Early in this thread I was careful to steer us to discuss the OP’s question. Not reparations. I also feel that it’s a related, yet separate issue. I think reparations are a topic deserving its own thread. (For the record, I don’t know quite where I stand there, but as monstro suggests, I don’t think the payout option would be logistically feasible. But we figured out a way to get to the moon; surely a nation with this much intellectual horsepower could come up with a way to make it happen…)
One thing that amazes me, and I’d like some serious thought devoted to this: why is there a reluctance to direct much of the hostility, impatience, annoyance, etc. to the appropriate parties? That is, Europeans and White Americans that never had the foresight to say, “Damn, these dark skinned folks, one day they might get pissed off, rise up, and kick our asses! And even if it doesn’t happen in my lifetime, maybe some descendent of mine is gonna have to give up the plantation because of my actions.”
I certainly understand why some White Americans have a hard time even entertaining the idea of companies apologizing for slavery - p.r.r. made the link to the fear of opening the floodgates for reparations pretty clear, so thanks for that. But do many White Americans realize that African Americans (along with Native Americans) rarely, if ever, get the compensation, restitution, or reparations they are owed without a) fighting like hell for it and b) typically having to compromise and scale back the original demand? I cannot think of one example from U.S. history where the “right thing” was done without a lot of delay, obfuscation, and out-and-out attempts to derail the process of justice. Perhaps the reparations for Japanese Americans interned in WWII fits in that category; I don’t know enough about that process.