Reparations, Recognition, and the Restoration of Relational Equality

I argue for the relational egalitarian theory of reparations for historical injustice, which holds that 1) reparations are owed to persons who are public social inferiors in part because they are members of a group that has been subject to injustice in the past, and 2) reparations are to be such that a) they ameliorate and undo positions of public inferiority and b) members of the relevant group are assured of their recognition as moral equals. That argument proceeds by laying out two basic desiderata of theories of reparations, explaining the notions of social inferiority and assurance of recognition, and showing that the relational egalitarian view satisfies the two desiderata. In the course of that argument, I consider alternative grounds for reparations based in considerations of harm or inheritance, and the implications of the relational egalitarian view for the supersession of reparative claims.