Black Reparations-Two Views

...1. Michael Harrington WHEN JAMES FORMAN, the militant black leader, seized the altar of the Riverside Church in order to read a demand for $500 million in reparations for American Negroes, it was clear enough that the First Amendment to the Constitution was being violated...

...And by focusing attention on an outlandish scheme, which would not work in the unlikely event that it were ever tried, there is a very real danger that political energy will be diverted from the real struggle...

...For, by raising the issue in a fashion that catches public attention, discussion within the growing constituency of conscience has been energized, and the political thrust of demands for compensation is likely to have a greater impact on government...

...The real political significance of Jim For BLACK REPARATIONS—TWO V IEWS man's move is that it elevates controversy about what was in any event happening slowly and grudgingly into a great debate concerning matters of basic moral principle...

...The sons of privilege are being asked to com pensate the sons of slaves whether or not the former are responsible for the disabilities of the latter...

...should give, even if complete success would fall far short of what is socially needed and justified, the dramatic way in which the demand has been made is likely to have beneficial political consequences...

...But it is quite possible that, even as he denounces the very real scandal of unequal income distribution in America, particularly between black and white, he will be keeping his people from challenging this injustice...

...The accident of skin pigmentation here can be made to work to the advantage of justice...

...The trouble with such proposals is that they do not provide much money to the people and leave the real sources of wealth untouched...

...Under these conditions the sons of slaves have rights of compensation against the sons of slavemasters...

...To the extent that others, by reason of the accident of skin-pigmentation, have been able to climb aboard the hereditary train of privilege, they derivatively acquire obligations of restitution comparable to those to which the sons of slave-masters are subject...

...If one simply distributed the dividends (and if the American economy were to continue on to the next year, a major share of those profits would have to go into new investment), the average gain would have been about $250 a year...

...But Sevareid misses a subtle, yet fundamental distinction...

...Preachers and congregations, speakers and audiences, cannot exercise their constitutional freedoms if they are forever glancing nervously over their shoulders to see if some new act of guerrilla theater is about to disrupt the assemblage...

...100-103...

...It is ironic that a Dixiecrat dictator must be identified as a precursor of this new demand of black militants...

...To illustrate, several years ago a few local leaders of the civil rights movement in Ann Arbor, Michigan, asked key university officials to institute on-the-job secretarial training for black women...

...Unwittingly, Mr...

...Even in a more expanded and sophisticated statement of the plan, which Forman developed in a New York Times interview, the same economic realities devil his idea...

...The amount that would remain for investment in potentially profitable enterprises, like television networks and publications, would not make it remotely possible even to begin to compete with the giant units of American capitalism...

...These gains were won, it is true, principally because political threats were effectively applied...

...The Bill of Rights' guarantee of free assembly and speech obviously means that there is protection for a peaceful meeting—or church service...

...Forman seeks will not be built on a budget that is roughly equal to the $275 million the cigarette industry spends on television and radio advertising in a year...

...And just in the nick of time...

...For it is inevitable that men of "moderation and responsibility" would claim—as did Eric Sevareid in one of his recent CBS commentaries— that there is no justice in visiting the sins of the fathers on the sons...

...The generality of America's affluent white population share in the benefits ex tracted from slaves...

...Rather, the demand that the sons of slave-masters make restitution to the sons of slaves rests on the claim that the former enjoy great and undeserved benefits, the latter suffer grave and undeserved disabilities, as a result of accidents of social inheritance directly connected to the existence of slavery...

...But most civilized Americans have long ago concluded that if a small number of wastrels happen to be benefited by policies designed to achieve justice for those entitled to welfare programs, then that is a cost that a society as affluent as ours should happily pay...

...In trying to evaluate a political deed, one ought to consider likely, even if unintended, consequences...

...Note also that I have not discussed how and to whom the funds due America's black men should be given...

...Forman has demanded far too much to be politically feasible and too little to be economically practical...

...IN FORMAN'S VERSION of the redistributive utopia, the pie is much smaller at $500 million but the recipients are to be limited to the 23 million blacks in the country...

...The sons of slave-masters continue to profit, the sons of slaves to suffer the disabilities of the original iniquity...

...In the immediate future that battle has two crucial aspects...

...Even if his success in getting churches to pay restitution falls far short of what the churches * I do discuss some of the counterarguments, but all too briefly, in my book, The Radical Liberal (New York: Atherton Press, 1968), pp...

...But the political pressure was fueled by growing moral concern...

...2. Arnold S. Kaufman S IT REALLY NECESSARY to remind read ers of DISSENT that in politics what peo ple intend is often different from what they actually bring about...

...And one of the most important ways to accomplish this is through a massive, planned, and social investment on the part of the government to do away with the slums and to create new careers for the poor in health care, education, beautification, and the like...

...For his proposal could well divert precious political energies from the actual struggle...

...For those who enjoy benefits because of social inheritance and original injustice are not personally responsible for their gains—hence, they don't deserve their advantages...

...The most famous American in recent history to come up with this notion was Huey Long, the Louisiana Kingfish...

...Now there is little likelihood that Forman will get a half billion dollars to spend on his impossible vision...

...A MICHAEL HARRINGTON AND ARNOLD S. KAUFMAN good portion of the money would be put to nonprofit uses such as supporting community organizations, a black university, and help for the Welfare Rights Organization...

...Political demands designed to satisfy compensatory claims can as safely be translated into public policy as, say, political demands designed to satisfy the claims to justice of the poor...

...I have not given the whole case for a policy of restitution—only the part of the argument that most people are likely to regard as doubtful...

...In 1967, General Motors alone had an annual product of $20.2 billion...

...That James Forman may mistakenly believe that, without governmental action, he will be able to extract enough from churches and other nongovernmental agencies to repair the lives of black Americans does not reveal the full political significance of his effort to induce churches to pay reparations...

...The fact is that Forman's audacious demand comes at a crucial moment in the evolution of American thought about problems of social justice...

...Forman's demand for compensation differs radically in this respect...

...suppose similarly the disabilities of those originally enslaved are transmitted by social inheritance to their descendants...

...Those who suffer disabilities because of social inheritance, correspondingly do not deserve their unhappy state...

...the Catholic archdiocese of New York rejecting, certain Protestant denominations accepting the validity of Forman's general claim...

...It is this aspect of the moral situa tion that caused Sevareid to claim that For man wants to visit the sins of fathers upon sons...

...The generality of Ameri ca's black population suffer the disabilities that resulted from slavery...

...The Jews received payment from the same groups whose members were, in one way or another, personally implicated in responsibility for the sin of genocide...

...There must be genuine full employment, which means eliminating underemployment, as well as joblessness...

...that the university could not comply with demands made by every aggrieved pressure group that came down the pike...

...For, while most of the poor are "deserving," there are un MICHAEL HARRINGTON AND ARNOLD S. KAUFMAN doubtedly some who are, in Herbert Spencers' words, "good-for-nothings, who in one way or other live on the good-for-somethings...

...The principle of compensatory justice can be made politically relevant to existing con ditions...

...That at least is how the compensatory claims strike most people whose moral point of view is rooted deeply in an ethic that has always tended to serve the sons of privilege...

...Compensatory justice, as I intend it here, is not the same as the principle of restitution to which appeal was made when Jews de manded compensation of Germans...

...To answer the arguments given by insisting that Forman and those he represents are not the proper recipients of compensatory funds is beside the point...

...Such an approach would not parcel out the wealth of this society—which is so enormous and productive because it is concentrated—but would increasingly assert democratic and social control of it...

...And that would not even make a dent in existing poverty...

...But not so obvious was the fact that Forman's proposal, which seems so bold at first hearing, would not really change the lot of more than 20 million black Americans at all...

...If, as Robert Heilbroner computed the figures in his Limits of American Capitalism, one had divided the $70 billion (not $500 million) of corporate profits in the mid-sixties, it would have increased income by $1000 per person, a gain of 20-25 per cent...

...Today the program then rejected exists...

...There is little reason to think that that good old American knowhow will fail us once the objective is clearly defined and generally accepted...

...The questions of who and how are enormously important technicalities that can be dealt with once the basic claims to justice are acknowledged and a political will to satisfy them is organized...

...Here is irony indeed, for the compensatory principle is close to certain ancient teachings of the Catholic Church, whereas the whole idea is alien to the Protestant moral tradition...

...Now if, as a result of Forman's action, morally concerned citizens can be persuaded that Sevareid's argument as it applies to the sons of slaves is untenable, then the political will to support vast enlargement of compensatory governmental programs will be strengthened...

...This line of argument cuts so hard against inherited privilege that it should appeal to democratic socialists...

...For reasons mostly of self-interest, various corporate agencies are beginning to satisfy claims that restitution be made to the descendants of the only group of Americans that has ever been literally enslaved...

...By dramatizing a claim that transcends prevailing moral consensus, a new and powerful consideration is injected that reinforces growth of the constituency of conscience upon whom both Mike Harrington and I found much political hope...

...That is, moral issues raised concretely in relation to the action of nongovernmental corporations will have a significant impact on legislative action...

...It might be added that the personal responsibility of those affected by compensatory programs is not wholly irrelevant to the case for compensatory justice...

...Indeed, the Freedom Budget, still-born during the Johnson administration, may be revived if a growing constituency of conscience can be brought to accept the case for compensatory justice...

...The civil liberties point should be obvious to everyone...

...In short, the "huge industrial combines" which Mr...

...The request was rejected on grounds that training office help was the job of the local business college...

...Nor have I examined arguments that might be made to justify overriding the claim of compensatory justice in specific situations.* All I have tried to do is open debate on a far-reaching claim that lies at the heart of Forman's demand for restitution...

...It is not claimed that the sons of slave-masters are sinners because their fathers sinned...

...What is not so plain, but still true, is that Forman's seeming militancy on economic questions only revives an old, and utterly unradical, utopia that distracts people from the real battle against poverty...

...THE BASIC ARGUMENT is this: suppose benefits acquired unjustly by an identifiable group of fathers are transmitted by alterable institutions of social inheritance to their identifiable descendants...

...From time to time, people look at the outrageous, indefensible extremes of wealth and poverty in this society—or in the world— and propose to deal with the problem by dividing up the wealth...

...Already the religious community has been split...

...so do a number of other compensatory programs...

...If that sum were simply divvied up, it would mean around $20 per year, which is not enough to keep an average smoker in cigarettes...