I think this should have been done, if ever, a long time ago but it's too late now.

The people that were tortured or forced to live out their lives as slaves have already passed, and to pull out reparations now would only be a cheap trick as to say "You cannot say we're not sorry".

I am sorry, though it wasn't my fault, that people in America lived as slaves. I am sorry for those people, but slavery was, and I hate to say this, quite normal back then, and for the centuries leading up to that point, as well, even more so.

I do not, however, feel that myself nor any of my fellow citizens are to be directly blamed for this history.

It also depends on the reparation though. If the reparations are in the form of tax cuts or college grants, that would be great, but while the economy is slumping.

Also, we should be rather discrete about it, which would in a sense destroy the function of the reparation, because by giving out grants to any black person that is a descendant of a slave would drag out inequality again. White people without the money to go to college would throw a fit if black people were given a college education because some 50-250 years ago someone was enslaved for America.

It just doesn't seem like there is any good way to do it, unless it's a formal, political, apology. Reparations are usually payments of some sort though, which wouldn't be seem as "fair" or "equal" in most people's eyes today, especially knowing that none of the people that are alive now are suffering because of the enslavement of their ancestors.