Instead of reparations, expand opportunities for Blacks

Reparations are bad policy and incredibly divisive. Instead, here are some better ways to overcome downstream effects of slavery and segregation for Black Americans.

Finally, we need to recognize that reparations are a deeply divisive issue, in part because the people who would be asked to pay for the sins of the past were not directly responsible for them. Fully 80% of White Americans oppose reparations, while 77% of Black Americans support them.  Michael Tanner is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute.

While the idea may seem far-fetched, we should not dismiss reparations out of hand. Although some proposals are difficult to take seriously, the idea that America owes a moral debt to African Americans for centuries of maltreatment is a longstanding one. The past informs the present, and inequalities of opportunity for the descendants of victims of slavery and segregation remain.