"Practicalities" of Reparations

[Doug Henwood]

Justin Schwartz wrote:

>As I say, bog class settlements provide an excellent model that 
>often face harder administraive problems.

While I have no idea what a "bog class settlement" is, I doubt any of 
them ever involve 35 million people. Though if money were on offer, 
I'm sure there would be a lot more than 35 million people; hell, Bob 
Barr might even end up self-identifying as black. Which might be a 
good thing.

On what you call the "political" question - I think the moral claim 
for reparations is irrefutable. (So would any Indian claim for 
reparations.) But I'm absolutely stumped how to get from the moral to 
the material realm. If the case for reparations forces people - 
mostly white people - to talk about our disgraceful history, that 
would be a very good thing.

Doug