Principles of Compensation (Malik Speaking)
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You're ignoring the fact that these injustices were carried out by an organized body that represented our society. The situation is more like the national debt or like reparations owed to a foreign nation. A taxpayer in 1994 must pay taxes to pay off the national debt --not because he was a party to the original loan or even because he is a beneficiary-- but because he or she is a part of an ongoing society with a government that went into debt. There is a GROUP responsibility. The same is true for stockholders in a private corporation. A stockholder today may get less of a dividend in order to pay off a debt incurred years ago. He can't complain that he wasn't part of the original deal.

In the same way, white people today, even recent immigrants, are citizens of a country in debt, and they must each pay a share (though the size may vary). As I said before, I prefer to call it reparations.

In 1946 Congress created the Indian Claims Commission in order to address harm done to Indian tribes. The people who pushed the Native Americans off their land were dead, but that doesn't clear the slate. Our government shares part of the responsibility for injustice and we all have a responsibility to pay its obligations.

Today, Congress could create an African-American Claims Commission to deal with claims made by blacks against the federal and state governments for harm done to them and their ancestors. Blacks could hold elections to decide who should represent them.

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