Ben Shapiro Shapiro is a second-year
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Blame everyone else. Shirk responsibility. These are the themes
of the slavery reparations movement, which seeks to suck money from
industry in a wrongful shakedown.
By defaming companies for their involvement in the slave trade
centuries ago, liberal black leaders attempt to deflect attention
from their own failures ““ failures in stopping single
motherhood, in decreasing poverty, and in fostering trust in the
American meritocracy.
Our overworked legal system is once again being burdened with
baseless lawsuits concerning the issue of slavery reparations. On
March 26, three federal lawsuits were filed on behalf of the 35
million descendants of African slaves. The defendants include Aetna
Insurance Corp., railroad company CSX, and FleetBoston Financial
Corp.
The class action complaint states that these companies, as well
as others, “conspired with slave traders, with each other and
other entities and institutions … to commit and/or knowingly
facilitate crimes against humanity, and to further illicitly profit
from slave labor.” The complaint blames slavery for all of
the problems in black “literacy, life expectancy, income and
education.” The legal claim states that FleetBoston profited
from lending capital to slave merchants, and therefore profited
from slavery; that Aetna’s predecessor gave life insurance to
slaveholders to protect against monetary loss from death of their
slaves; and that CSX (a railroading company) benefits now from
railroads built by slave labor in the mid-1800s.
Not only is this lawsuit without merit, it is also economically
harmful for shareholders and employees. It is yet another
convenient excuse for what really ails the black community ““
leaders who won’t lead.
The claim against FleetBoston neglects basic principles of
capital lending. Banks attempt to make profit by loaning money to
whatever business ventures are legal. To sue a bank for lending
capital to a slave shipping company at a time when, unfortunately,
the slave trade was legal, is to condemn the bank for the age in
which it existed.
The claim against Aetna is specious for similar reasons. At the
time of slavery, blacks were seen as property. But we can only hold
corporations accountable for the laws of their time. Why should
Aetna not insure what was at that time legally property? If in the
future tobacco were banned, would Aetna be liable at that time for
insuring tobacco companies now?
The claim against CSX is the most ridiculous of all. CSX was not
even involved in slave labor in any way ““ it was only
established in 1980.
In the end, this lawsuit hurts everyone, including the black
community. Economically, any fiscal loss incurred by these
companies will probably be taken either out of the paychecks of
employees or shareholders, many of whom are black. In essence then,
black Americans would shoulder at least part of the cost of slavery
reparations.
The lawsuit is also an excuse for bad policy promoted by black
leaders. It tears the country along racial lines, and engenders
resentment against blacks. The lawsuit claims that all evils in the
black community stem from “subjugation by the white
man.” The lawsuit itself contains a narrative of black
history in America. This narrative skips the entire Civil Rights
Movement of the 1950s and 1960s, an omission which only shows the
unwillingness of the liberal black community to acknowledge civil
rights progress. Civil rights progress has led to the burgeoning
black middle class and the success of blacks in American
culture.
So it is not some mysterious institutional racism stemming from
slavery, as the lawsuit claims, that continues to “keep the
black man down.” Rather, it is the race baiting and the
victim mentality promoted by black leaders like Al Sharpton and
Jesse Jackson that have led to underachievement in the black
community. Instead of promoting hard work, personal responsibility,
marital responsibility and education, blacks are taught by the
Sharptons and Jacksons of the world that they will never succeed
because America is built to keep them down. Not only that ““
they say that blacks are entitled to compensation because of their
previous and present victimization. After a lifetime of hearing
such propaganda, it becomes difficult not to believe it.
Slavery reparations, like all race baiting and scare tactics
used by liberal black leaders, are just a smoke screen to prevent
blacks from seeing the failure of those leaders. To maintain their
power, leftist black leaders deflect attention from the true
problems of the black community. The black community is already
waking up to this problem, and soon their leadership will be held
accountable.