...Keyes said Monday that he would support exempting blacks from all taxation in order to repay the debt America owed them for enslaving their ancestors....
America did not enslave their ancestors.
A tiny percent of very rich people bought slaves and held them.
America shed the blood of over half a million men to FREE them.
Keyes should be telling blacks the same thing that Cosby is telling them: Handouts won't solve your problems. The answer lies in education and hard work.
Which brings up an interesting situation. Obama's father is a recent immigrant from Kenya. Obama's mother is white (from Kansas).
Is Keys proposing to pay Obama reparations just because he's black?
The immoral practice was upheld by law, just as the immoral practice of abortion is upheld by law today.
The WBTS was not about slavery. It was about states' riights. While many people didn't own slaves, the social thought of the time allowed it to go on wholly support by the US government. I don't support reparations, but those are the facts.
Actually, Keyes intent is to repair economic hardship - not to compensate directly for being slaves. The economic hardship didn't end in 1865.
It might still be a bad idea, but the rational is based in economics, not the morality of slavery.