Many were impressed by the recent House hearing on reparations led by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee. I feel its finest fruits are being erased from the memory hole as far as popular retention. My conscience has pushed me to sketch an outline of the range-issue and to provide some links. What I am calling the range issue is that the reparations “question” has several dimensions, and financial reparations for pre-1865 captive forced labor may be the least of it. It might be the most important symbolically, but not financially.
America is a great place for white families and black people. Transatlantic slavery was slavery-on-steroids and in America as elsewhere, the key issues were extreme mistreatment (terrorism) and trying to block off any escape from the status of being farm capital. It’s been documented that both of these were choices selected by the planter class. The way I think, I especially wonder what the Northern credit markets did once the great Southern investors could no longer borrow against what was our nation’s single greatest asset — its human farm capital. This caused black families to be tenuous and stripped of assets or other freedoms and rights generally, to this day. The terrorism continues and the violence is real, whether economic or lethal. The witnesses clarified that there is robust documentation for almost every color or shade of damage done to black bodies and black families, despite the multi-generational cover ups. In fact one of the most immediate forms of reparations recommended by a panelist was extending the statute of limitations for lawsuits. It’s possible that really big financial settlements should go through the federal court system and be for specific damages and WOW PEOPLE he says there are lots of great lawsuits out there ready to go if the statute of limitations were lifted.
Also federal liability for federal culpability in non-enforcement of America’s “rights” system has meant that black people in this country do not enjoy the generational processes they are entitled to while their freedom to move through public spaces is constrained and terrorized and a dollar in a black hand does not spend as far as a dollar in a white hand. Interstate mobility has been infringed let alone interstate commerce. As just one of the many examples, the need for a robust network of black lenders is tremendous. Helping support such narrowly tailored developments and explore policy options for progress is what this reparations hearing was about, because the legislation would set up an investigatory commission to make recommendations.
Regional and local — here is where I think the reparations-potential becomes most powerful. For example there is the question of whether state constitutions deprive citizens of their federal rights unconstitutionally. Constitution versus constitution. Related to that is the bad faith of white supremacy and the local oligarchies that maintained the big-ag status quo. What is the gap between how the state constitutional minimum should be quantified and the lives black people in geographically defined areas have enjoyed through their lives. Geospatial reparations SHOULD be regional local and cannot just be handouts — it calls for community revitalization and asset development. By the way, I think America exploits black bodies to the tune of at least $300 billion annually. I’d like to see black people receive financial reparations for 2018, or a few other years ending in 8s, we could spend quite some time just paying off a few of those. But the money going into black hands should be alongside money going into black neighborhoods and states, creating new opportunities and loosening restrictive structures. There is an enormous federal budget interest in this because taxpayers carry the southern states while those same state governments undermine our union’s principles of equality in practice. It’s been shameful the WHOLE time.
As one example, if each redlined area had a star pupil academy where the educational opportunity was WAY beyond first-rate, it would be a magnet. Making catalysts for progress is not a mystery, and along those lines assuring HBCUs are in fine shape deserves to be a national priority. They are not replaceable. They are more like living UNESCO World Heritage sites. Speaking of which there could be huge tourism. I know I would like to explore late 1700s New Orleans through the desruction of the Storyville red-light district in 1917.
Arguably white privilege should mean that white people will continue to be able to capitalize on any changes whatsoever, including reparations. The challenge is to avoid empty handouts, but generally liberals like me think the idea of the empty handout is a conservative boogeyman. When people need help desperately, other considerations should supervene on empty handout fears or stuffy sternness. The condition of black america is an ongoing emergency and a crime in progress, a singularly epic human rights violation that will be visible from 1,000 years in the future. Whatever. We know. We get it. Let’s get this thing moving.
A black new deal could harmonize with a green new deal. The same multi-dimensional logic applies toward ensuring federal dollars and policies provide lasting stimulus in desirable and effective ways. There are certainly pay-offs in order for angry white people. Some of these people live in desperate poverty and their teeth are falling out. I myself am only a small step above that and I lost another tooth recently for lack of dentistry dollars sooner. But this is another regional local area. The south actually likes getting injections of federal cash. They get a lot and have gotten plenty. Of course the sticking point to all of this is that no one objects to voluntary anything. The federal side of this will need to include a non-voluntary component. No show of force will be sufficient to quell white supremacy; like Malcolm X said we need Madison Avenue advertising to convince the general public. This is like a war effort but it could renew so many assets in the USA that really could increase in value. Like the green new deal, reparations could really be about creating virtuous circles in our society. We can use change. We need change. This can be healing and beautiful and it should be liberating for the whole world. A nation of colonial slavers wanted freedom to be slavers, just as the world was changing against “the Trade.” We can’t let it hold us back or make us continue to hurt each other the way we’ve been conditioned to … so far.
Anyway, sorry for the confessional and wandering flavor here. I’ve been reluctant to share. I hate getting frogs on my Twitter. But I wanted to put this out there.