Bias or Self-Centered

This story reports on a recent study in Harvard’s Du Bois Review that concludes, “White Americans suffer from a glaring ignorance about what it means to live as a black American.” However, I’m not so sure about the conclusions.

One question dealt with reparations and the article reports:

The researchers asked participants to imagine that their great, great grandfather, a wealthy shipping magnate, had been kidnapped about 150 years ago. The kidnappers demanded and received a large ransom that bankrupted the shipping magnate. That ransom was used to start a successful company that still survives today and is worth $100 million. Participants were asked whether they would be willing to be a part of a large suit against the present-day company that could net them each about $5,000.

In this scenario, 61 percent agreed to have their names listed on the lawsuit. The researchers noted that this is about the percentage of blacks today who support reparations for slave descendants.

“When white Americans find it within themselves to say ‘I must be compensated for a past injustice done to me’ but the same logic evaporates when the injustice concerns black Americans, they are staring straight at bias,” Banaji said.

I’m not so sure about this. I’m sure some people underestimate the effect of slavery on Black Americans, but I think the results can also largely be explained by the fact people are selfish. You’re offering them a hypothetical $5,000 as a result of a past injustice (which also directly led to the formation of a multi-million dollar company – while slavery led to similar wealth for Whites at the expense of Blacks, the direct connections are never so clear), so it makes sense most of them will take it. Now, you’re concluding they’re hypocritical when they oppose paying money to others for something that their ancestors did?

Most people view reparations as a direct tax or lump-sum payment to Blacks from Whites or at least from tax money, most of which will have come from whites. Not as a lawsuit against one specific company which was conclusively formed from the profits of an incident highly comparable to slavery. I don’t see how you can conclude Whites are hypocritical based on this. How many Blacks support reparations for Native Americans? This survey result is pretty easily explainable through natural human selfishness, which transcends races.