Keyes' Reparations Reversal Shocks Conservatives
by Allie Martin and Jenni Parker
September 1, 2004
(AgapePress) - Some conservative blacks say they are confused over Republican Senate candidate Alan Keyes' decision to support reparation payments to the descendants of black slaves.Keyes, a two-time presidential hopeful from Maryland who is now challenging Democrat Barack Obama in a race for an Illinois Senate seat, has dismayed a number of supporters with his recent comments on slavery reparations. During a press conference in Chicago, the Republican candidate revealed notions on the issue that came as a surprise to many fellow conservatives.
Prompted by a question from the press, Keyes put the topic in the context of ancient history, suggesting the U.S. should do as the Roman Empire did for cities that had been devastated by conquest. "[F]or a certain length of time -- a generation or two -- they exempted the damaged city from taxation," the politician noted.
Keyes went on to propose that one possible plan for reparations might be to exempt African-Americans of slave heritage from paying federal income tax since slavery resulted from "an egregious failure on the part of the federal establishment." The former ambassador and one-time presidential candidate said this plan would help African-Americans gain "a competitive edge in the labor market," and "compensate for all those years of slavery when [blacks'] labor was being exploited."
But many black conservatives disagree with the idea of any form reparations and found Keyes sudden support for the idea both surprising and puzzling. David Almasi, a member of the black conservative organization known as Project 21, says he was shocked by Keyes' disclosure, a suggestion that "doesn't stand very well" and "makes his move so confusing." He believes many of the Republican candidate's strongest advocates are scratching their heads over his statements.
"When Alan Keyes said future generations of Black America should not have to pay taxes for a couple generations as a way of getting back reparations for slavery, he didn't say how increased wealth will help everyone out, how lower taxes will help everyone out. He didn't include that second part," Almasi says, "and that's what has people wondering if it was just a crass way to appeal to voters."
The Project 21 spokesman notes that at least three schools of thought exist among black conservatives regarding reparations. One, he explains, is that reparations are inappropriate because slavery broke no actual laws. "Abhorred as it was, it was legal at the time," he says, "so there's really no reason to pay reparations, necessarily." And then, he adds, there are those who suggest that, as cruel as slavery was, it has ultimately benefited American blacks "because those descendants of slaves are here now rather than over in Africa where you have definitely not the same standard of living as here."
And another point Almasi says people commonly make against reparations is the time argument. "It's been so long since slavery has been abolished that there's no reason why people living today should be paid back, to be made whole, by something that really has largely not affected them," he says.
But in speaking in favor of reparations now, Alan Keyes has actually refuted his own arguments, having previously discussed the issue of slavery reparations in terms that seem to contradict his current position. A recent Chicago Tribune article points out that the outspoken conservative pundit, in his short-lived MSNBC talk show, once said reparations could be seen as a wrong-headed attempt to "put a money price on something that can't possibly be quantified in that way." And in a 2002 column, he wrote that the "price for the sin of slavery has already been paid in blood."
Some conservatives expect that Keyes will lose support over his present stance -- support that could be critical in his showdown with Barack Obama over the U.S. Senate seat that Republican Senator Peter Fitzgerald of Illinois is vacating.
