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In addition to all of the rest of the arguments against reparations, one thing that I, like many other opponents of reparations argue, is that making payments just won't work. It won't heal tensions, it will increase them. It will add one more wrong to the pile, which will be another source of resentment, which in turn will result in more violence and misunderstanding. The cycle they claim to be fighting will only accelerate.

Now we have an article which stands as pretty damning evidence that this is exactly the case. It does it by examining the relationship between blacks, who are looking for reparations, and Native Americans, who have already gotten them. But what's even more frightening about this prophecy is that it's being made by someone who, all the while that he's condeming it, is also calling for it.

Bakari Akil II writes about Seminoles, Native Americans And African Bloodlines, the focus of the article being that Native Americans have been getting reparations for some time now, and blacks as a result should be investigating their own bloodlines, particularly looking at the bloodlines of Seminoles. If they find anything, they should be "struggling for their entitlements".; In the course of describing the current state of affairs, Akil laments the "armed conflict" that has resulted from this dispute.

In reading over his entire argument, I have a single reply for him:

Welcome to your future, Mr. Akil.

Reparation opponents have been asking for years exactly how we determine who is "black enough" to qualify for reparations, and I have yet to see any sensible answer. Akil's essay stands as further evidence that no such answer exists. He gives advice that is so unworkable that I cannot imagine a scenario in which what he proposes would not result in violence.

Angry that Seminoles are excluding who they believe are primarily of African descent from Seminole societal structures including, of course, reparations, Akil responds that no one but the individual involved should be in charge of defining themselves. At least in terms of personal determination, that's not quite so bad: ultimately, no one can put labels on you but you (for me, I'm an American, regardless of where my ancestors were born). But as it relates to systems based on race, it's a recipe for disaster, which is natural since all systems based on race have a short shelf life anyway.

Akil's indignation at the stance of the Seminole is exemplified in the paragraph in which he states that, despite knowing that he has Seminole blood in him and can prove it through archives, that "to me, a piece of paper proves nothing and furthermore I have nothing to prove." From this declaration comes the conclusion that he is what he says he is, and if he says he's a Seminole, then he's a Seminole.

So let us review here how he feels this should all work. Akil believes that the state should give out entitlements to people of specific racial categories based on perceived past crimes, and that who falls into these categories should be defined only by the individual. Extrapolating this to the issue of reparations for blacks then, any slavery reparations would be given to anyone who declared themselves black.

Do I really have to point out what's wrong with this, or shall we follow this lunacy and wait for the "black" population to septuple overnight before we admit that there might be a problem?

"It would literally pay to be black. Everybody and their momma would claim they were black." So says Armstrong Williams, a black commentator. But that's not a problem, one might claim. You could just look at their skin color (and one responder to my questions page proposed exactly that). Yet when the table is turned, Akil objects to the Seminoles "exclud[ing] them from their proper entitlements due to the color of their skin."

Well, what about setting up a board or agency that will hear arguments and evidence regarding an individual's heritage? Nope: as quoted above, Akil feels he has "nothing to prove." He's Seminole because he says so. Congrulations: you've now opened the door to people whiter than Michael J. Fox declaring themselves black with an outstretched hand.

We thus have here a very clear prophecy of what America might look like if slavery reparations ever become a reality. We will fulfill the prediction that effective government becomes impossible when it's primary function consists of determining who gets what pieces of the public pie. We will watch as racial relations, and all human relations in America, start to melt down.

People will search feverishly through historical records to try to find some shred of evidence that a great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather might have been born to one of the designated "aggreived" racial groups. Other ethnicities will also join the fray, and start to complain about some past hardship that some of their ancestors endured (and if this sounds far-fetched, note that Jesse Jackson is already dropping hints [5-5-02 Commentary, 4th paragraph] that this is exactly what they should be doing).

Race will become a legally created, invented and enforced determinant of who is on which side of a line. A line which will determine who is owed, and who owes, with no end to the debt defined. A line which, once started, will take on a life of its own, as those on the receiving end will do everything in their power to make sure it stays up, stays healthy, and stays exactly where they put it, and those on the outside vacillate between a number of responses, many of them drastic. A line which in reality will do as much to seperate us from each other as any of the physical walls man has ever erected.

We can easily see the first stages of that in the opening shots between the Seminoles and African Americans. Akil can see it too. Yet as he does not see that this is a direct result of there being reparation payments in the first place, he similarly doesn't see that this violence is an appetizer compared to what awaits us all if this comes to fruition.

We will move towards a society where instead of inventing new machines, formulating new ideas, and generally looking to the future, we will spend more and more of our time looking at the past, desperately searching for any excuse we can find to call ourselves victims, and then once we find it, no matter how many centuries have passed since whatever ancient wrong we find occured, sit back in a chair and say that now we're too oppressed to get out of it. We will have in America a society forever stuck in the past.

That is what awaits us if reparations ever begin, as Akil unwittingly shows. That is one future we could choose. As this web site makes clear, I've already made my choice. I will have no part in this.

Now it's time for Mr. Akil and any other reparation proponents to look at the reality of what is occuring right now, and ask themselves if this is what they want. If it isn't, then a serious questioning of assumptions is in order, and we need it done fast: while we still have time to actually talk things out.