The United Nations (U.N.) hopes discussions on slavery leads to a discussion on possible reparations for the transatlantic slave trade.
The United Nations voted to recognize slavery as the “gravest crime against humanity.”
While some might have thought that recognizing this reality would be a unanimous decision, several countries opposed it, and many European countries abstained from voting.
Wedaeli Chibelushi and Thomas Naadi of the BBC reported, “The United Nations General Assembly has voted to recognize the enslavement of Africans during the transatlantic slave trade as ‘the gravest crime against humanity,’ a move advocates hope will pave the way for healing and justice.
“The resolution—proposed by Ghana—called for this designation, while also urging UN member states to consider apologizing for the slave trade and contributing to a reparations fund. It does not mention a specific amount of money.
“The proposal was adopted with 123 votes in favor and three against—the United States, Israel and Argentina.
“Fifty-two countries abstained, including the United Kingdom and European Union states.
“Countries like the UK have long rejected calls to pay reparations, saying today’s institutions cannot be held responsible for past wrongs.”
The resolution states the “trafficking of enslaved Africans and racialized chattel enslavement of Africans as the gravest crime against humanity by reason of the definitive break in world history, scale, duration, systemic nature, brutality and enduring consequences that continue to structure the lives of all people through racialized regimes of labor, property and capital.”
Ryan Mancini of The Hill reported, “Deputy U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Dan Negrea called the resolution’s text ‘highly problematic in countless respects.’ Negrea said in a statement that the U.S. does not recognize a legal right to reparations for historical wrongs that were nor illegal under international law at the time they occurred.”
While African-Americans have long sought reparations to compensate for the generations of free labor and wealth stolen from free African-Americans, many Republican politicians have scoffed at that possibility for years.
President Donald Trump has even stated that he believes White men are the real victims of racial discrimination because of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs.
On Dec. 23, 2025, Ja’han Jones of MS Now wrote, “The Trump administration and its allies recently opened up a new frontier in their racist assault on diversity, as Trump’s handpicked workplace discrimination enforcer issued an all-points bulletin calling on White men to file suits over diversity policies.
“Andrea Lucas, head of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, released a video last week calling for White men who claim they’ve been hurt by diversity policies to file claims to potentially ‘recover money under federal civil rights laws.”
America is not new to giving White people reparations.
Many White slaveowners received reparations when they lost their free labor force, while most of the freed African-Americans received nothing for their years and decades of free work.
The forced labor of African-Americans continued after their emancipation via the convict leasing system.
Through this system, law enforcement officials would arrest and prosecute African-Americans for small infractions or trumped-up charges.
The inmates were given a financial penalty for their “crimes.”
If they could not afford to pay the fine, which many could not, White landowners and business owners would pay the debt.
Since they did not have the money, they were forced to work for the White business owner and landowner for free, never paying off the debt because of added interest.
Therefore, they were enslaved again, and many wealthy White Americans and White-owned companies continued to build wealth off free African-American labor well into the 20th century.
Although a handful of emancipated African-Americans did receive reparations after slavery, most did not receive the 40 acres and a mule promised as restitution for years of bondage.
As stated, many former White slave owners received reparations to help ease the transition from free labor to paid labor in the form of sharecropping.
Even White slaveowners in Great Britain received reparations for the loss of their slaves.
And Haiti had to pay France when it gained its independence from its colonizers.
On April 17, 2019, Tera W. Hunter of The New York Times wrote, “On April 16, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln signed a bill emancipating enslaved people in Washington, the end of a long struggle. But to ease slaveowners’ pain, the District of Columbia Emancipation Act paid those loyal to the Union up to $300 for every enslaved person freed.
“That’s right, slaveowners got reparations. Enslaved African-Americans got nothing for their generations of stolen bodies, snatched children and expropriated labor other than their mere release from legal bondage.
“The compensation clause is not likely to be celebrated today. But as the debate about reparations for slavery intensifies, it is important to remember that slaveowners, far more than enslaved people, were always the primary beneficiaries of public largess.”
Even when freed African-Americans pulled themselves up from their bootstraps and built communities more affluent than their White counterparts, racist mobs often destroyed those communities and killed the members of those communities, like in Tulsa, Okla. in 1921.
The Black Wall Street community in Tulsa, Okla. was decimated in 1921.
Survivors of the massacre sought reparations for the lost businesses and property.
But they never received compensation from the government for their losses.
However, wealthy donors have made contributions to the survivors of the Black Wall Street massacre.
While a few countries voted against the resolution and many others abstained from voting, the resolution keeps the issue of slavery and possible reparations front and center in world politics.
