Virtually no white American can claim genuinely untainted wealth

Evidence

After reading Part II, what white American could generally say they are truly innocent and have no tainted wealth? Your ancestors were not enslavers, but they could own property and begin to build wealth because they were white. They were not enslavers, yet they benefited from living in sundown towns across the country. Unless you are a Native American, your grandparent was an immigrant—and benefited from a system that at the time allowed legal discrimination against black people. As the PtSD Commission’s subcommittee considers payment options, reparations should not be paid for by black Americans. Nevertheless, anyone claiming to be exempt from contributing to a reparations fund should be able to make their case to the subcommittee. — Dorothy A. Brown, Getting to Reparations, 570

Categorization

• XREF: Pivots from diagnosis to remedy design: shifts the burden of proof onto anyone who claims exemption — key procedural move in Brown’s reparations architecture.
• SEED: The idea that ‘innocence’ claims get adjudicated by a subcommittee invites an essay on how we administer claims of exemption versus contributions to collective remedy.