So, like many people, I was pretty amazed by Ta-Nehisi Coates’ article in The Atlantic, The Case for Reparations. It’s powerfully and elegantly written. It seems to be well-researched. And the cumulative case that it builds, while not all that explicit, was one that I found pretty potent. Like others, however, I am skeptical of financial reparations for the many atrocities of black subjugation. (Before I continue, it should be noted that Coates isn’t really arguing for that, title notwithstanding.) In this post, I’ll briefly discuss my two objections to straightforward financial reparations, and then an idea I have which seems like an improvement.

I begin with a caveat: I have done no research on the subject of reparations. My thinking on it is not informed by scholarly research. My objections may be answered and my suggestion may be worthless. So this post is poorly-informed, at best. Now, to the objections.

First, it seems to me that those who benefited from the harms done ought to pay the reparations. Reparations is often framed as whites paying blacks, though of course many will argue that it really ought to be the US government paying the reparations out. So much as any entity currently living owes reparations, the government seems to be at the top of that list. But have we really benefited from black subjugation? As Americans, we have all been harmed by it, in the simple fact that our countrymen have had devastating harm inflicted unjustly. Beyond that, though, it seems at least as plausible to me that this country would currently be enjoying greater prosperity and peace, rather than less, had the injustice of slavery not occurred. The claim, which Coates also makes, is often that American prosperity would have been impossible without slaves. But surely this is not an easy empirical case to make. We can show, perhaps, that certain systems did work out to become powerful as a consequence of slavery; I’m not so sure we can show that an economy predicated on wage labor rather than on owning human beings would be inevitably less profitable. Yes, slavery was big business. But what would this country look like if blacks had been given an equal share at the beginning? If blacks had been treated with dignity and respect? If the God-given rights of blacks to life, liberty, and property had allowed them to earn money, invest it, and build their own livelihoods? To get educations and invent and explore and experiment? Perhaps I’m a fool, but it seems quite plausible to me that this country would look vastly different, and vastly better. I’m inclined to believe we’ve all been harmed by the subjugation of blacks.

Now, this is not to claim false equivalence. Being born a straight white male in this country doesn’t guarantee success, but it sure makes it a hell of a lot easier. I’m only presenting a counterpoint to the argument for reparations which are aimed at extracting penalties for unjust benefits. If you are not concerned with that aspect of reparations, we have no quarrel at all.

Second, the practical point. Who gets reparations? Descendants of American slaves? American descendants of all slaves in the Americas? All American blacks? All American blacks born in the US? How do we deal with mixed-race people, particularly those who are not obviously of black descent? Do we let anyone claim the benefits who claims to be descended from a slave? Do we set up commissions to eyeball people and determine how much they’ve likely suffered? Or do we require some evidence, e.g. showing descent from a slave? Each of these latter possibilities seems to me to introduce as much injustice as they solve. I don’t have answers for these questions, but they seem to me to be extremely problematic for any attempt at reparations.

So, here’s my idea: reparations for the drug war (when this atrocity finally ends), paid out to all offenders convicted of non-violent, non-financial crimes (including all offenders convicted of both non-violent and violent crimes). Three arguments for this as a solution to the question of racial reparations:

First, we owe reparations for the drug war anyway. To many millions of people. The laws enforced were probably unconstitutional and absolutely immoral. So I will be arguing for such reparations anyway. From front to back, beginning to end, the war on drugs has been an ill-conceived, unmitigated disaster. These people are owed a shot at working to rebuild their lives, and reparations for the drug war will help.

Second, this is an ongoing and real harm being done today; it’s not an attempt to guess at how much one demographic is “owed” by another based on specific events in history, for which no living person is responsible. So a lot of those arguments against reparations for slavery and the like can be sidestepped.

Third, I believe it will disproportionately benefit blacks (and other minorities), who have been disproportionately targeted in the drug war. Infusions of cash into poverty-stricken black neighborhoods will provide some measure of financial stability, particularly since in this hypothetical world there are now numerous black men, recently released from prison into a crappy economy. They will need employment. Financial stability can help them get back on their feet, provide capital for starting small businesses to employ others, and help to grow the black economy.

Fourth, the racism still endemic in this country makes racial reparations impossible. There is probably more sympathy for ending the drug war, and a much cleaner argument that present Americans are implicated in it.

Now clearly, there are some rich white frat boys doing time for selling coke who will get paid, even though they’re not a sympathetic lot to the racial justice crew. Oh well. The numbers will still probably shake out vastly in favor of helping blacks, in a way which is directly responsive to a current ongoing evil. If we paid, say, $1,000/month for five years (or some other number, I’m not picky), that $60,000 will make a huge difference in quality of life to poor black families which I don’t see as occurring to the same extent in wealthy families.

Ultimately, this seems to me to be something which ought to be morally viable to all people who wish to end the drug war, a better political possibility than reparations for slavery, and still biased to helping those who have suffered most from black subjugation.