If the slave was owned by a white person, it would be necessary for there to be proof that the white person was an American rather than a white immigrant. A reparations law would also have to make the government do a background check on all the Americans who would pay the reparations to make sure he/she is a descendant of a slave owner. "The last slave ship arrived in the U.S. in 1808" and "it is statistically likely that your white ancestors immigrated to the U.S. after 1808" (Reparations for slavery? Or discrimination against light-skinned citizens?, Adversity.Net News and Analysis, 2003). Not every non-black American should have to pay reparations for slavery. Before slavery was even abolished, white slave owners totaled fewer than 10% of the population. In Campustimes.org, Michael He writes, "not only is a majority of Caucasians not responsible for slavery, but, at the very least, the descendants of the 3,000 African-Americans who owned slaves in 1830 should be responsible for paying into this reparation fund" (Should we pay reparations for slavery?, 2002). This means the people who descended from people who did not own slaves would have to be excluded from paying the reparations. If a reparations law were going to be passed, it would have to be fair to all citizens of the United States.
Reparations have already been paid in ways other than a direct check for a large sum of money. The government and tax payers have already paid trillions of dollars for discrimination in the past. Adversity.Net News and Analysis (2003) writes:.
Reparations 4.
In the 36 years since the passage of the original Civil Rights Act of 1964, trillions of dollars in federal transfer payments, welfare payments, racial job quotas, race-based federal contract set-asides, and race based college admissions have already been paid to so-called "historically disadvantaged minorities" in the U.S. (p. 3).
During the Civil War, there was an enormous number of white soldiers who died because they were fighting against slavery.