Calls for Reparations Are Back, Again. It’s Still a Terrible Idea.

“Blacks already have been the first victims of the campaign to get reparations for slavery. The longer this futile campaign goes on, the more additional blacks will be victimized.”

So began a 2001 op-ed by noted economist and commentator Thomas Sowell, who happens to be black.  

Sowell wrote the piece more than 20 years ago, but the topic of reparations is resurfacing again as a bad idea that refuses to die.  

Just last month, California’s reparations task force recommended reparations for all black Californians descended from slaves or from free black citizens prior to 1900. A more extreme measure, which would have recommended reparations for all black Californians regardless of ancestry, was narrowly defeated—by a single vote.