Professor Block, I am E-Mail debating a friend on whether or not mandatory reparations are both justified and just from the descendants of slave owners to the descendants of their slaves. It is my understanding you are in favor of these reparations.
If there is one article you think best illustrates your case for reparations, which would it be? Or alternatively, I see you often send an entire bibliography, if you think that would be better I will take it! She is in the affirmative, and I believe punitively so since she wants to return to the one drop rule but repurpose it for all slave master descendants to identify (and likely shame) them for the purpose of exacting monetary reparations to the descendants of slaves. Also, she refuses to acknowledge Merriam Webster’s dictionary as a source because it is racist. Though I disagree that reparations as such are justified or just, I would like to send her something from you that might provide common ground with both libertarianism and reparations. However, this is likely impossible, since the founders of libertarianism are white. For example: “The Merriam family in Massachusetts got their start in the 1800s publishing and printing books, including the dictionary. This is problematic. Why? For example, in 2001, a student successfully petitioned Merriam Webster to change its definition of “nude,” which once read: “having no clothes on; of or involving people with no clothes on; having the color of a white person’s skin.” I do not consult Merriam Webster as an authority on the meaning of words because it is a racist institution itself that privileges, and/or establishes whiteness as the norm.” If this is example shows us what is to be considered racist and what is acceptable to be allowed into the debate, then aren’t all white people thusly racist, and thus their opinions are inadmissible? The reason Merriam Webster’s got brought up was because I cited their definition of racism to show that black people are capable of racism. She says only whites are capable of racism. From my viewpoint (and Merriam Webster’s) her arguments are racist. It’s been a very interesting discussion for me to say the least! ZT
Dear ZT:
Good luck in your attempt to convert this person to libertarianism. Here are my publications on reparations:
Alston and Block, 2007; Block, 1993, 2001, 2002; Block and Yeatts, 1999-2000
Alston, Wilton D. and Walter E. Block. 2007. “Reparations, Once Again.” Human Rights Review, Vol. 9, No. 3, September, pp. 379-392; http://tinyurl.com/2b75fl
Block, Walter E. 1993. “Malcolm X,” Fraser Forum, January, pp. 18-19; http://mises.org/Community/forums/t/5361.aspx
Block, Walter E. 2001. “The Moral Dimensions of Poverty, Entitlements and Theft,” The Journal of Markets and Morality, Vol. 4, No. 1, pp. 83-93; http://www.acton.org/publicat/m_and_m/2001_spring/block.html; http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=922087; http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CCcQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.marketsandmorality.com%2Findex.php%2Fmandm%2Farticle%2Fdownload%2F587%2F577&ei=lBn9UuLIOtDOkQe1toHwBw&usg=AFQjCNF2MZ5XoFKKMF5UcOfOT5Kv-HQgZA&sig2=VVYWZhyl0ZmAWRAKXtkxWw
Block, Walter E. 2002. “On Reparations to Blacks for Slavery,” Human Rights Review, Vol. 3, No. 4, July-September, pp. 53-73;
http://www.walterblock.com/wp-content/uploads/publications/reparations_slavery.pdf
Block, Walter E. and Guillermo Yeatts. 1999-2000. “The Economics and Ethics of Land Reform: A Critique of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace’s ‘Toward a Better Distribution of Land: The Challenge of Agrarian Reform,’” Journal of Natural Resources and Environmental Law, Vol. 15, No. 1, pp. 37-69; http://www.walterblock.com/publications/ethics_land_reform.pdf
3:34 pm on August 21, 2016 Email Walter E. Block
