Karl Zinsmeister

About the author: Karl Zinsmeister is the editor-in-chief of the American Enterprise, a monthly journal of politics, business, and culture.

Paying reparations to the decendants of African American slaves would not right the wrong of slavery because slaves and those who benefited from slavery are no longer living. Sorting out who should receive reparations and who should pay them is too complicated, now that the identities of oppressors and the oppressed have been blurred through racial mixing. Moreover, Americans have tried to compensate for slavery through greater social assistance for African Americans, such as increased spending on social programs combating poverty and on affirmative action. On the whole, blacks have thrived in America and enjoy a better quality of life in the United States...