Reparations Daily (ish) Vol. 25

MacArthur's $1.5 Million Bet on Reparations

Happy Wednesday! Today’s Hot Takes section focuses on the MacArthur Foundation’s announcement that it will fund “roughly $80 million in grants centered on advancing racial and ethnic justice.”

One of the organizations that will receive funding is N’COBRA, the National Coalition of Black for Reparations in America, which will receive $1.5 million for “non-lobbying activities to support the movement for reparations for people of African descent in the United States and the global Black diaspora.” Head to the bottom of the newsletter to hear more about the announcement and my take on it.

Some news you may want to read today:

• This Axios story covers a new study that found that wealthier Americans tend to live longer than their less-wealthy peers. In addition, the study found that even among twins, greater wealth correlated with a greater chance of survival later in life.

• According to MarketWatch, U.S. household wealth grew $19 trillion during the pandemic, but wealth inequality between those at the top and the bottom has worsened. A reminder that a paper I contributed to last year estimated that it would cost $13 trillion to close the Black-white wealth gap.

• Ignoring the current debate around “critical race theory,” the University of Louisville will be starting an “Introduction to Pan-African Studies.”

With radical love,
Trevor

National News

Black Star News: INSTITUTE OF THE BLACK WORLD 21ST CENTURY AWARDED MACARTHUR GRANT

New York Times: Critical Race Theory: A Brief History

Marketwatch: U.S. wealth grew by $19 trillion during the pandemic — but mostly for the very rich

Wall Street Journal: How Students Experience Critical Race Theory

Yahoo News: How Students Experience Critical Race Theory

Marketplace: Can changing home appraisal language help close the wealth gap?

Washington Post: How to close the wealth gap from the bottom up

Washington Post: The smartest way to make the rich pay is not a wealth tax

Axios: Study: More wealth leads to a longer life

The Hill: Progressive think tank releases racial equity blueprint for the federal government

Regional News

WDET: Local Leaders Try to Undo Racism Embedded in Constitution By Seeking Reparations

STL NPR: Two St. Louis Catholic High Schools Grapple With Namesakes’ Ties To Slavery

Courier-Journal: Amid critical race theory outrage, JCPS approves Black studies dual-credit course

Texas Tribune: Texas lawmakers used MLK’s words to attack critical race theory. MLK III says his father’s work actually supports it.

Christian Century: Georgetown was built on the backs of enslaved people

Hot Takes

The MacArthur Foundation is a Chicago-based 50-year-old private foundation with a $7 billion endowment that makes grants and impact investments to support “creative people, effective institutions, influential networks building a more just, verdant, and peaceful world.” You can read more about their history here.

Today, they announced $80 million in grants centered on “advancing racial and ethnic justice,” which they call Equitable Recovery grants funded by social bonds.

The funding will focus on four areas:

• Racial justice field support: Focusing on combatting anti-Blackness, supporting Black power building, and Black-led and focused philanthropic organizations. Most interesting is that MacArthur states, “they will take a leadership role in positioning reparations and racial healing as issues that philanthropy helps to address meaningfully.”

• Self-determination of Indigenous Peoples: Supporting Indigenous communities to enable the autonomous pursuit of a recovery guided by their priorities, cultures, and practices

• Public Health Equity and COVID-19 Mitigation and Recovery: Supporting organizations improving access to resources for immediate health challenges while advancing new policies to support a more equitable public health sector

• An Equitable Housing Demonstration Project: Supporting restoring communities and reducing incarceration and housing instability by generating an array of housing solutions

In the Racial Justice Field Support area, MacArthur approved 37 grants totaling $36 million. One of which is the Institute of the Black World 21st Century, the fiscal sponsor for the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations (N’COBRA), which will receive $1.5 million. The full list of MacArthur’s Equitable Recovery grants can be found here. I urge you also to check out N’COBRA’s website to find out more about them.

This announcement is huge for two reasons:

• It is a large influx in capital to a legacy organization advocating for reparations for decades and a signal to the reparations field and the philanthropic sector that there is significant momentum around this issue.

• MacArthur has very bluntly said they intend to be a leader in positioning reparations as a focal point within philanthropy.

Just six years ago, when I would broach the topic of reparations in policy settings, I would be met with confused or doubtful looks. As a policy solution in addressing the Black-white wealth gap, it was seen as laughable. This is why it is inspiring to see major foundations not only step into this space but vocally commit to bringing others in. I commend the MacArthur Foundation for this announcement and look forward to seeing how they continue to drive the issue forward.

Maybe, Reparations Daily (ish) can get some of this love so that we can transition into a daily newsletter and hire some help. One can dream!