I get you. Your ancestors suffered greatly. Perhaps they weren't even your ancestors. I know mine specifically were staunch abolitionists at the federal congressional level who also ran major stops on the Underground Railroad. The suggestion that I owe reparations is absurd. And any defendants who suffered directly or whose parents suffered directly from slavery are long since passed. Suggesting then that fourth, fifth or sixth generation free people's deserve reparations for their ancestors' struggles and suffering is absurd. Let's look at this in a more fiduciary sense… what amount of reparations would be sufficient? Is this amount to be paid out by the number of slaves who existed at the time of emancipation and split between their many thousands of descendants? Or would it be better to disburse these funds based on the population of African American citizens today? Let's take this further shall we… how do we determine true ethnic rights for receiving reparations? What of those African Americans whose families were always free? What of those who immigrated freely after emancipation? Are these groups entitled to reparations merely because of broad ethnic profile? Why don't we as a people merely agree that we still have conversations to hold and stop fighting for things which will harm us as a nation or again disenfranchise major ethnic groups for aggressions in the past.