Reparations Daily (Ish) Vol. 10
Stop Calling Individual Donations or Local Investments Reparations
Happy Wednesday!
We’re official 10 volumes old today and still going strong! Here are some of the highlights from today’s letter:
As reported by Newsweek, a Pride event in Seattle was planning to charge white people a “reparations fee,” as a way to “keep the event free for minority participants.” My issue is not so much with the sliding donation scale, but with calling this a “reparations fee.” This is not what we should be calling reparations.
As reported by the local Durham NPR station, the city has allocated $6 million to go toward “green and equitable infrastructure in historically Black neighborhoods,” which they are calling reparations. This is also not what we should be calling reparations.
As the Guardian reported, tucked inside the $1.9 billion Covid relief package that was passed earlier this year was a section that would provide some remedy in the form of capital for past discrimination against farmers of colors by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Just as the money was to start being sent out a lawsuit on behalf of white farmers accusing the Biden administration of discrimination has grounded the program to a halt.
It’s clear we are losing the narrative battle on what exactly reparations are. The concept is being conflated and frankly watered down at the local and state level, which could (and likely will) have negative implications at the federal level. It is great that we have started to normalize the word “reparations,” but it is quite worrying to see the way in which we are normalizing it.
I briefly spoke with Dr. Darity about this last night and he offered some thoughts which I’ll lay out in the Hot Takes section.
I hope you enjoy Vol 10. of Reparations Daily (ish)!
With radical love,
Trevor
National News
The Guardian: Black US farmers dismayed as white farmers’ lawsuit halts relief payments
USA Today: Reparations, slavery trauma: My teacher's lack of empathy was generations in the making
USA Today: Applaud Juneteenth progress but not pushback on critical race theory
USA Today: Historical trauma: Harms of slavery aren't gone. Reparations must also be psychological.
New York Times: How Big Tech Allows the Racial Wealth Gap to Persist
CNBC: Should the U.S. give every baby $1,000 at birth?
New York Times: How We Talk About Race and Gender
NPR: Academic Who Brought Critical Race Theory To Education Says Bills Are Misguided
MSNBC: The right-wing freakout about 'critical race theory' began in the 1960s
Barrons: A Racial Reckoning for Art Museums
New York Times: Black Campus Police Officers Say They Suffered ‘Unbearable’ Racism
Regional News
Newsweek: 'Reparations Fee' to Be Charged for White People at Seattle Gay Pride Event
Capitol Hill Seattle Blog: After complaint against Black Pride event’s ‘reparations fee,’ wave of cancellations hit tiny Capitol Hill Pride’s big plans for in-person festival
Blue Ridge Public Radio: Durham Commits $6 Million For Reparations In Approved Budget
Crain’s Chicago: Reparations and a guaranteed basic income: How some Chicago progressives want to spend $2B in federal COVID relief funds
Citizen Times: $13 million property near downtown Asheville could go to reparations program
Pix 11: NJ legislators and activists renew efforts for a reparations task force
Yahoo News: Denver's mayor is leading cities' push for reparations
Hot Takes
Newsweek: 'Reparations Fee' to Be Charged for White People at Seattle Gay Pride Event
Blue Ridge Public Radio: Durham Commits $6 Million For Reparations In Approved Budget
A large part of the fight for reparations to Black Americans is normalizing the notion of it. We have seen a surge of support in notable instances, such as Ta-Nehisi Coates's brilliant piece in the Atlantic, or Nikole Hannah-Jones’ 1619 project. Though, it seems folks are intent on conflating donations, local investments, or individual apologies as reparations.
A strong reparations program should include four components that create a cycle of repair:
Redress
Reckoning
Accountability
Acknowledgment
Therefore, one could define reparations as the delivery of programs, policies, and initiatives that seek to redress, reckon, account for, and acknowledge past serious injustices, which should lead to repair.
Charging white people a different fee from Black people for a singular pride event is not reparations. The funds from these white people are going toward an event, not toward those that were harmed by specific race-based policies.
In Durham, NC, they are calling a $6 million investment in “green and equitable infrastructure,” reparations. This is not reparations. It is very disingenuous to call investments in Black neighborhoods or to Black-led organizations reparations. If that was the case then philanthropic organizations have engaged in reparations for a long-time.
A wholistic reparations program must come from the federal government, and while I am happy to debate what role states and cities can play in that, what we are seeing right now at the local level is a disservice to the fight for reparations.
Dr. Darity had this to say, “This is the easy way to derail a national program of reparations, which is the objective. Low hanging fruit, never get the orchard.”
We can not and should not water down our own messaging and our own narrative power around this issue. Call these initiatives what they are. In Seattle, it’s a sliding scale donation, in Durham, it’s a housing investment. They are nowhere near reparations.