White Americans used to think slavery ended with the Civil War. But even when Black people were finally “freed,” they were turned loose with nothing. Their families had been broken up. Their traditions had been lost. Although they built this country with their forced labor, they had no land and no property with which to build their now supposedly free new lives.

Since banks wouldn’t lend to Black people and businesses wouldn’t hire them, they had no access to money. Capitalism only works if you have capital. Black people had no capital, so they had to take whatever jobs they could get — and given systemic racism, they wouldn’t be good jobs. They might not have had to live on a plantation any more, but that only meant they had to commute to lousy jobs that paid next to nothing.

So big surprise, a couple of hundred years go by and nothing has been done to make good all the harm done to Black people. When we talk about reparations, we can get bogged down in endless debate over who is actually Black or how many enslaved ancestors you have to prove to be eligible. We need to focus on how to fix the harm. First step is to admit it exists. Then we locate the people who are hurting.

Many Black people, though far from enough, are middle class, and some are very rich. If people are doing all right economically, the harm they presently suffer from racism is emotional and social, though their wealth is still far below what it should have been. Laws and money won’t fix that harm. It can only be healed through Black inner strength, helped along by individual acts of apology and understanding from white people.

But poor communities can be fixed with laws and money. We can subsidize affordable housing, renovate schools, hire more teachers and pay them better, provide free college and job training. We can take money from police budgets and invest in needed services instead of punishment. We can fix roads and infrastructure and give tax credits to small businesses. If America does these things, we might end up helping more white Americans than Black. But we will be addressing the harm we as a society have caused, and that we can do something about.