Last night’s Democratic debate took an odd turn as candidates began seriously discussing reparations. For those of you unfamiliar with what that means, it refers to the idea that America — specifically white people — should give people of the black community cash payments as a sort of mea culpa for slavery.

Slavery gasped its last breath in 1865 thanks to the 13th Amendment’s passage in Congress despite a very obstinate Democratic party trying to stop it from happening. It was made possible thanks to a very bloody civil war that took the lives of hundreds of thousands of Americans.

I want to stop here and make something apparent. We’re now over 150 years away from that war and the terror and loss of it has escaped later generations, including myself. Mothers and wives buried sons and husbands. Family lines were broken forever. Communities were burned to the ground and the soil was soaked with blood in every direction.

One of the objectives of the war was to end slavery, and through all that horror America accomplished it. America paid for slavery, we’re just too young to remember the cost. Previous generations have built over the wreckage and crafted a shining city on the hill since, leaving the darkness of slavery behind us.

Yet I watched as the party that once tried to keep slavery alive make it a part of their platform to make everyone else pay up. Marianne Williamson was the most extreme by talking about a “$200 to $500 billion payment of a debt that is owed” while Sanders opposed a cash payment but did like the idea of 10 percent of federal spending going to areas where 20 percent of the population has been impoverished for over 30 years, or the “10-20-30 plan.”

The hard-left parts of the Democratic party went nuts. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez chimed in by trying to make the case for reparations herself on Twitter. She posted a video of rabid anti-white racist Ta-Nehisi Coates making the case for reparations.

If you haven’t yet dove into the discussion on reparations, this is a great place to start. #HR40 ⬇️ https://t.co/91exHo3VM4

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) July 31, 2019

Coates drives the idea that America owes black people reparations because America was built on the back of slavery. That’s only partly true and dismisses the idea that the blood, sweat, and tears of every kind of American had something to do with the success and prosperity of the country.

Furthermore, Coates has flawed logic. In fact, the concept of reparations is so flawed that the logistics of implementing any kind of payment would be borderline impossible.

First off, America is a country of immigrants. How many families were begun and prospered here after slavery was abolished is innumerable. Their families are in no way responsible for slavery, and yet, we’re going to make them pay? Even if families do go back to before the civil war happened, how many families had ancestors that owned slaves? How many even vehemently disagreed with it? They may have lived in a country that was built with the help of slavery, but is it truly fair to punish those who fought against the practice? Even died for it? I feel the family of the fallen already paid.

What about those of mixed race? Do they have to pay? What about successful companies that were founded after the civil war by immigrants. Do they have to pay an extra tax for a practice they never took part in nor would approve of?

What’s more, reparations is primarily aimed at the idea that white people owe black people. If we’re going to tax white people specifically, then reparations would never be paid. You’d have to tax all of America for such a plan to work, and why do all of America owe the black community? Again, many families weren’t even here for slavery and had nothing to do with it.

These are things that haven’t been addressed, and for as long as the idea of reparations has been around, you’d figure it would have been by now.

This isn’t even considering the fact that no one today was alive when that level of racism was happening. No white person today in America has ever owned a slave and no black person has ever been one. I don’t know a person alive who would approve of such an atrocity or partake in it given the opportunity. We weren’t around to make the choice about slavery, and even if we were, today’s society would vehemently reject it.

Reparations is the idea that someone owes money to someone else simply because of their skin color. That is racist. We don’t approve of racism here in America. We make a pretty big deal out of making sure anyone who practices it is publicly shamed into oblivion. Someone suggesting that reparations be a thing is practicing racism. Some people who are for it maybe have good intentions, but hell is paved with those. Most people who push for reparations are hucksters like Coates.

The “huckster” label also includes 2020 Democrat candidates on the stage last night who don’t, at all, have good intentions. They’re utilizing the idea of reparations to literally buy votes from a minority community. They can’t pay for it, especially on top of all the promises of “free” stuff on top of that, and they know it. Regardless, they’re saying that successfully voting them into office will result in cash payments for black people.

The black community should feel insulted that their vote is reduced to nothing but cash value. It dismisses the idea of concerns about the economy, immigration, crime, or jobs. When it comes to reparations, the Democrats are essentially eliminating the idea that the black community are people, and putting a price tag on them.

Some things never change.