Support reparations.

Get Educated

• Send this message to your members of Congress urging them to support H.R. 40., a bill that would set up a commission to examine the institution of slavery and its impact and make recommendations for reparations to Congress.

Pro tip: It's always encouraged to remix the standard email before you send it, so it doesn't get auto-filtered or archived in your representatives' inbox. 

• Reflect on the following questions:
  • How would my life look if my parents had different access to education, based on their racial privilege?
  • Where would my family have lived if their race had a different impact on their opportunity to settle down?
  • What is my parents net worth? Where did that money come from? How would their opportunities to generate income change if they had a different racial background?

What is reparations?

By definition, reparations is the the "making of amends for a wrong one has done, by paying money to or otherwise helping those who have been wronged". Historically, countries worldwide have paid reparations (through direct financial contributions) post-conflict to ensure that transitions towards peace stay smooth, and to financially compensate for harm. Germany paid reparations to Holocaust survivors. South Africa paid reparations to victims of apartheid crimes in 2003. Colombia paid reparations to its citizens after decades of civil unrest. You can read more examples from around the world here.

Prominent figures have been calling for reparations for Black people in America since the end of slavery. It's easy to see why. After 250 years of slavery, Black people in America have still be systemically marginalized in all aspects of life. And as we touched on yesterday, our freedom didn't come with rights. I'm going to gloss over major events we'll dive into deeper in future newsletters, but consider that it wasn't until 1954 to mark racial segregation in schools unconstitutional. It took until 1965 to prohibit racial discrimination in voting. It was only in 1968 that it became illegal for a landlord to discriminate against or prefer a potential tenant based on their race, color, religion, gender, or national origin. And despite all of this, we still see inequity in education, voting rights and housing in today's time – and in so much more.

So, compared to white Americans as a whole, Black people have not been granted the opportunities for freedom and prosperity that were promised in our Constitution. These barriers create a real and lasting emotional toll – deep, generational trauma – that have been carried through Black families for generations. And a real and lasting economic impact. It's no wonder that as of 2016, the net worth of a typical white family is nearly ten times greater ($171,000) than that of a Black family ($17,150). Much of wealth is passed down through families generation after generation, and most Black families have simply not had the economic opportunities to pass that forward, an issue that compounds as time goes on.

Not only has Black wealth been difficult to accumulate, it's also been readily taken away. Remember our email about Tulsa and the massacre of people and destruction of wealth on Black Wall Street. Remember that this is the same place Trump has chosen to host a rally today (rescheduled from Juneteenth).

The reparations many prominent politicians and activists are calling for are an attempt to, in the words of economist Robert Browne, "restore the black community to the economic position it would have if it had not been subjected to slavery and discrimination".

And although estimates on what that actual payout should look like vary greatly, Browne's estimates equate to almost $153,000 (with a 2019 valuation) for every black American living today, which almost matches the closing of the wealth gap mentioned in the article above.

“There hasn’t been a decade when the chain of discrimination and bigotry and prejudice has been unbroken. And as much as you can talk about Jim Crow laws and de jure and de facto desegregation in the 19th century, you can talk about things like racial profiling, a discriminatory death penalty, and disparity in sentencing in the 21st century.”

Charles Ogletree Jr., attorney and Harvard Law professor in this Harvard Law article

The most thoughtful and comprehensive modern-day analysis of reparations in America, in my opinion, was written in 2014 by Ta-Nehisi Coates, so I highly encourage everyone to read the article in full. This article and its response catalyzed the conversation for it to become a major campaign issue of 2020, and is expected to become even more critical after the surge of protests from the past few weeks. And although I can't advocate for the best economic model for deciding how to disburse the funds, I am clear that reparations are a necessary step in creating a more equitable future.

And as the federal government stalls on reparation conversations, local and state governments are taking action. The California Assembly recently passed a bill to create a task force, and in 2015 Chicago enacted a reparations ordinance covering hundreds of African Americans tortured by police. As this Washington Post article outlines, there can be a lot to learn as organizations and local leaders take on the difficult task of reparations on their own.