Solving the reparations math problem equitably

There are already efforts underway to provide reparations to the descendants of American enslavement.

Let me make my own proposals: first, determine the monetary amount owed by using the USA's gross national product from 2019. That total would be adjusted upward by multiplying by five-thirds, inverse of the three-fifths clause in the U.S. Constitution.

Every current descendant of the enslaved would get the same amount from this monetary total.

Direct payments most likely will be impossible.

A better alternative would be to exempt the descendants of the enslaved from state and federal income taxes until the appropriate amount is reached.

The U.S. was built on the backs of the enslaved. Reparations wouldn't solve every problem, but it might alleviate the conditions of chronically and intentionally underserved communities of color.

G.D. Cole

Downers Grove