Reparations wouldn’t necessarily entail all white people being taxed to pay all black people. It could focus specifically on those companies I mentioned that profited immensely from slavery. Not just the banks but also textile manufacturers like Levi’s. What’s truly perverse is many of those companies, such as AIG and Wachovia, were the ones bailed out in 2008, so black taxpayers essentially paid to save the companies that had enslaved their ancestors.

I also don’t think suing them would be a realistic solution. Given the disparities in wealth, how are black people supposed to hire competent lawyers to go up against the legal departments of some of the largest financial institutions in the world? It’s doubtful that even civil rights attorneys would take on that case pro bono, given that it probably wouldn’t be winnable and would take up a massive amount of time and resources.