Ta-Nehisi Coates' essay in The Atlantic in 2014 titled The Case for Reparations caused quite a stir. But as controversial issues are wont to do they fall by the wayside of public consciousness until resurrected by some catalyzing event.
It was President Trump's State of the Union Address last year that was the impetus for me to address the reparations issue here in the Metamorphosis in February, 2018(see below).

With the competition for the Democratic Party's Presidential nomination in full swing more than a year before the Iowa Caucuses the issue of Reparations is moving from the wings to take center stage. It remains to be seen whether it's just a flash in the pan that simmers on the back burner of the political debate or boils over, scalding anyone brave enough to fully embrace the reparations pot.

In a recent article by CNN analyst Nia-Malika Henderson titled: Democrats are taking reparations seriously -- and that's a big deal she writes: "The debate around reparations -- what they are, who would get them, who would give them -- goes back centuries. But for the first time, the conversation is being had by multiple candidates for the White House. And, in another first, reparations aren't being dismissed out of hand."

David Frum in his original refutation of Coates argument in a piece titled: The Impossibility of Reparations does admit the following:"The great white lie America tells itself is that the passage of civil-rights laws in the 1960s and '70s lifted the burden of the racial past. But racial subjugation imposed over 350 years could not and was not alleviated over a single generation. Today’s white Americans inherit financial assets and human capital accumulated over a long span of time—and very possibly by robbing or cheating victims of color."

In a more recent interview that Coates had with Eric Levitz revisiting his original thesis he put it this way, "In terms of political candidates, and how this should be talked about, and how this should be dealt with, it seems like it would be to support HR 40. That’s the bill that says you form a commission. You study what damage was done from slavery, and the legacy of slavery, and then you try to figure out the best ways to remedy it. It’s pretty simple. I think that’s Nancy Pelosi’s position at this point."

As I said earlier in a Facebook Post referring to Acting Chief of Staff, Mick Mulvaney's assertion, " 'The president is not a white supremacist," Mulvaney told Fox News Sunday. "I'm not sure how many times we have to say that." The problem with Mulvaney is that he as do most "whites" in America fail to understand the extent to which we are all socialized into a system that is based upon the idea of "white" superiority and "white" supremacy. It takes work, a great deal of work and a great deal of introspection and re-education NOT to be a 'white supremacist.' Neither Trump nor Mulvaney have shown any indication through either their actions or comments that they've done the work necessary to be anything other than a "white supremacist.' "

Until America 'does the work,' deals with the root cause that created the world economic system that was racialized slavery, Jim Crow segregation, housing, educational, workplace discrimination, voter suppression, Trumpism, no amount of "reparations" will ever be quite enough.

 

Reprinted from February, 2018 Issue

a·tone·ment
əˈtōnmənt/
noun

1. reparation for a wrong or injury.
   "she wanted to make atonement for her husband's behavior"
   • (in religious contexts) reparation or expiation for sin.
     "an annual ceremony of confession and atonement for sin"
   • CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY
     the reconciliation of God and humankind through Jesus Christ.
     noun: Atonement; noun: the Atonement

"Karma is the law of moral causation. The theory of Karma is a fundamental doctrine in Buddhism. This belief was prevalent in India before the advent of the Buddha. Nevertheless, it was the Buddha who explained and formulated this doctrine in the complete form in which we have it today.

• What is the cause of the inequality that exists among mankind? 
• Why should one person be brought up in the lap of luxury, endowed with fine mental, moral and physical qualities, and another in absolute poverty, steeped in misery? 
• Why should one person be a mental prodigy, and another an idiot? 
• Why should one person be born with saintly characteristics and another with criminal tendencies? 
• Why should some be linguistic, artistic, mathematically inclined, or musical from the very cradle? 
• Why should others be congenitally blind, deaf, or deformed?| 
• Why should some be blessed, and others cursed from their births?

"Either this inequality of mankind has a cause, or it is purely accidental. No sensible person would think of attributing this unevenness, this inequality, and this diversity to blind chance or pure accident.

"In this world nothing happens to a person that he does not for some reason or other deserve. Usually, men of ordinary intellect cannot comprehend the actual reason or reasons. The definite invisible cause or causes of the visible effect is not necessarily confined to the present life, they may be traced to a proximate or remote past birth.

"According to Buddhism, this inequality is due not only to heredity, environment, "nature and nurture," but also to Karma. In other words, it is the result of our own past actions and our own present doings. We ourselves are responsible for our own happiness and misery. We create our own Heaven. We create our own Hell. We are the architects of our own fate." - From The Theory of Karma

“The sins of the father are to be laid upon the children.” -Shakespeare