Should we pay reparations for slavery? The question assumes that no reparations have yet been paid. What about the 1/3 million white men and boys who died fighting for the Union? This ignores black soldiers who died fighting for the Union, and it ignores confederate death.

It also ignores the tens of thousands of amputated arms and legs. Serious limb wounds were treated with amputation. Pinned-up sleeves and missing legs were common on US streets for decades after the war.

If all those graves and missing limbs do not constitute reparations, nothing ever will.