Beneficiaries (John Speaking)
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			John

I think you're right that it is sometimes fair to ask innocent beneficiaries to pay a part of the cost of making compensation to people who deserve it. But we've ignored a point that Fred made a while ago. He said that we shouldn't assume that all whites have benefited a lot from racial discrimination. The main beneficiaries have been whites in places where the black population has been large, but that's only a part of the country. What about whites in areas where there are relatively few blacks? It may be that the beneficiary argument can't really carry the weight that Ann and Malik want it to. What then?

The point I want to make is that I'm not sure that being a beneficiary (or not being one) is crucially important here.

In most moral situations setting things right takes precedence over the normal rules of procedure. For example, I normally have a right to inherit money from my father. But if it is discovered that some of the money is stolen, then returning it to the rightful owner takes precedence of my right of inheritance. I can't complain that my right is violated.

The usual rules are in force until we find out that they were broken in the past. If we discover that, then a different set of rules (call them compensatory or corrective) comes into play.

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