I've been hearing a lot of conservative reaction to the idea of Reparations along the lines of "we need to be united" as justification for why restitution should not be paid. Regarding the idea of Reparations for the 1921 Tulsa Massacre, Mayor G.T. Bynum said:
"…getting into trying to make cash payments to people, it divides the community around something we should be united around."
The claim appears to call for harmony, but it is every bit as racist as the idea of slavery itself.
To ask Black Americans to forego Reparations is to suggest that Black Americans do not deserve to be repaid. That is a racist idea, pure and simple. Reparations is not a divisive concept for Black Americans. The idea of Reparations is only divisive from a White perspective, when White Americans refuse to take responsibility for the terror they have caused, the effects of which are still being felt today.
It's like punching someone in the face, breaking their nose, and then claiming that paying their medical bills would be too divisive. Now replace "breaking their nose" with "enslavement, lynchings, degradation, disenfranchisement, murder, and untold billions of stolen wealth" and you can see the complete lunacy of the unity argument.
If we want unity, we need to stop asking Black Americans to ignore what they are owed. Yes it's hard. Yes it's messy and complicated and all that stuff. But that is no excuse for allowing our Black brothers and sisters to continue suffering the effects of our White supremacy, unless we feel that is where they belong.