This summer could be historic. Final proposals for the first-of-its-kind compensation program in California will be submitted by July 1, starting the legislative process for a monumental change in the lives of Black Americans across the country.
Reparations, which include a wide range of policies, payments and efforts to address the historic and ongoing impact of systemic racism on African Americans, have never been more at the forefront of the U.S. debate, but even as efforts gain momentum in states such as California and communities such as Evanston, Illinoissignificant obstacles remain.
One of the biggest obstacles to reparations is a lack of understanding about what reparations are and what they're designed to do, say experts at the Black Reparations Project. Based at Northeastern University's Mills College, BRP holds its iconic Black Reparations Conference on February 24.
“A lot of people who resist the idea of reparations think it's a cash grab,” he says Darcelle Lahr, co-chair of BRP and professor of business practice at Mills. “It's much broader and deeper than that. There are so many aspects of dehumanization, so many aspects of subjugation represented in slavery and all the other mechanisms that have been put in place throughout US history that we're trying to address with this conversation.”
Reparations have been part of the political debate for decades––the federal bill HR 40 has been floating around the House of Representatives since 1989. However, in the wake of the 2020 killing of George Floyd, the movement has found new life. Policymakers at the federal, state, and local levels began researching what reparations might look like.
In some cases, that means direct cash payments to African-American descendants. In others, it takes the form of policies, such as Evanston's housing recovery program, designed to address specific systemic injustices in housing, education, or criminal justice. In any case, the compensation involves more than free cash. Kerby Lynch, Government Adviser to Ceres Policy Research and activist in California's reparations movement, has seen firsthand that these programs involve extensive research and careful planning before they even make it to the floor of a state legislature.
“There's actually a legal framework to it,” Lynch says. “We're really assessing the damage from government actions like the mortgage crash of 2008. It's not like you're giving black people anything, but [determining] what are the damages and the lost opportunity?'
But a general lack of understanding about compensation remains, he says Ashley Adams, co-chair of BRP and associate director of public policy at Mills. Even in California, which created a reparations task force in 2020 that will produce a final report this year, there are questions about why a nonslave state should enact reparations. The Preliminary Working Group report found that 1,500 enslaved African Americans had made California their home by 1852. More importantly, the task force reported that the state government, throughout its history, had perpetuated systemic racism through confiscation of propertydiscriminatory housing policies, mass incarceration and excessive policing.
“When we think about racism as a system, we have to think about every aspect of life and how we function as a society,” Adams says. “Almost every area of social policy is something that needs to be explored for restorative justice.”
But in other states, Adams says the biggest challenge is active efforts by conservative politicians to limit or silence debate around Black story and race in America.
“Over 30 states have introduced some form of legislation that prohibits discussion or education about race and racism, discrimination, oppression, and white privilege,” Adams says. “Being able to have this conversation is the first step to healing and restorative justice.”
Recent Pew Research Center survey revealed a gap in support for reparations that was largely along racial lines. A majority of US adults (68%) oppose compensation, according to the survey. More importantly, only 18% of white respondents said they supported reparations, while 77% of black respondents supported reparations.
That vacuum, fueled by legislation and political maneuvering in states like Florida, makes it difficult to even engage in the conversation that Adams and her colleagues want to have.
But even in states and localities that are exploring restitution options, there are ongoing challenges in pursuing restorative justice.
A major issue, says Kirby, is that there is no single model for compensation. Each community, city, and state must find what works best to address any injustices in its own particular context. But that also means there is no one-size-fits-all way to fund reparations, a major point of contention in any legislative debate.
“We have models like Evanston, Illinois that use the hemp industry, but in California the hemp landscape is very volatile right now,” Kerby says. “Not a lot of profits and an increase in taxes, so is it a viable option?”
Direct cash payments – and the method of determining provenance – are also controversial parts of the debate. One recommendation from the California task force was a $223,000 black payment for the “housing wealth gap,” but Kerby says the statewide debate has focused far more on policy changes than economic recovery.
Kerby argues that both are necessary elements, but that there are more creative ways for lawmakers to think about rebuilding Black wealth and opportunity.
“If you are a descendant of slavery, can you get a tax break?” says Kirby. “If you're in a redline community, can you make an adjustment to your property tax?”
The BRP co-chairs hope that progress will be made, either through continued efforts at the federal and state levels to pass legislation or through efforts to bring together activists and thought leaders. But it won't be easy. Lahr says it's important to recognize that the harms of the past are the injustices of the present, giving reparations a level of urgency.
“Because of the fact that discrimination and subjugation are built into our systems and our institutions, these subjugations continue to cause harm simply because the systems work the way they're designed,” says Lahr. “The magnitude of the problem, the breadth and depth, is so great that the problem is perpetuated even without conscious effort, plus we have conscious effort on top of it.”
Cody Mello-Klein is a reporter for Northeastern Global News. Email him at c.mello-klein@northeastern.edu. Follow him on Twitter @Proelectioneer.
