Present-day discrimination targets blackness itself, not descent
Evidence
What about the objection that reparations should be limited to descendants of those formerly enslaved? In reality, the majority of black people in America are descendants of the enslaved, but because blackness is what has been targeted post-slavery, then blackness alone should be the test. If you are black and live in America, then you are eligible for reparations. The hypothetical I always give to explain my position on this question is this: When a taxicab driver in New York City passes over a black person and instead picks up a white person—something I have personally experienced—they do not think I am passing you over because you look like a descendant of an enslaved person and not a black immigrant. They do not stop because they do not stop for anyone who looks black. — Dorothy A. Brown, Getting to Reparations, 545
Categorization
Category: Causal Relationships
- SEED: The cab-driver hypothetical is a crisp, quotable argument for ‘blackness as the test’ — an essay could test this logic against other reparations/affirmative action eligibility debates.
Related
- Eligibility should rest on current blackness, not enslaved ancestry (similarity 0.88)