Reparations debate raises bigger issue

I've wanted for a while to hold forth on race relations in America, knowing that it's not a wise thing to do. If there is anything that pushes people's buttons, it's race. Everyone has an opinion, and everyone thinks they're right. As a foreigner (I'm from Jamaica), it took forever for me to understand why. Race, as Americans see it, exists nowhere else in the world. It's a uniquely American concept that color defines character. Most people would say I'm misrepresenting, but I'll clarify. It is not that people of different races don't think there can be nice individuals of other races; it is simply that they believe that people of other races, but most especially blacks and whites, have a very different process going on in their heads from one another. \nIt's the shock that is reflected whenever I tell people what bands I like. Even though people know that I did not grow up in this country, they believe that there is something essentially twisted about my not liking only "black" things. I think this is because, contrary to what most people will admit, beliefs about what other people are like have nothing to do with their "different backgrounds" and everything to do with their different looks. Color equals biology. \nI come, now, to the issue of reparations not because I have particularly strong opinions about it, because it is one of the few issues about which people will express their true attitudes about race. Consequently, what people have to say about reparations tells us a lot about what their real racial attitudes are. Many people oppose reparations because "they," i.e. blacks, are "looking for a free ride." They suggest, like David Horowitz, that blacks should be grateful that they had been given the opportunity to become Oprah's and Michael Jordan's. This logic reflects what a good friend of mine calls the "many nations" philosophy. According to this philosophy, different ethnic groups, but once again especially blacks and whites, aren't living in the same nation, though they share the same land. In effect, blacks and whites rarely look at each other and see a fellow American. A black doctor's primary affinity, for example, is never with other doctors, but always with other blacks. American history is not black history and vice versa. To say "American," in fact, without the word black attached, is to say "white American," and this is decidedly strange in a nation that has always had a black population.\nPerfectly well meaning Americans are blinded when they think about racial issues, by the fact that they do not see themselves as sharing any but the most tenuous connections with blacks. Consequently, they do not remember that blacks are also taxpayers, or that America gains more from having people like Oprah Winfrey than black America gains from an individual having had the chance to become famous. Were Oprah not in the U.S., she might very well be a huge success in Africa -- because there are huge successes in Africa, and democracies and an ancient Christian culture. Had it not been for slavery, which provided cheap labor at a time when the U.S. economy desperately needed it, there might be no modern America. But that's not an argument worth making. There is no way to separate out black contributions from white. Noone says Martha Stewart is lucky her ancestors came to America from Poland because if they hadn't she'd be poor. Everyone's just glad she's here to tell them how to fold the napkins. Black people have always been part of every important event in American history. They fought in every war, were cowboys and pioneers, scientists and entrepreneurs, steelworkers and nurses and doctors and teachers. \nSo to imply that they feel that America owes them something is to miss the point. They are America, as much as anyone else is. Their history and contributions are woven into the fabric of everything. \nAnd as for reparations, I think most people who oppose them miss the point. I don't favor reparations, but the main reason I don't is because of how much time has passed since abolition and the terrible price the nation paid with the Civil War. The most sensible policy would be to have former owners pay reparations, and too much time has passed for that. \nBut reparations aren't about money or what whites owe blacks. What they're about is establishing that the U.S. owes an acknowledgement to the descendants of slaves that what their ancestors did helped make this nation great. And you know what? It did.