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America’s prosperity owes much to the unpaid slave labor
it institutionally enforced for more than 250 years. Former state
senator and political watchdog Tom Hayden agrees: kicking off Black
History Month at UCLA on Friday, he argued reparations should be
paid to descendants of slaves. And he’s right.
Hayden correctly pointed out the problem with slavery is no
longer a moral issue ““ the vast majority of Americans accept
that slavery was wrong and inhumane. By banning slavery altogether
135 years ago, the 13th Amendment forever silenced the debate on
whether it is justified. The real issue with slavery is now one of
economic justice.
Slavery itself may be in the past, but whether we choose to
admit it or not, the economic effects of slave labor affected the
foundation of the entire nation. For one, the South’s
economic infrastructure was based on slaves who constituted the
majority of the workforce in the cotton and agricultural
industries. Though the primary workforce, they were not the primary
profit makers. Profits went to plantation owners who sold raw goods
such as cotton, and to the northern and foreign textile industries
““ industries who in turn profited from the goods they
manufactured and then sold. It was a win-win situation for everyone
but slaves themselves, whose only reward was receiving enough
shelter and food to survive, reproduce and keep working.
It wasn’t just the national economy that slavery helped to
build ““ many of the prominent cultural icons that make up
America’s national heritage are products of this human rights
violation.
In the late 1790s, both the Capitol and the White House were
constructed using the labor of over 400 slaves in Washington, D.C.
But the slaves who worked to construct the Capitol building
weren’t given a dime ““ instead, their owners received a
monthly pay slip for each slave committed to the project.
Why shouldn’t available archives, documentation and
historical records be used by the United States to pay off its debt
to these slaves by giving it to their descendants? Acknowledging a
human rights wrong needs to be coupled with economic justice. The
descendants of those who owned slaves, those who profited by
selling the products they picked, and those who profited through
the northern manufacturing industries have enjoyed the social
mobility allowed by this profiteering ““ many descendants of
slavery, given the inopportune social circumstances they found
themselves in even after being freed, have not.
The extent to which lawmakers today have gone to correct the
unfavorable economic status into which slaves and their descendants
were involuntarily placed is introduce a symbolic resolution in
Congress. The resolution would create a task force to study the
contributions of slave laborers in constructing the Capitol and to
recommend a form of recognition for these slaves. But nowhere does
the resolution mention monetary reparations ““ or extending
recognition to all other slaves.
Many who oppose paying slave descendants reparations argue they
shouldn’t be responsible for actions carried out by their
ancestors, actions they oppose ““ others say they don’t
even have ancestors who owned slaves. Some even point to successful
blacks who are wealthier or more prominent than most other
Americans today. This attitude is selfish. In order for the
relative prosperity most Americans enjoy today to exist, an entire
people had to be dehumanized. Only by paying reparations can we
stop the pattern of exploitation America has engaged in, such as
with Native Americans, Japanese Americans during the internment,
and Mexicans with the Bracero Program.