I just wish that someone, somewhere, would remember the old saying that two wrongs don't make a right. And if the author payed more attention, he'd realize that the Irish were systematically discriminated against, the Italians and Poles were systematically discriminated against, and, as the author points out, the Chinese were systematically discriminated against yet none of these groups ever needed to get reparations. Indeed, if we were to draw reparations out of the general tax funds, Chinese Americans would wind up paying reparations for slavery that they never practiced and discrimination that they never benefitted from. Or are we going to interview everyone about their ethnic background and assign an individual percentage of blame?
Yeah sure, minorities have all the advantages stacked up against them. So by this author's reasoning, any minority group that has been artificailly kept "down" by the white European majority could not on the whole be as successful as the whites. So I am going to present the following contradictions. 50 years ago the following five groups were heavily discriminated against: Jews, Asians, Hispanics, Blacks, Native Americans. These people were barred from many jobs, most venues of higher education, and really had no inheritance to speak of. Fast foward 50 years and compare the economic stats of these groups with that of the white majority.
Whites(excluding Jews) Median Household income: $48000 Percent Share of the GDP 75% Percent share of total population 72%
Jews Median Household income: $74000 Percent Share of the GDP 10% Percent share of total population 1%
Asians Median Household income: $64000 Percent Share of the GDP 10% Percent share of total population 3%
Hispanics Median Household income: $38000 Percent Share of the GDP 3% Percent share of total population 12%
Blacks Median Household income: $34000 Percent Share of the GDP ~2% Percent share of total population 11%
Native Americans Household income: $25000 Percent Share of the GDP >>1% Percent share of total popultion 1%
All of these groups where equally discriminated against in the past, but when the racist policies where banned the Jews and the Asians did much better than the Blacks, Hispanics and the Native Americans. So saying that past acts of racism gave whites an unfair advantage that can only be remedied by affirmative action is to deny the acheivements of the Asians and the Jews, who have no advantages in the past or present.