government bailed out banks after the financial collapse. Congress approved massive pandemic relief packages, including the American Rescue Plan Act, a $1.9 trillion economic stimulus bill.
In addition, the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund was created to provide compensation for any individual (or a personal representative of a deceased individual) who suffered physical harm or was killed as a result of the terrorist-related aircraft crashes of September 11, 2001 or the debris removal efforts. As of 2024, the fund had paid out almost $14.9 billion dollars to 9/11 victims and their families.
Billions are routinely found for wars, foreign aid, corporate subsidies, political pork barrel projects and other priorities. Let’s not forget the $80 billion in bailout funds doled out to General Motors and Chrysler in 2008.
Moreover, the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 gave surviving Japanese Americans reparations and a formal apology by President Reagan for their incarceration during World War II. The Justice Department’s Office of Redress Administration paid out more than $1.6 billion to 82,250 persons of Japanese ancestry who were interned.
But when descendants of enslaved Africans ask America to discuss reparations seriously, suddenly the country plays broke and Black people are derided as undeserving, unqualified beggars.
246 years of slavery is worth nothing?
The reparations debate ultimately comes down to whose pain America chooses to recognize.
Last month, the United Nations declared the trafficking and enslavement of Africans one of the gravest crimes against humanity.
The resolution described how millions of Africans were stolen from their homeland, shipped to the New World in chains and forced to labor under brutal conditions while being stripped of their names, culture, and humanity.
The resolution, spearheaded by Ghana, received 123 votes in favor, while 52 abstained. The three countries that voted against it were Argentina, Israel, and the United States.
Attempts to offer redress for past wrongs, such as Affirmative Action and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion have been attacked as unfair and divisive as countless groups sought access to these efforts to curb discrimination in education, employment and government contracting. Never forget that it is White women, not Black people, who saw the most gains under these programs and policies in education and the American workplace.
Under Trump’s proposed $1.776 billion “anti-weaponization fund”, taxpayer dollars could be used to compensate people who claim the federal government improperly targeted them. That could include political allies and some people connected to Jan. 6 whose sentences were pardoned or commuted during Trump’s second term.
They could receive compensation and an apology from the government. However, two police officers who defended the Capitol on Jan. 6 have sued Trump and his administration in a bid to block the Justice Department’s $1.8 billion taxpayer funded “anti-weaponization” slush fund.
Meanwhile, the descendants of nearly 4 million enslaved Africans — people whose families endured 246 years of slavery followed by generations of legalized discrimination, stolen labor, and stolen wealth — continue to be told they are entitled to nothing.
The racial wealth and education gaps created during slavery and segregation still exist today.
That is the part of America many people still refuse to confront.
And honestly, I no longer believe this country will seriously address it in my lifetime because doing so would require America to fully acknowledge the depth of harm inflicted on Black people for generations.
So, I’m left with one painful question:
What did Black people ever do to deserve being hated this much?
Reach James E. Causey at jcausey@jrn.com; follow him on X @jecausey.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: America’s reparations hypocrisy is impossible to ignore | Opinion
Reporting by James E. Causey, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
