ReparationsAlthough the conversation about slavery reparations has been under discussion for over a hundred years, it is starting to heat up again. As part of these discussions the question of the form of reparations was considered and money was repeatedly an option. However, for several reasons you should not get compensation in the form of money. First, it is not a solution to the problem, second, monetary reparations have the ability to make discrimination worse, third, who gets paid and how it is regulated, and finally, money can be misused. Many have tried using money on several occasions to help or resolve a situation, however it has been noted that this is not very effective. Often, people assume that one way to donate large sums of money would be to look at family history and trees. However there is a problem with this. Most family trees do not connect to the eras when slavery was in practice, and if they went that far, most trees would be incomplete. Furthermore, there are no black slaves living today. Slavery ended more than 160 years ago at the cost of several hundred thousand lives lost in the Civil War. It is unfair to ask American taxpayers, many of them from families who came to the United States after slavery ended, to pay for the wrongs of slavery. Hawkins' article further explains this point when he states: “Who would receive reparations? There are no living slaves; therefore it is impossible to compensate people who have been affected by the cruel and oppressive practice of slavery. So, would we compensate Black Americans generally under the theory that slavery held them back? Blaming the economic problems someone has today on something that happened to their ancestors almost a century and a half ago seems like a stretch, but let's say we accept the argument…” (2014). Just as Hawkins says, there is no way to be sure that these people were truly affected by slavery and it would be unfair to give massive help to those who don't deserve it. Furthermore, those who receive these benefits may abuse them. The counterarguments were instead given that individual African Americans and the community as a whole were empowered to create their own economic base and become self-sufficient. Supporters also say African Americans will have the opportunity to become self-sufficient and create their own economic base. This is not a valid argument because many of them live in America and already have the same advantages of being able to build their own economic base and become self-sufficient without the help of compensation. Furthermore, this will increase the misuse of money given to those receiving aid. If we were to select the people to donate the money to, there would be no guarantee that this money would be spent