Really when it comes to the topic of reparations it is pretty simple.
Were you a slave?
If so, let's go find who enslaved you and they can pay your reparations. After all people that didn't commit the crime should not be repaying you for something they didn't do and that you personally were not a victim of.
If we can do reparations for what was done or experienced by our ancestors then that becomes a zero sum game because ALL of us have ancestors who were a victim of crimes, and/or perpetrators of crimes.
Did you own the land that was stolen (or traded in a treaty) from your ancestors, or was it already gone before you were born?
If it was "stolen" from you, then you might be owed reparations by the perpetrators.
Yet if you never owned it then technically ALL of us can make such claims. It then becomes a zero sum game.
Now if you try to make it not a zero sum game by tying it to skin color there is a word for that.
Racism. Actual racism, not the knee jerk reaction type of racism.
In terms of slavery every skin color has been slaves in the past, and many still are outside of the U.S. (and illegally some dark corners of the U.S.).
If you want to single out black people. What about all the people who had no ancestors in the U.S. during the times of slavery? What about all of the people that their owner was actually black? You see a lot of black people, including former slaves that were freed, owned slaves.
My skin is most definitely pale and I'd definitely be labeled white. Though my ancestors walked the trail of tears. I have two tribes genetically in my lineage.
Yet I have white skin. So somehow you think someone not white should be repayed by ME and others that look like me for things we did not do? Furthermore, we should be paying it to people that were never actual slaves?
I have white skin. So somehow you think I should repay people who look native for land that was allegedly stolen (in many cases it was, yet some it was given) from their (and my) ancestors? Even though they never owned that land.
If we can claim victim status for what was done to our ancestors then ALL of us can make such claims.
If we can point out perpetrators for crimes done to our ancestors by other ancestors then ALL of us can be called criminals.
While people talk about "institutional racism" which doesn't currently exist in the U.S.(unless you count black only scholarships, black history month, black entertainment network, etc. There are no white versions of that... nor should there be.), reparations as people are currently referring to it would actually create government mandated "institutional racism".
Yet with how much people clamor to support the next politician who lies to them and promises them free stuff (nothing the government provides is free, it is paid for by taxes, or debt) is it really surprising that people who might get "reparations" for things that were not actually done to them are supporting it. To them that is "free" money that they think they don't have to pay for. Yet it comes from taxes. Yet that is okay because it is a redistribution scheme weighted to favor people of specific skin color. Most definitely an obvious example of proposed "institutional racism".