ABSTRACT

I reconsider and enhance a somewhat neglected argument within the domains of reparations for slavery and black reparations. That argument is for compensating present-day descendants of enslaved persons for wrongs done to their genetic ancestors, based on the inheritance of rights to compensation. After highlighting some of its virtues, some questions for it on which I remain agnostic, and some outright problems, I offer three desiderata for an elaboration of the argument: stronger African American claims, meaningful connection, and material-structural sensitivity. To satisfy these without ad-hocness, I motivate seven ‘hierarchies of connection’ between heir and predecessor via a series of thought-experiments involving ordinary inheritance of an estate. Moreover, I suggest that the elaborated version of the inheritance argument might be harder for good-faith political conservatives to dismiss than other pro-reparations arguments. Finally, I address an objection by modifying my view about the kind of right that will be held by descendants of enslaved persons if the argument succeeds.

摘要

我重新考虑并加强了奴隶制赔偿和黑人赔偿领域内一个有些被忽视的论点。这个论点是为了补偿被奴役者的现代后代对其遗传祖先所做的错误，基于补偿权的继承。在强调了它的一些优点、一些我仍然不可知的问题以及一些彻头彻尾的问题之后，我提供了三个必要条件来阐述这个论点：更强大的非裔美国人主张、有意义的联系和物质结构敏感性。为了满足这些而无需临时本质上，我通过一系列涉及普通遗产继承的思想实验激发了继承人和前任之间的七个“联系层次”。此外，我认为，与其他支持赔偿的论点相比，善意的政治保守派可能更难以驳回继承论的详细版本。最后，我通过修改我对被奴役者的后代将拥有的权利类型的看法来解决反对意见，如果论点成功。