Undeserved "guilt" isn't the issue Mr. Helgesen suggests it is. Our history of a long-time slavery nation, followed by failed "reconstruction" and seventy-five years of Jim Crow seriously damaged a good sized segment of U.S. population.
Of course contemporary folks didn't do the damage, our great-great-greats did. We obviously have no reason for guilt over slavery.
While "reparation" sounds like a guilt assuaging process, it is actually damage control which should improve the quality and quantity of African-American contribution to our society, which would benefit the nation as a whole. That it might salve some of the deep resentments of contemporary African-Americans is just one of the ways it allows them to become better citizens, but the main benefit will come from allowing all of us more equal access to the American Dream.
The outrage among (some) conservatives over the concept of reparations is manufactured anger, a specialty these days of some on the right.
Will Duff is a sci-fi author, retired media consultant and a rural retiree in the East Mountains