I heard in the news earlier today that the descendants of African slaves in the West Indies are now applying for compensation from the families of the people who owned their ancestors. I’m not sure about you, but that strikes me as a bit of a stretch. Of course, there is no denying that the African slave trade has a legacy, and its effects are still being felt. Yet surely people can’t be expected to pay for the crimes of their ancestors, and more to the point people can’t inherit the grievances done to their great, great great grandparents? I don’t want to say too much about this lest it becomes too contentious, but to be honest it whiffs of people assuming a victim status that they do not deserve just because they happen to have ancestors who were slaves. That strikes me as a bit like disabled people suing the descendants of Nazis, just because they are members of one of the minorities persecuted so savagely during the holocaust.
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The Ill-Informed Ramblings of a Cripple 
Those who were enslaved and their descendants up to 2023 have yet to escape the white supremacist capitalist system currently in operation. The lives of the descendants of slaves have been profoundly disadvantaged by their ancestors status. They are not inheriting victim status. They are still victimized by the world created in the 17th century. Their labor made many people fabulously wealthy and in my mind they do some kind of payback. I suggest to go some research.
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/08/15/us/slavery-reparations-explanation-trnd/index.html
https://www.americanbar.org/groups/crsj/publications/human_rights_magazine_home/human_rights_vol27_2000/spring2000/hr_spring00_gifford/
https://www.newsweek.com/reparations-slavery-cost-more-just-money-1518649
https://racism.org/articles/citizenship-rights/slavery-to-reparations/117-reparations/2241-american-reparations-theory
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Of course, there’s no denying that slavery has a horrific legacy, and that the descendants of slaves are still hugely disadvantaged. It just seems a bit wrong to make people pay for the crimes of their ancestors.
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If z person in the present day has benefited from their ancestors slave holdings, why is it “wrong” to ask them to share that inheritance with those whose labor created the financial wealth and comfort they enjoy today?
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I’m not necessarily saying it is wrong, you just then get into debates over who owes what to whom.
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And the analogy of disabled people and the nazis is not logical. Disabled people today are very unlikely to be direct descendants of the actual disabled people who were persecuted/exterminated by the nazis. But the descendants of slaves are exactly that, direct descendants, whose lives have been affected just as the above person comments.
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I can’t really argue with you; it just seems odd that some descendants now seem to be claiming to have been hurt and persecuted just as significantly as the slaves themselves.
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