Reparations Daily (ish) Vol.63
Then They Came for Black History Month
Apologies for the back-to-back emails. I sent out a draft version of today’s newsletter.
Happy Saturday, and welcome to a rare weekend edition of Reparations Daily (ish)!
Today’s edition features so many fascinating stories that it was hard to pick recommendations, but here are a few:
For NPR, Terry Gross, and her uniquely calming voice, gives a 42-minute update on the ongoing anti-history movement and the 137 bills that have sought to restrict what teachers can talk about in the classroom.
As reported by The Hill, some parents in Alabama are calling for the cancelation of focusing on Black history during February. I offer my thoughts on this in today’s Hot Takes section.
California continues to lead the nation on the issue of reparations. This USA Today article gives an update on where things stand in the state.
I’m in the middle of writing a story about Confederate monuments, and this Southern Poverty Law Center report released earlier this week couldn’t have come at a better time. I pepper in some stats from the report in today’s Hot Takes, it’s incredibly informative, and I highly suggest bookmarking it.
Teen Vogue has become one of my favorite outlets over the last few years. This piece from Bianca Tylek gives an examination of the exception to slavery tucked within the 13th Amendment.
I was born and raised in a quiet Montgomery County, Maryland suburb called Germantown. My elementary and middle schools were incredibly diverse (though my teachers weren't), and I have vivid memories of my Black history month lessons. Still, I was never taught the story highlighted in Clint Smith’s Atlantic column today about two men lynched in the neighboring town where I grew up.
With radical love,
Trevor
National News
USA Today: Will California become the first state to pay Black people reparations?
The Recast: Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee’s case for reparations
LA Times: Op-Ed: Why Bruce’s Beach may be an outlier in terms of reparations for Black Americans
NBC News: Family trees fill in the gaps for Black people seeking their ancestral roots
NPR: From slavery to socialism, new legislation restricts what teachers can discuss
WESA: Here's the story behind Black History Month — and why it's celebrated in February
History.com: How the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Created the African Diaspora
Southern Poverty Law Center: Whose Heritage? Public Symbols of the Confederacy
Reuters: Confederate symbols falling faster as the U.S. wakes up to past wrongs - report
CNBC: Bob Johnson says Biden’s Build Back Better bill needs to direct money to Black-owned businesses
Teen Vogue: Is Slavery Still Legal in the U.S.? Yes, Under the 13th Amendment Exception
Washington Post: Federal prosecutors saw a plea deal for Arbery’s killers as racial justice. His family thought otherwise.
Slate: What Does Madison Cawthorn Have in Common With Ex-Confederates?
Forbes: How Canceling $15 Billion in Student Loans Impacts the Racial Wealth Gap
Brookings: Narrowing the racial wealth gap using the EITC and CTC
Washington Post: Whoopi Goldberg and the Anti-Defamation League both embrace critical race theory (TW: Garbage take)
Deseret News: Will debates about what’s taught in the classroom define the midterms?
WHYY: Delaware’s Bryan Stevenson calls for racial justice at National Prayer Breakfast
Washington Post: Virginia swamp is a haven from slavery in ‘Freewater’
Regional News
The Hill: Alabama schools official reports complaints of Black History Month as teaching critical race theory
The Atlantic: NOW WE KNOW THEIR NAMES
Washington Post: In Maryland, a segregated school is one of many in the country to be preserved
AZ Central: Before you raise a pitchfork against critical race theory, let's discuss this calmly
WBUR: Proposal would create a commission to study reparations in Boston
The Root: California is the First State to Consider Reparations Legislation for Black People
Boston.com: Commission on slavery reparations proposed in Boston
WLOS: Where does the selection process stand for Asheville's Community Reparations Commission?
Capitol Hill Seattle: Remembering Black Wall Street: King County Reparations Project examines 1921 destruction for lessons about repairing Seattle’s history of racism
The Varsity: Opinion: Truth and Reconciliation at U of T is far from finished
Hot Takes
Alabama is in the midst of an anti-history war being waged by conservative legislators. Last year, local Alabama legislator Danny Crawford proposed a bill that he said would “deal with types of theories that are taught in K-12 and higher education like critical race theory, that teach that one race is an oppressor, and one is oppressed.”
Since then, lawmakers have scoured school curricula to examine, as Crawford stated, that children are being taught that one race is an oppressor and the other oppressed.
They’ve failed to find anything of the like.
In August, the state Board of Education approved a resolution banning the “teaching of divisive concepts,” according to AL.com.
In a testimony given earlier this week, Alabama Superintendent Eric Mackey said that he had received calls from two parents who pointed to having a Black history month program as an example of their kids being taught critical race theory.
With the hundreds of anti-history bills proposed over the last year, it almost felt inevitable that they would eventually target Black History Month. It’s profoundly troubling because understanding Black history is key to understanding the story of the United States of America.
The retelling of Black stories, in triumph and sorrow, is essential not just to ensure that those who pushed this country forward aren’t forgotten but also to inform our current policymaking.
Our current understanding of American history is so troubling. According to a 2015 Marist poll, 41 percent of American adults do not believe that slavery led the nation into the Civil War. In a more recent Southern Poverty Law Center survey, only 8 percent of high school seniors could identify slavery as the central cause of the Civil War.
At the backdrop of these calls to put an end to the accurate portrayal of American history is a national monument landscape that still memorializes those who fought to preserve the institution of slavery and put an end to our democracy.
You can tell a lot about a country by looking at who they name their schools after, who they put in museums, and who they honor through public holidays.
In the United States, we don’t solely memorialize the Confederacy through monuments. There are several ways that we honor the Confederacy, according to a new Southern Poverty Law Center report.
There were 723 monuments, 741 roadways, 201 schools, 104 counties and municipalities, 38 parks, 51 buildings, 22 holidays, ten military bases, seven commemorative license plates, six bodies of water, and six bridges that honor the Confederacy. These memorials, according to SPLC, do the critical “cultural work to reinforce white supremacy.”
Mydashia Hough, who serves as an advisor at Columbia University, put it perfectly, “Black History Month is about our ancestors, change-makers, and revolutionaries -- whose names we know as well as those unheard of and forgotten. For many, the fruits of their labor were never seen or enjoyed, and we owe many of our freedoms to their efforts. We often relish the stories and legends but should gift our gratitude to the human side of the individuals who dedicated parts of themselves to better our world, and to have this be a regular practice that extends beyond a month in February but penetrates the very fabric of our educational institutions and society.”
As I noted earlier, you can learn a lot about a country by looking at what they choose to memorialize. However, you can also learn a lot about a country by what it decides to leave out.
Lonnie Bunch, the founding director of the National Museum of African American History, said that Black History Month is a clarion call to remember. Yet it is a call that is often unheeded. They are coming for Black History Month for a reason.