Abraham Lincoln, in the midst of the Civil War, in his second inaugural address, wrote:

Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman’s two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said “the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.”

I believe that the Civil War did pay that debt, but we, the nation, have incurred another debt which must be paid. That is for the failure of the Reconstruction and the imposition (or tolerance) of segregation for another 80+ years. The labor of “keeping the n_ down” will receive (and is receiving) its just reward. This justice is not based on individual guilt, or even familial guilt, but the nation’s guilt. This is in the same way that the blood shed in the Civil war was not solely, or even primarily, shed by those who had directly benefited from slavery.

I know that I lost many readers with the invoking of collective guilt and the Lord, even if it is in the form of a quote from President Lincoln. Many on the left believe that Whites have a debt to Blacks but will not accept the idea of the God. Others believe in God, but do not accept that God does not think as men do; for them, guilt is only personal guilt. If it is more palatable, non-believers may call it karma or fate or the burden of history. Believers should recall that God both favored and punished the nation of Israel.

What we are experiencing in the rage felt and expressed by many at the deaths of Blacks at the hands of the police had little to do with each individual case, but rather with the accumulated years of “strange fruit”. We can correctly point out that Black on Black murders far outweigh the murders of Blacks by Whites. We can correctly point out that many (but certainly not all) of the victims were either involved in a crime when killed or had a long criminal record. We can correctly point out that the rate of murders of Blacks by Whites has dropped over the years. Statistics are useful for many things but have little impact on emotions. Just as an individual may endure years of bullying without visible complaint and then snap into a rage at some relatively minor offence, so it is with a people. Enough is enough.

How will this debt be repaid? I do not claim to know the specifics, but I do think that the debt will be repaid with interest. If history is any guide, most of this debt will be paid by persons with no personal guilt. We need to feel our way towards ensuring that most of us have a chance to receive a good education and good jobs. This may mean more charter schools, this may mean changing our zoning laws so that neighborhoods become more mixed in economic status, this may mean goring many sacred cows. I am sure that there is no one program or policy that will pay the debt and that it will take many years, just as it took many years to accumulate the debt.