Somewhere in this thread I linked that article. I am glad I wasn't the only one who read it. It was difficult to find anyone who read it to discuss it with, reasonable people or otherwise. Everyone just read the headline and reacted. Eric Liu mentioned that in his brief supportive and forgettable CNN column.
When Ta-Nehisi Coates of The Atlantic wrote the June cover story, "The Case for Reparations," he set a traffic record for the magazine's website. He provoked responses from across the political and ethnic spectrum. Some of his critics did him the courtesy of reading the entire 16,000-word piece. Others, particularly in the Twittersphere, reacted viscerally to the headline and to reactions to the headline.
http://www.cnn.com/2014/06/27/opinion/l … s-slavery/The CNN comment section was toxic in there which is probably why TNC disables Disqus on his articles.
As for your question regarding South Africa, I know they have affirmative action policies that give the black majority privilege over the white minority. That justifiably upsets people the world over because even if you accept AA, it shouldn't be directed against the minority population that way regardless of whatever happened in the past. I believe it is in Malaysia where they have a similar policy directed against their ethnic Chinese citizens who were colonial middlemen for the Europeans.
As for what to do with the U.S. to make things even, I think the time for that has long passed. Any sort of specific help for blacks especially with the R-word attached would stoke so much racial resentment it would hurt race relations and the status of blacks in this country. Already you hear so much bitching about myths like blacks getting free college and black only schools. Or unqualified blacks getting jobs or admission. Those are all myths but there are a lot of perfectly good non-racist white people who believe them and resent it despite again being 100% good and non-racist. I want to get rid of AA for this reason specifically.
Anyway, if you aren't worried about racial resentment and want to make a final fair deal, I think the best way would be by giving blacks favorable access to business and home credit. Give them those crazy interest rates and repayment plans that banks get if they prove themselves responsible or with a good business plan. Genuinely help the best of them build their own institutions instead of giving handouts.
