How many of the nations/people who people want to give reparations are Christians? Because Jesus overturned the Jewish belief in collective punishment and collective guilt. Therefore how, religiously, can reparations for slavery be justified? Are we our parents/grandparents/great grandparents and, secondly, how can it be rationally/secularly justified?
Many black slaves were captured and sold into slavery by rival tribes in Africa who gained from the slave trade, which in itself negates any reason for European/American countries paying African countries reparations for the slave trade (though more should be done anyway in helping them get a level playing-field in trade).
Also, blacks born in the U.S. now are free and equal citizens. The only people who should receive reparations are people who were themselves sold into slavery, and they're all long gone. If reparations for past ills begin, how about reparations from the UK to India for the mass-slaughters there? How about reparations from Austria to half of the Baltic states for invading and slaughtering them in the 19th century? How about reparations for Armenians from Turkey? Or France to the Queen of England for the beheading of the French Monarchs in 1789 (as they're bound to be related somehow)?
I know! Reparations to France from Italy for the invasion and harsh treatment of French people under the Roman Empire BC?
OR! Reparations to Israel from Egypt for invading them, enslaving them and scattering their remaining peoples around the world?
It's nice for countries and peoples to admit when they've done wrong. But realistically, we are not our ancestors, otherwise just about every marriage at the moment would be incestuous and illegal.
