Ali1

Ali Hashemifara is an economics student at the University of Reading.

Tom1

Tom Wilson is an independent writer focused on economics, investing, and financial education.

The Illogic of Reparations: Historical Standards, Selective Memory, and the Logic of Victory

The modern argument for reparations rests on the retroactive application of legal and moral standards that did not exist when slavery was practiced. Slavery in the United States was legal for centuries. Although morally contested, it was not unlawful, and when the institution was abolished, the formerly enslaved were not compensated for their bondage. Their emancipation did not bring financial restitution, nor were slaveholders punished for actions that had been legal under the governing system of the time.