It's a common attitude among African Americans to vehemently reject that their African ancestors owned slaves. They often argue that each individual needs to take responsibility for the actions of their people and are quick to point this out when dealing with Europeans, however when dealing with the past transgressions of their own race, that’s an accountability I find too often they would rather not bear. In contrast, I see so many white liberals being quick to embrace the responsibility for the actions of their forefathers when the truth is; they never owned slaves and I never picked any cotton.
The issue of being a beneficiary of slavery or any other wrongdoing that happened in the past being unethical is an amorphous and untenable idea. We’re all complicit in benefiting from the art, science, technology, food, literature, and every conceivable aspect of culture that was typically born out of wars, and the violent aggressions of past peoples and civilizations.
All we can do is learn from the mistakes of the past so as not to repeat them but the idea of beneficiaries of slavery needing to be awarded reparations would be to implicate all humans as we’re all descendants of slavers from one point in history.
It’s easy to draw a line and say that there is fault when Europeans benefit from something that came about from African slavery but if one is to be logically consistent, you have to apply that not only to the benefactors of slavery regarding all races but the benefactors of all past wrongdoings regardless of how recent they were. It’s the act of inciting or actively supporting a wrongdoing that is unethical from a common law standpoint, not the idea of benefiting from the wrongdoing. Simply having knowledge or wealth that you’ve inherited through no fault of your own does not make you complicit in wrongdoing.
Granted there is a legitimate basis to strip a beneficiary of their land or property if a party was wrongfully disowned of that property and there is proof he/she has a higher claim to it, but applying that to information is untenable as information can only be replicated, not dispossessed.
All creations and advancements are built off the creations of others. The circumstances of your birth and the privileges you have are not inherently good or bad. Thinking otherwise only breeds racism. It’s what you do with your life and how you obtained what you have that determines your integrity, not what your ancestors did.
