2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: Ta-Nehisi Coates: Why Precisely Is Bernie Sanders Against Reparations? [View all]MellowDem
(5,018 posts)Because he is asking for reparations for present day policies that feed structural racial inequality. That's putting the cart before the horse. Even if reparations were paid out, how would that solve the foundation of the problem? We'd be right back to square one, except now many would proclaim the problem "solved forever" by reparations.
Reparations after all of the perpetrators have died is ancestral guilt, there is no way around that. And for present day practices, there are ways to go after people through our courts to punish perpetrators and reward their victims monetarily.
The only way to fully address racial inequality is to change the structure that promotes it, and that includes our economic system to a very large extent. Our economic system keeps the poor poor and makes the wealthy wealthier, it exacerbates racial inequality and makes it more long lived.