>Congress could appropriate the money and write checks to the
>individuals involved.
What inidividuals? The possibility of big checks would probably double the black population overnight - which would probably be a good thing, but still, an administrative nightmare, no?
I think the practical problems aren't just some detail, but emerge from the whole notion of how race is defined. Just as the "multiracial" category on the Census is leading us away from the one-drop rule, reparations would lead us back to it.
Doug