Reparations

I appreciate Tom Hayden’s essay about the injustice of the recent settlement for Holocaust victims (Commentary, Dec. 30). But it makes me think about the even greater injustice on this side of the Atlantic. The former slaves of North America never got their “40 acres and a mule,” and their children’s plea for reparations has never even been seriously considered by our country. Meanwhile, the descendants of these former slaves continue to be marginalized and discriminated against; 40% of them still living in poverty.

Perhaps it’s time to put the energy into righting the American wrong that we have been putting into righting the German wrong. As a white, American Christian born in the South, I believe that after 300 years of brutal oppression, our African American sisters and brothers are entitled to a share of the U.S. wealth at least equal to that we have kept for ourselves.

ELBERT W. NEWTON

Pasadena