'IDS' should have presented both sides

I am an African American, and I am not sure where I stand on the reparations debate. It is a complex issue, and thus the "answer" is not reducible to a simple "yes" or "no." I was also on the "A Team" that approached the IDS on Sunday night about the Horowitz ad.\nPersonally, I wanted to know why they printed the ad without soliciting a scholarly opinion to contrast the misrepresentations of history that Horowitz has offered. The IDS was not encouraging debate, as this requires at least two sides, and the IDS only presented one side of what they knew to be a highly controversial debate. \nThis has had the effect that Horowitz intended, which is to make this a black-white issue, in which case whites have always (historically) won (and he makes a profit). This tactic tends to open up wounds and shut down discussions between Euro- and African-Americans, over various racial problems that continue to plague this nation. By presenting one side, the IDS contributed to the racial tensions beneath the surface on this campus.\nIf the IDS wanted to act responsibly, they would have organized a forum to discuss the substantive issues involved in this important national debate. Secondly, and getting at the heart of the reparations debate, I have a question for people like Horowitz, who strongly oppose reparations: Are you also against reparations to Jews who have -- and still do -- receive billions of dollars every year in various forms, from various governments (including the United States), as well as a territory upon which to live, in compensation for suffering, 6 million lives and property lost during the Holocaust? The majority of people who live in Israel are not Holocaust victims, yet much of these billions of dollars go to the government of Israel, and benefit many people who are not Holocaust survivors. If you do not oppose these reparations, how can you categorically oppose reparations being paid by the very governments that provided the institutional support for slavery, in which up to 20 million people died en route and millions of others worked for hundreds of years for free?