The economics of reparations

摘要

The United States government's posture at the 2001 World Conference Against Racism (WCAR), where the transatlantic slave trade was declared a crime against humanity, evaded a warranted claim by African-Americans for compensation for the enslavement of their ancestors. This evasive posture is anomalous in light of U.S. government support for and administration of reparations for other groups subjected to recent or historic grievous wrongs. Indeed, the U.S. government has undertaken numerous reparations payments to native American tribes for atrocities and treaty violations. Two examples include the 1971 grant of USD1 billion and 44 million acres of land to Alaskan natives, and the 1986 grant of USD32 million to the Ottawa tribe of Michigan (Dorothy Benton-Lewis, 1978 [chart]). In addition, in 1990, the U.S. government issued a formal apology to Japanese-Americans subjected to internment during World War II and made a USD20,000 payment to each of 60,000 identified victims (Benton-Lewis, 1978 p.1).