With today honoring the official ending of slavery 153 years ago, " Juneteenth", I started thinking about how far we have come as a nation. The exact distance is yet to be determined, however, after reading the 2012 article "For 60th year, Germany Honors Duty To Pay Holocaust Victims", It does pose a few questions about our nations response to similar occurance.

From the 1930s to 1945 Jewish people were discriminated against and murdered due to the policies of Nazi Germany. In total, around 6 million Jewish people were killed during the Holocaust. The reparations program was created by the first chancellor of West Germany in 1952. Germany has payed $89 billion in compensation over the past 60 years to primarily Jewish victims for the harm done by the Nazis. Under current guidelines, anyone that can prove the hid from the Nazis for at least six months is eligible for a one time payment of $3,250.On the other hand, in the United States, we have an ethnic group that has been oppressed since arrival in 18th century. From slavery; where about 388,000 Africans were chained and transported like cargo to North America, families ripped apart, being beaten, raped, mutilated, and murdered with no consequence. To segregation; where black Americans were legally discriminated against on the terms of "Seperate but Equal", denied access to many public venues and accodomations and even jobs due to their race. The fight for equal treatment wasn't enforced until 1964, with the Civil Rights Acts. However, for many black-Americans the damage was already done through centuries of mental and physical abuse with effects are still apparent today.

In the eyes of many Americans then, and even some now, black Americans are viewed as inferior.and that is something that can only change with time. However, It is a questions to be asked, if the damage control performed by the United States is comparable to what has been done in Germany? I am not by any means trying simplify the centuries of damages that the African- Americans endured these times to a "payout", but It is the principle of the matter. By Germany making the reparations and continuing to pay them well after World War II shows how as a country, they accepted responsibility for the crimes of the Nazis. Was everyone in Germany a Nazi? No. Did everyone feel the same way about the Jewish population as the Nazis? No, but the country took responsibility from the crimes done by the Nazi party regardless.What makes this question even more interesting is that the Unites States has in fact paid reparations to other ethnic groups. In 1988, the USA not only apologies to the Japanese- Americans forced into internment camps, but paid $20,000 to each surviving detainee.

We can never compare the horrors that were inflicted upon these groups or the others like them, but as a nation, we must as ourselves," is this fair?"