Sometimes history is doomed to repeat itself because humanityforgets its past mistakes or hasn’t learned fromthem. Yet, sometimes it is unnecessary for history to repeat itselfbecause the past has never been left behind. It continues to berelived everyday because individuals cannot get past it, and continueto point to it when they don’t have sufficient answers forcontemporary problems.

Such is the case with slavery and the current bid for reparations.

According to recent news reports, a group of high-profile lawyersis assembling the Reparations Assessment Group. The intent of thegroup is to attain compensation for black Americans for 244 years ofslavery.

The group’s members include Harvard law professor Charles J.Ogletree, Randall Robinson — author of the book “The Debt: WhatAmerica Owes to Blacks” — and attorney Johnnie Cochran.

The group seeks not only money, but change in America. However,possible defendants include the federal government, state governmentsand private entities, such as corporations and institutions that mayhave been a party to slave labor, and it is a certainty that thisdream team will be asking for more than an apology.

If they do get the money and divide it amongst all the descendantsand, being really generous, they each get a buck, this literally putsa dollar value on the plight of their ancestors.

If cash is not feasible, perhaps the settlement will be a taxbreak for descendants of slaves; every black American who can provehim or herself a direct descendent from slaves receives a $1,000 taxbreak. And to be extremely safe, assume there are 100,000 blackAmericans paying taxes who will benefit from this. The result is $100million the government loses in taxable income — and the governmentis not going to cut defense spending to make up for the loss.

Social welfare programs are going to take a hit, and if blackAmericans are pointing to their current situation and blamingslavery, they are not blaming slavery for putting them in the highlife, rather for the socioeconomic peril they find themselves in.Therefore, a reduction in social welfare programs will likelycounteract the benefits of a tax break.

It will be difficult for black Americans to name a defendant intheir lawsuit and win a settlement without indirectly affectingthemselves in the outcome because they are Americans. If they namethe American people in their lawsuit, they are naming themselves. Ifthey name the American government in their lawsuit, they will affectgovernment programs from which they themselves benefit.

In many ways, they will be seeking damages from themselves.

Another problem with reparations involves the individuals who willbe punished for slavery in order to exact this reckoning: modernAmericans.

No one living today is responsible for the conditions in Americaroughly 150 years ago. And if the argument is suggesting thoseconditions set a precedent upon which contemporary society operates,in turn directly influencing the quality of life black Americans areexperiencing today, then those making the argument are using softlogic.

Americans today are in no way accountable for the actions of theirforefathers. It is a different caliber and quality of American thatwill be punished.

Modern Americans have nothing to do with slavery.

What if an individual can prove that his ancestors had nothing todo with the slave trade in America? In fact, what if his ancestorswere abolitionists? Does he then seek reparations from descendants ofslaves for the losses he takes in paying reparations he does not owe?

Perhaps a better solution would be to solve the problem from thestandpoint of today and stop pretending that this fight is beingfought by slaves against slave owners for the benefit of slaves.

There is no means by which to hurt those who actually committedthe crimes against blacks at this point in time – the momenthas passed, and perhaps the time for reparations has passed as well.

There are no slaves in America today except those who choose tocall themselves by that name and associate their current situationwith a past wrong.

America should have given reparations to every individual who wasforced into slavery in America during colonial times. Theseindividuals more than deserved reparations for the injustices laidupon them. Whining about the problem from high-priced lawyers’offices is not the same as picking cotton under brutal mental andphysical assault — modern black Americans deserve zero reparations.Paying alleged descendants will only cheapen the struggle of theirancestors.

Money and laws and acts and bills aimed at erasing the sufferingof black Americans are all material, merely the transferring of moneyor benefits from one account to another and in no way affecting thelegacy slavery has left.

Yet, if money is to be the only solution, perhaps everyone in theworld should turn to the person next to him and hand him or her adollar.

On the dollar will be written the following: “I am sorry for anywrongs you or your ancestors have endured that may or may not havebeen at the hands of my ancestors. Let’s just be people living in thenow.”

Through this everyone will have received reparations, and therewill be no reason for reliving the horror of yesterday every fewyears; there will always be horror in the past, but it only shows upin the future when people bring it there.

It is possible to be merely people distancing ourselves from thepast and creating a new history with every tick of the clock.

–Jason Williams is an English and psychology senior and theAssistant Opinion editor for The Daily Aztec. Send e-mail todaletter2000@hotmail.com.

–This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of TheDaily Aztec.