Wednesday
Editor in chief: Jack Clifford
Managing Editor: Jessica Blanchard
Newsroom: (541) 346-5511
Room 300, Erb Memorial Union
P.O. box 3159, Eugene, OR 97403
E-mail: ode@oregon.uoregon.edu
EDITORIAL EDITOR: MICHAEL J. KLECKNER opededitor@journalist.com
Slavery reparations should be made — systemically
The Oregon Daily Emerald
ran a full-page advertise
ment Tuesday, paid for by
David Horowitz, listing 10
reasons why he opposes slavery
reparations. The ad was also an at
tempt to sell membership in his
Los Angeles-based conservative
think tank.
Although the newsroom does
n’t have the power to allow or re
ject advertisements, the Emerald
editorial board supports the
newspaper’s decision to run the
ad, as we think it brings an im
portant issue to light to be dis
cussed in an academic setting.
We do think Horowitz is wrong
— but in some small way he’s
right. We’ll explain that below.
Horowitz said he is running
this ad in college newspapers be
cause academia is supposedly a
bastion of reason and rational
thought. Let’s use reason and ra
tional thought, then, to prove
Horowitz wrong, if he is so
wrong. Let’s embrace rationality
to win the war of ideas in the
world.
Similar to guest columns or let
ters to the editor printed on this
page, the publication of an ad
does not mean that the newspa
per, as an organization, thinks
the content is good or right. It
simply means that it met our
standards for publication. Espe
cially in a college environment,
more freedom should be given to
more ideas. This does not mean
that we would support printing
hate speech or bigoted language
that targeted any specific group
of people.
But Horowitz’s ad doesn’t rise
to the level of hate speech or big
oted language. It is examining,
perhaps with some specious argu
ments, an issue that is beginning
to be discussed more openly on a
public level nationwide. It is po- <
litical speech, and it would have
been unwarranted censorship for
the Emerald to choose not to run
it simply because some people
will disagree with the content of
that speech.
In that spirit, then, we move to
a discussion of the issue itself. We
encourage everyone in the com
munity to do likewise.
The anger that publication of
Horowitz’s ad has caused at a
few other college campuses
around the country should make
us all realize that the battle isn’t
over. Only 37 years have passed
since blacks were legally given
all the rights of whites. Change
does not and cannot happen
overnight. During our conversa
tion, one of the editorial board
members expressed frustration
that it seems as if the playing
field will never be level, that
racism will never completely
end.
With a lot of work, Americans
can ensure that someday all peo
ple will be treated equally sim
ply because they are human, and
with no other considerations.
Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung
San Suu Kyi, the Burmese hu
man rights advocate, perhaps
said it best: “I see my life ... as
part of a procession, a dynamic
process, doing all that we can do
to move toward good and justice
... And I do whatever I have to
do along the path, whether it’s
sowing seeds or reaping the har
vest or tending the plants half
grown.”
The problem is, in regard to
slavery and equality for blacks,
we’re all still arguing about
which seeds to plant. The
wrongs done to blacks have not
yet been made right; affirmative
action was not handled properly
and, as a result, it has not leveled
the playing field or corrected the
cascading effects of poverty and
lack of opportunity that slavery
instituted. This is the message
that examination of the issue
should provide, and we should
acknowledge that Horowitz is
helping to put this argument
back on the table.
So now to the issue of whether
Horowitz is right or wrong. We
think reparations do still need to
be made. But individual pay
ments handed out to individual
members of society won’t work.
That won’t fix the systemic prob
lem that slavery caused. The
government should be forced to
make reparations — but in the
form of fixing the social condi
tions that were caused by slav
ery.
Poor city-based and rural
schools need money now. There
are elementary schools in
Philadelphia that teach from text
books predicting man will some
day walk on the moon. How will
the playing field ever be level
when education is so backward?
Businesses need further incen
tive to invest in poor areas of the
country and in primarily
African-American areas of the
country. Everyone isn’t on an
equal footing until opportunities
for jobs and entrepreneurship
are extended to every neighbor
hood.
And college educations need to
be affordable and available to any
one and everyone who is willing
to work to succeed at it. Some
progress to this end has been
made, but it isn’t complete, and
the government should be forced
to invest in new higher education
opportunities for blacks.
In short, the government can’t
use wage payments to make repa
rations for what was taken from
slaves. Paying descendants back
wages could be seen as an insult,
because it says that all blacks lost
was their labor. But it wasn’t.
Among other things, opportunity
was taken. Slaves were turned
free, and what did they have? No
marketable skills, no college edu
cation, no equal chance at em
ployment. In an environment
where laws said they were still
unequal to whites, what chance
did newly freed slaves have?
Another problem with the indi
vidual reparations idea is the un
certainty of opportunity. How can
we know what the outcome of dif
ferent opportunities for blacks
would be? Would some of them be
third-generation doctors, with in
credible wealth? Do we take that
away from other people now, who
have genuinely achieved success
on their own, even though the op
portunities they received were
unfair?
Perhaps the biggest and most
difficult question in individual
reparation payments is, who
would we charge for this? One
estimate puts payments at sever
al trillion dollars. On whom
would the government levy such
a tax? Horowitz is right that
many immigrants and their fami
lies had no part in slavery. Some
of those immigrant families did
n’t receive fair opportunities in
building a new life. How does
the government find the people
who should pay, and how much
should they pay?
There are many other questions
to explore in this issue. The idea
of making systematic reparations
for the injustices of slavery is not
new. Affirmative action policies
were designed to handle some of
this reparation, but they didn’t
complete the job. We need a new
look at the problem and some new
answers to consider publicly. Per
haps putting affirmative action
policies in the frame of repara
tions can give them some added
urgency.
But handing an individual a
check would simply be making
up, in some sense, for the evil.
Fixing the outcomes of that evil,
fixing the cascading effect of so
cial problems, would be making it
right. We encourage you to exam
ine the issue and think about solu
tions. Feel free, as always, to send
us letters or guest columns that
address the idea of slavery repara
tions. Let’s talk about it. We’ll all
be better for it.
This editorial represents the opinion of
the Emerald editorial board. Responses
can be sent to ode@oregon.uoregon.edu.
Letters to the editor
Thanks for volunteering
with Meals On Wheels
This letter is a public “thank you” to
the many residents of our community
who volunteer their time with the
Meals on Wheels Program during the
year. We serve a. mid-day meal to our
homebound older neighbors. Meals on
Wheels in Lane County are provided by
either Senior & Disabled Services or
American Red Cross who work cooper
atively to serve different areas.
The Meals on Wheels has a bare
bones budget which only provides for a
skeleton staff. We would not be able to
deliver these meals without the help of
hundreds of volunteers who donate
both their time and vehicle once a week
to deliver Meals on Wheels to older
neighbors. Others assist in our dispatch
kitchens with the packaging of the food
for delivery. In Eugene and Springfield,
over 18,400 hours were contributed to
the program last year by our good-heart
ed volunteers. Many, many thanks to
you all.
Our volunteers are paid every day in
smiles of gratitude from the people they
help. People who would like to “light
up their life” with smiles of apprecia
tion can join our volunteer ranks any
time. Please contact the United Way
Volunteer Connection at 741-6000 for
information about opportunities at the
dispatch location nearest you.
Sandy Karsten
S&DS Meals on Wheels
Linn Crooks
Red Cross Meals on Wheels
Turn to Letters, page 3
CLARIFICATION
The Oregon
Daily Emerald’s
advertising
policy simply
states that we
“reserve the
right to accept or
reject any
advertising at
anytime. ”
In Tuesday’s
“Letter from the
editors” [ODE,
April 17], we
stated that part
of the policy is to
“decline to run
adsthat
needlessly
offend a
significant
portion of our
readers.” That is
not a part of the
policy; the
comment was a
paraphrase
taken from an
Emerald
meeting to
discuss
publication of
controversial
ads. There was
no intent to
marginalize any
individuals or
groups.
The Emerald
regrets the error.