The problem with reparations is that they do not put paid to ongoing damage. Unless racism ends, new demands for reparations will make as much sense as the ones being made now. And if racism does end, reparations in the form of educational assistance will be all any Black person needs to succeed.

The historic precedents offer no help. Germany lost a war that had ended. The Germans could pay reparations to Jews, and that would be the end of it. (Reparations after WWI led to Hitler, so not much support there.) When Apartheid ended in South Africa, White minority rule ended with it. The Japanese internment was a one-off. And so it goes. I won't call appeals to these "precedents" disingenuous, but I will call them unpersuasive.

Mr. Neiman is free to assuage his guilt for his great-grandfather's sins however he feels best, and he is to be commended for titling his article accordingly. But I do not believe he has made a case for anyone else, much less everyone else, to pay reparations.