Reparations are well-motivated but cash won’t do

California is once again attempting to lead the nation, this time with respect to reparations for descendants of slaves. Last month, the state Senate passed several bills issuing an apology for California’s contribution to past discrimination and creating an agency to make determinations about eligibility for future cash and housing assistance.  Reparations in a plain sense are very familiar and can be entirely justifiable. If I were to damage your car, I would be liable for the damages and I would be required to pay reparations to you for the harm you suffered.  Reparations for slavery and the many later injustices suffered by black Americans isn’t so straightforward. No black person alive in the US has been enslaved, no one alive has owned slaves, and most people in the US are descended from individuals who migrated to the US after the abolition of slavery.  Reparations should ideally be paid to those who suffered the injustice although they need not be limited to immediate harms and may also include persistent harms to later generations. If I were to steal your house, my responsibility to repay wouldn’t dissolve even in the case that you died. Particularly if you have children who may...