If general taxation will not work, and the only alternative to make the payment morally coherent is exempting people of colour from contributing, then what is being proposed is a tax paid exclusively by white people.
A tax from which you are exempt based on your skin colour is a racially discriminatory tax. This is not a provocative way of framing it. It is the only accurate description of what it would be.
The Equality Act 2010 makes it unlawful to discriminate against people on grounds of race in the provision of services, employment, and public functions. A tax levy that applies to white people but not to others would be challenged in court immediately and would not survive. The Human Rights Act adds further protection. The entire framework of equality law that generations of campaigners built, including many from the Caribbean community, exists precisely to prevent this kind of racial classification.
The contradiction at the heart of this is worth stating plainly. The reparations campaign draws much of its moral authority from principles of racial equality and anti-discrimination. Yet the only payment mechanism that is internally coherent requires creating a racially discriminatory tax. The campaign is using the language of equality to demand a remedy that violates equality law.
