The standard objections to reparations form a stable recurring set

Evidence

As part of their preparation, the team began by doing what I call “opposition research,” or taking an inventory of the most common arguments opposing the very idea of reparations. These arguments include some versions of: I’m not responsible for what happened with slavery hundreds of years ago. It’s too hard to figure out who should get payment. It will cost too much. Black Americans will make bad choices on how to spend the money or, worse, get swindled. I didn’t own slaves and neither did my ancestors, so why should I have to pay? If we pay black prisoners, their victims may wind up paying them, and that would be awful. There have already been reparations: affirmative action, civil rights bills, etc. — Dorothy A. Brown, Getting to Reparations, 493