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Reparations Are Not the Way to Go [1]

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Date: 2023-05-06  

Reparations for Slavery have gone from the margin to mainstream. There's plenty of talk and controversy around the issue for and against them. With all of the hype about a "racial reckoning" amid the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, the New York Times 1619 Project commemorating Slavery, the white backlash against claims that Critical Race Theory is taught in schools, and a growing awareness of the massive racial wealth gap maybe something will happen to make reparations a reality. What form they will take? Certainly, money is part of the equation. Yet none of this inevitable. While some polls suggest large majorities of blacks and some Progressive whites support reparations, the vast majority of whites regardless of political party, left, right, or center oppose them. Reparations should be a nonstarter, right? Maybe not.

In the Chicago suburb of Evanston, the City Council voted 8 to 1 to give black households $ 400,000 in $ 25,000 increments for home repair or a downpayment on property. The goal is to distribute $10 million over the next decade from a fund based on donations a tax on recreational marijuana. That was last year. More recently, San Francisco where the black population has fallen from 13% to just 6% and blacks are 38% of the homeless the Board of Supervisors is considering recommendations for reparations including personal debt and tax relief, a guaranteed income of at least $ 97,000; and payments of $5 million. However, this is a national issue that impacts all Americans. But, House Bill 40, proposed by Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas, that would set up a commission to study reparations has stalled in committee. Similar legislation in the Senate proposed by Democrat Cory Booker of New Jersey has met a similar fate.

Call me a spoiler or sell out. You might think I'm some kind of Trump supporting Black Conservative Republican. Nothing could be further from the truth. I'm not the kind of political moderate who thinks reparations are too much too fast either. And I don't think we should focus on self-help alone because it's somehow undignified or futile to expect any help from the government. I also reject the post racial liberal idea that we should only do race neutral things that benefit all Americans. We need far reaching solutions to problem of systemic racism that are unique to the black experience right now, not Slavery or Jim Crow Segregation in the past. Reparations are not the way to go.

Reparations will not change how the system works to deprive us of legal, social, or economic equality. That last part is especially true when we consider unemployment, concentrated poverty, the lack of home ownership, or the wealth gap. Racism distorts how things work in America. We are denied jobs without being interviewed because of how our names sound. We have the lowest paid jobs and are more vulnerable than anyone else to being laid off in an economic downturn. Our homes are appraised lower, so we gain less from equity at the time of sale. Because we live in poorer neighborhoods prone to crime we face over policing and a biased criminal justice system that puts more of us in jail longer. Even worse we are more likely to be disrespected, brutalized, and killed by Police in routine encounters. Reparations wouldn't do anything to help black men who regardless of class or income background even those from well off families are more likely to end up being poor. Reparations like so many things intended to help black people only treat the effects of racism while the system remains in place.

At the same time any struggle for change is long and difficult yet black people rarely achieve massive change through the democratic process comparable to whites. That's not to say a lot of good cannot or has not been accomplished from our efforts. But it's a fact - white people tend to get more benefit from anything government does than blacks. Reparations would be the most significant action at the Federal level since the Civil Rights Laws of the 1960s. That's important because nothing else would likely be done to help us. In fact, after all the controversy, turmoil, divisiveness, wheeling, dealing, compromise, and consensus to pass and implement Reparations any other claims or concerns about systemic racism would be dismissed. White politicians, corporate elites, and the public would declare racism a non-issue. They would do everything possible to shut down further Black activism, protest, and political action. And when reparations don't do enough about the problems we face it will be almost impossible make any other demands.

Lastly, monetary compensation is central to reparations. Most of that money will be spent on things people want and need. Sure, some would be saved and invested. However, think about all the things black people do just to survive. We pay debt not just bills. We take care of family members who are less fortunate. We start small businesses usually in hopes of making money off other black people. We pay for education and training to get good jobs. Furthermore, we consume hundreds of billions of dollars in goods and services. Imagine several trillions of dollars in reparations. Who will benefit most from that? Corporate America which is controlled by the white men responsible for systemic racism. Reparations wouldn't be an investment in black wellbeing. It would be the biggest economic stimulus in US history, and white people because of racism would still come out ahead.

We need something more and better than reparations. We can't do anything to change history. No apology or payment is enough for Slavery or the things that happened after Emancipation. But we as black people must find a way to move forward and not allow the legacy of Slavery to hold us back today or tomorrow. We can and we must do things about systemic racism in the present so we can benefit from concrete changes on a collective level. If we can talk about and fight for reparations then there are other public policy solutions more worth our time and energy. Let's fight for those reforms instead of demanding reparations.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/5/6/2167859/-Reparations-Are-Not-the-Way-to-Go

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