Thomas Sowell Slavery Quote Meme Arguing Against US Slavery Reparations

"More whites were brought as slaves to North Africa than blacks brought as slaves to the United States or to the 13 colonies from which it was formed. White slaves were still being bought and sold in the Ottoman Empire, decades after blacks were freed in the United States." —THOMAS SOWELL

This is a political quote meme featuring a head-and-shoulders shot of prominent American conservative economist and social theorist Thomas Sowell, an elderly Black man with curly gray hair, wire-rimmed glasses, wearing a light gray blazer over a dark sweater, light blue collared shirt, and purple patterned tie, seated against a solid black background. Large white text to the left of Sowell displays a statement attributed to him claiming that a greater number of white people were enslaved and brought to North Africa than Black people were enslaved and brought to the United States or its founding 13 colonies, and that the enslavement of white people continued in the Ottoman Empire for decades after the abolition of chattel slavery of Black people in the US. The meme is intended to counter arguments for monetary reparations to descendants of enslaved Black people in the United States.

This meme was originally posted to the social platform 9Gag under the title 'We deserve reparations from Africans & Muslims'. It uses a widely circulated archival photograph of Thomas Sowell paired with a statement often attributed to him in conservative and anti-reparations online spaces, as part of ongoing internet debate over calls for slavery reparations in the United States. The claim made in the quote is a historically contested point frequently raised by critics of reparations policies.