On the heels of the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse, Haiti’s interim government has pleaded for international help—and while it has not included reparations in those appeals, they are long overdue. In fact, the issue of reparations can’t be extracted from Haiti’s condition today.

Britain, the United States, France—nations that were once key players in the transatlantic slave trade and have now firmly declared a refusal to even seriously consider reparations—not only once advocated for cash restitution, but actually made compensatory payments.

But those reparations weren’t paid to the Black people who’d been forced to endure the brutality of slavery or their descendants. Instead, that money was paid to the white folks who did the enslaving.