Jeff Jacoby aptly criticizes this movement.
UPDATE: Eric Muller disagrees; I think there’s something to his criticism of one point that Jacoby overstates, but I find Jacoby’s argument to be generally quite sound. To quote Jacoby, “It would be unthinkable to make individuals responsible for the wrongdoing of their distant ancestors, or to require them to enrich the great-great-great grandchildren of the victims. The overwhelming majority of nonblack Americans have no family connection to slavery in any case — most of us are descended from the millions of immigrants who came to this country after the Civil War.” (I’d add to that the impropriety of making the great-great-great grandchildren of Northern soldiers who died or were crippled in the war pay for the harm done by Southern slaveowners.)
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