Alan Keyes on slavery reparations:

Paul Caron (TaxProf) has more on Alan Keyes’ slavery reparations plan, including Keyes’ attempt to reconcile his plan with his harsh condemnation of reparations proposals in 2002. I’m not persuaded by Keyes’ answer, which seems to distinguish the waiving of taxes from cash grants:

Not at all. I have taken a strong position against schemes of extortion from the fellow citizens of people here in America, based on the idea that somehow or another that would be requital for slavery. And I made clear over the years that I think the blood and treasured sacrifice during the Civil War constituted that requital.

But I have also made clear every time I was asked that there was objective damage done to black Americans by the slave system. And there have been frequent efforts in American history not thus far successful to address the wounds that were left by that legacy.
What I have laid on the table repeatedly is a thoroughly Republican, thoroughly conservative approach that is actually borrowed from ancient history in terms of what the Roman empire used to do to respond to damaged communities. You give them tax relief. You give them a tax break to make up for the fact, for instance in this case, the black folks toiled for generations at what was effectively 100 percent tax rate.

And by doing this, you unleash their enterprise. Give them an incentive to work. Give people an incentive to own businesses without taking pennies out of anybody else’s pocket, you’re able to create an environment where people are encouraged to work and put a strong foundation under themselves instead of putting money in a democracy to dominate their lives that undermines the moral foundations of their families and destroys their economic incentives.

As a matter of fact, it’s a thoroughly conservative, thoroughly consistent Republican approach to a very serious challenge.

But if you compare (1) raising taxes on whites to pay for the lowering of taxes on blacks and (2) raising taxes on whites and blacks to pay for cash grants to blacks, it’s hard to see how either is any more or less “extortion from the fellow citizens of people here in America, based on the idea that somehow or another that would be requital for slavery” than the other.