Offset arguments against reparations were also used against Japanese American payouts.

Evidence

A logical objection to any price tag is, haven’t we already paid black people some form of reparations? Senator McConnell has suggested, “We’ve tried to deal with our original sin of slavery by fighting a civil war, by passing landmark civil rights legislation. We’ve elected an African American president.” Others will argue that affirmative action has been a form of reparations for black Americans and that it has already dealt with slavery and its lingering consequences. Such “offset” arguments are to be expected, given that, as we saw, they were used to try to defeat the plan to pay reparations for Japanese Americans. — Dorothy A. Brown, Getting to Reparations, 571

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to earlier chapter on Japanese American reparations history (the Evacuation Claims Act of 1948).