You can't reparate someone who has been made better off

Slavery was vile - common but vile. We’re all agreed the world is better off for its absence. Even as we note that there are still pockets of it still extant. Arab Sudanese were at least credibly accused of going slaving in 1990s Darfur, there are relationships between Twa and surrounding Bantu groups that would be difficult to describe as other than slavery.

However, to repeat a point we’ve made before. If the descendants of slaves are now better off as a result of their ancestors’ slavery then it’s simply not possible to pay reparations to those who are already better off. It’s simply a logical impossibility.

The president of Guyana has called on descendants of European slave traders to offer to pay reparations to right historical wrongs.

Irfaan Ali also demanded that those involved in the transatlantic slave trade and African enslavement be posthumously charged for crimes against humanity.

With a GDP per capita approaching $10,000 the people of Guyana are some four to five times better off than the genetic source in, say, Ghana. It’s simply not possible to atone for that. Therefore the reparations argument fails.

Do note, again and just for the avoidance of doubt. Slavery was a bad thing. Those who were enslaved suffered horribly. But it is not possible to pay reparations to their descendants because those very descendants have been made better off by that historical slavery.

That grifters can see a wallet they might be able to prise open is a useful political argument but it’s not a valid basis for public policy.