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Transgenerational Justice — Compensatory Versus Interpretative Approaches*

Glenn C. Loury
June 4, 2015

Source: (2007) In Jon Miller and Rahul Kumar, ed., Reparations: Interdisciplinary Inquiries, Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, Pp. 87-113.

“…This essay draws on economics, sociology, politics, and philosophy, in an attempt to support this position. Despite my skepticism about the wisdom and moral necessity of race-based compensatory financial transfers, I leave room for the possibility that some claims arising from the many racial injustices perpetrated against them and their ancestors over the course of US history can be sustained on behalf of African Americans. But, before getting to my argument proper, I wish to put forward some common sense reasons to think that we black Americans have little to gain and much to lose from making ‘Reparations Now’ the next civil rights rallying cry…”

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