Black Europeans Waiting for Slavery Reparations Will Wait Forever

In 2008, the House of Representatives passed a resolution apologizing for slavery and the discriminatory laws that came after it. The apology was significant but inadequate, with no mention of reparations. Is there much point in offering an apology without offering any solution as to how to '[make] amends for wrong or injury done" (which is the actual dictionary definition of reparations)?

There's no doubt that reparations is a thorny issue. It is complicated and complex considering the time scale and the depth of the impact of the wealth that was created from it. There is virtually no western country that did not benefit economically from the enslavement of African people. How on earth could anyone actually begin to provide adequate compensate for that? It could also be argued, though, that the degree to which western countries benefited from slavery -- arguably the foundation for the level of wealth that the west has today -- is precisely the reason for which reparations should be given. And it is not like reparations are without precedent: America gave $1.6 billion in reparations to Japanese Americans and Germany paid extensive reparations to Jewish people as a result of the Holocaust.

You cannot pay reparations, however, without asking the questions of from whom they should come and to whom they should be given, what form they should take and for over what time period. It's simply an issue mired in questions which seem to lead to further questions.

It's a topic that some black people in Europe are also currently addressing. Historians, activists and anti-racist campaigners are lobbying European governments to recognize slavery as a crime against humanity and to open the doorway to reparations. The French Senate has already agreed to recognize slavery as a crime against humanity and the campaigners hope that other countries will follow suit. Next week, an open letter will be sent to the heads of Britain, Denmark, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain, encouraging them to follow France's lead.

But is there much point in this? There has already been some expression of regret and apology of slavery in the UK, which has not led to any follow-up. When Tony Blair expressed "deep sorrow" for slavery in 2006, he himself admitted that slavery would now be considered "a crime against humanity" so the recognition already exists. Peter Hain, a senior-ranking Welsh politician, also apologized on behalf of Wales and Northern Ireland. Quite honestly, I cannot really imagine any government really wanting to get in to the gargantuan issue of how to compensate for slavery.

Personally, I believe that if governments are to apologize for slavery, the apology should be followed up with a promise ,which has tangible actions attached to it. Otherwise, it is simply meaningless words and there is not much point in issuing an apology and claiming to acknowledge what happened if you're not willing to do anything about its impact.

As I wrote in 2008, While I do not agree that reparations should take the form of payouts to individuals or families - an impossible thing to implement considering America's complex racial history - it is clear that for this apology to make any practical difference, to go above and beyond the various initiatives that America already has in place, reparations in some form are necessary, whether that means injecting much-needed funds in to the country's public school system or addressing inequalities within the health care system. As Dr. Boyce Watkins, told Black America Web: "If you don't follow the apology with action, talk is cheap. Talk is less expensive than reparations."

There is also another element to the reparations discussion and one which may be more worthwhile if governments are not going to go beyond issuing an apology. As I also said in an earlier piece: Much of the reparation that needs to be done – such as work on self-esteem -- can only really happen within the [black] community. Once an apology has been issued, the next step may be just to get to work on repairing from within. This would have more value and is a more proactive approach, because if one is waiting for reparations from any government, they will be waiting a very long time.