ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Reparations for slavery in the United States

Reparations for slavery are when people who are related to people who were enslaved in the United States in the past receive money from the government as a way of saying 'sorry'. This money is meant to help those people and their families to be able to live better lives. The government pays reparations to apologize for the past and show that it does not want slavery to happen again in the future.