Pass it on to their descendants, same as anyone else
The person paying reparations would presumably be the US Government and/or state governments; legal persons capable of owning property, entering contracts, being sued for past misdeeds etc. As for the "people who have never been slaves" idiotic rhetoric, see above.
So your family voluntarily chose to affiliate itself with the US Government? Was there a box on the application form which said "We accept only the beneficial parts of this association, and retain the right to refuse any downsides that come with it"? Bit of a shame for you that they forgot to check 'yes' on that one, I suppose
It may well be reasonable; maybe there should be a commission on that too. I do believe you are the only sensible person who has posted a negative reaction in this thread, and you've posted what I suspect is the only reasonable concern around this issue: The fear that if really done properly, it would either bankrupt the nation or open floodgates which would (more notably, in cases regarding treatment of native Americans post-independence). I'm not sure that fear is a good enough reason to do
nothing, however.
Edit: For those genuinely interested in some relevant legal principles, Mark Twain in
The Case of George Fisher documents a 19th-century case of the US Government bending over backwards to pay reparations supposedly due to a white man's descendents.
