Reparations Daily (ish) Vol. 16
Will Howard University put its power behind the reparations fight?
Happy Wednesday! Yesterday, we witnessed a masterclass in knowing and claiming your worth from Nikole Hannah-Jones. The Hot Takes section today ponders the question of whether Howard University will put more power (both capital and political) behind the fight for reparations to Black Americans.
I urge you to read Nikole Hannah-Jones’ full statement published on the NAACP LDF’s website. There are likely to be deeper pieces that come out today that I will collect in Friday’s edition, but this Washington Post piece gives a great overview and quotes both Hannah-Jones and Ta-Nehisi Coates, who will also be joining Howard.
In other news:
As reported by US News & World Report, California will start paying $25,000 to the more than 20,000 people sterilized between 1909 and the early 2000s. Unlike what was proposed in Evanston, this is a form of reparations.
Connecticut has launched its baby bonds program that will put $3,200 in a trust for each child in the state’s Medicaid program that the state treasurer’s office will invest until the child reaches 18. The trust is estimated to grow to around $11,000 per child by the time they reach 18.
As detailed in this NPR piece, a man named Christopher Rufo at the Manhattan Institute is the person behind the war on CRT and has successfully redefined what it means to the general public and changed the narrative into something that is taught in schools to make white children hate themselves.
With radical love,
Trevor
National News
Washington Post: Nikole Hannah-Jones to join Howard faculty after UNC tenure controversy
Newsweek: It's Time for the U.S. to Pay Climate Reparations | Opinion
New York Times: We Disagree on a Lot of Things. Except for the Danger of Anti-Critical Race Theory Laws.
Washington Post: Amid critical race theory controversy, teachers union chief vows legal action to defend teaching of ‘honest history.’
The Nation: The Predictable Backlash to Critical Race Theory: A Q&A With Kimberlé Crenshaw
CNN: The critical race theory panic has White people afraid that they might be complicit in racism
NPR: How Critical Race Theory Went From Harvard Law To Fox News
Center for American Progress: How the Biden Administration Can Advance Racial Equity
HuffPost: Kayleigh McEnany Falsely Claims All The ‘Main Founding Fathers’ Opposed Slavery
Reuters: Sticker campaign targets slavery roots in New York City
Regional News
US News & World Report: California to Pay Victims of Forced, Coerced Sterilizations
Connecticut Public Radio: State Launches Ambitious 'Baby Bonds' Program Targeted At Closing Racial Wealth Gap
Politico: Could a School-Board Fight Over Critical Race Theory Help Turn Virginia Red?
Facing South: A look at the first official act of reparations in Georgia
Virginian-Pilot: Editorial: Slavery commission needs time
Duluth News Tribune: St. Paul joins list of cities that are studying reparations
Salt Lake Tribune: Protesters voice opinions over critical race theory at Granite School District board meeting
Hot Takes
Washington Post: Nikole Hannah-Jones to join Howard faculty after UNC tenure controversy
Renowned writers Nikole Hannah-Jones and Ta-Nehisi Coates will be joining Howard University after the tumultuous public debacle about Hannah-Jones’ being awarded tenure at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, her alma mater. Hannah-Jones will have tenure at Howard in the new position of Knight chair in race and journalism and create the Center for Journalism and Democracy.
The Center will “aim to train journalism students to accurately and urgently cover the challenges of our democracy with a clarity, skepticism, rigor and historical dexterity that is too often missing from today’s journalism.” As someone who studied journalism for my undergraduate degree from a predominantly white institution (American University), this is a breath of fresh air.
Not only was I usually the only Black student in my classes, I often received feedback that my articles were too opinionated or too biased and that the topics I chose to write about were too inflammatory. Clearly, a journalism program that grounds itself in history and trains its students to apply a racial lens to their reporting is much needed.
But what does this mean for the reparations debate that is currently brewing? In my opinion, outside of Dr. Darity at Duke, Hannah-Jones, and Coates are the two most important figures in the modern reparations movement. Coates’ ‘The Case for Reparations’ was the catalyst that revigorated the debate, and Hannah-Jones’ 1619 Project has brought the conversation even more mainstream.
Private universities tend to stay out of political and legislative conversations. Still, one has to wonder how Howard will engage in the reparations conversation that will undoubtedly follow Coates and Hannah-Jones. Their proximity to Capitol Hill and Georgetown University (which has started its own personal reparations campaign) could push Howard to push the conversation further.
With the right weaponizing critical race theory and attaching it to the 1619 project, it will be interesting to see how Howard, Hannah-Jones, Coates, and the students taught under their leadership, push back.