Another thing the powers-that-be want us to think is that reparations is some weird little idea dreamed up by a greedy bunch of Blacks who are busy figuring out how to grab it all for themselves--instead of what it really is: a well established principle in law and in international law which the United States has supported over and over. This government was pivotal in the Jews obtaining reparations from Germany for their Holocaust, and it backs reparations for the victims of ethnic cleansing in Bosnia. The US government also awarded reparations to Japanese Americans for this country's inhumane detention of them during World War II. And with both the Jews and the Japanese, reparations included provisions for the descendants of the people harmed, not just the actual victims.

I also ask people to be courageous and try to see whether their objection to reparations is really about the thing itself--or about the fact that it's Black people calling for it. I ask them to experiment mentally, change the scenario and see if it alters how they feel. For instance, what if it were Irish people who had been enslaved and Blacks who had been the slave owners and masters--would they still be against reparations? Come on, be honest: suppose it were your ancestors who had undergone chattel slavery: would you still say it was too long ago so just get over it--or would you feel it still deserved redress?

Another thing I try to have white people do is compare how they feel about Blacks receiving reparations with how they feel about others who have gotten them. Do they object to the fact that our government used their tax dollars to pay the Japanese and to build the Jewish Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC? And since I hear questions like, "If we were to give Blacks reparations, how do we know they wouldn't just squander it all and come back asking for more?", I ask if they would have ever thought to ask such a question as to the Japanese and the Jews. The answer, of course, is no. I try to have people see that all of a sudden a different, more racist standard is applied when something has to do with people of African ancestry, including when it comes to reparations.