Happy Thursday! Yesterday was a hectic day, and I didn’t get a chance to compile the newsletter, so here is a special Thursday edition of Reparations Daily (ish)!
In today’s news:
The New York Times published an interactive piece that asked seven writers and legal scholars what parts of the Constitution should be amended next. Deborah Archer, the recently appointed President of the ACLU, kicked off the piece by calling for a simple change to the 13th Amendment. Head to the Hot Takes section to find out what she proposed. You should also check out the opinion piece by Jesse Wegman that ponders the question of whether we’ll ever change the Constitution again.
Danzy Senna wrote this amazing review in The Atlantic of Robin DiAngelo’s ‘Nice Racism’ and Courtney E. Martin’s memoir ‘Learning in Public: Lessons for a Racially Divided America From My Daughter's. It’s a wonderfully written piece that points to the flaws and blind spots in both books.
As reported in the Washington Post, Tennessee plans to withhold millions of dollars in state funding from schools found to violate a recently passed state law that regulates the teaching of critical race theory.
As reported in CNN, Australia will create a reparations fund of 380 million Australian dollars ($280 million) for members of its Indigenous population who were forcibly removed from their families.
With radical love,
Trevor
National News
New York Times: Seven Ideas for Constitutional Amendments
New York Times: Will we Ever Change the Constitution Again?
MSNBC: Recognizing America's greatest sins — and repaying its greatest debts
CNN: Boston Mayor compared vaccine policy to slavery-era freedom papers and birtherism
The Atlantic: Robin DiAngelo and the Problem With Anti-racist Self-Help
MSNBC: New data shows just how much anti-Black structural racism impacts health
Insider Higher Ed: Decreasing Structural Racism in Higher Education
Regional News
Indy Star: Rokita spreads 'division' and 'misinformation' on critical race theory, Urban League says
Dallas Morning News: Texas lawmaker asks AG to consider constitutionality of critical race theory, “anti-racist” teaching
Washington Post: Tennessee could withhold millions from schools found to violate guidelines on teaching critical race theory
Yahoo News: Reparations study proposal advances
Denver Gazette: EDITORIAL: Reparations? Who qualifies — and who pays?
WBUR: How Boston's Mayoral Candidates Are Thinking About The Racial Wealth Gap
Wisconson Watch: Could ‘baby bonds’ close Wisconsin’s racial wealth gap?
Yahoo News: Critical race theory has its day in court
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: For this group of Milwaukee school psychologists, the fight against racism starts with their own biases
Tennessean: Williamson County Schools discuss how to follow, and guide, critical race theory law
International News
CNN: Australia to establish $280 million reparations fund for ‘Stolen Generation’
Hot Takes
New York Times: Seven Ideas for Constitutional Amendments
Deborah Archer, President of the ACLU, argued that the 13th Amendment could eradicate “a pillar of white supremacy.” The 13th Amendment currently states, “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”
Archer proposes that the 13th Amendment should read, “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall exist within the United States or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”
The 13th Amendment has for decades been the focus of legal scholars, advocates, and reformers of the criminal legal system but has gotten significantly more attention after Ava Duvernay’s 13th documentary debuted on Netflix in 2016. The documentary explores how the Thirteenth Amendment is a relic of slavery and a direct cause of the current mass incarceration crisis in the United States.
Described by the Atlantic as a “gorgeous, evocative, and maddening exploration of words,” the documentary explores the path from the clause between the two commas within the 13th Amendment and the more than 2.2 million incarcerated individuals, most of whom are Black, locked in cages.
As the New York opinion piece points out, the likelihood of any Constitutional Amendment given our polarized political environment and the hardest amendment process in the world is slim.
In 2020, Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon and Rep. William Clay of Missouri introduced a joint resolution to remove the “punishment clause” in the 13th Amendment, which was reintroduced this year by Congressmember Nikema Williams.
Article V of the Constitution allows for a change in the founding document only after a two-thirds majority of both the House and Senate approve a resolution or a constitutional convention in which two-thirds of state legislatures vote to support the measure. Then, three-quarters of state legislatures or conventions must approve the change to become a federal law.
Slavery in the United States was never truly abolished. It was just transformed. We must carry on the work that was started during the Reconstruction to ensure no exceptions to the prohibition of slavery.
You can read Deborah Archer’s full arguments in the New York Times below.
“Ratified after the Civil War, the 13th Amendment outlawed slavery with one critical exception: as “a punishment for crime.” There should have been no exceptions in the constitutional amendment that finally freed enslaved people and recognized their full humanity.
Beyond the importance of making the prohibition of slavery complete and unequivocal, striking the 13th Amendment’s punishment clause would have practical consequences for compulsory prison labor, eliminate a powerful incentive to criminalize Black and brown people, and advance the cause of racial and economic justice promised by the amendment.
Racism is central to America. Yet, as racist laws are struck from the books, racism has demonstrated a stunning ability to adapt. The end of slavery saw the rise of new tools to exploit Black people. While historians debate whether the punishment clause was included with the continued subjugation of former slaves in mind, it allowed the continuation of penal slavery.
Today, mass incarceration compels inmates to fight deadly fires. It requires them to produce hand sanitizer for the public while they face unsafe and unsanitary conditions. Some argue that these people benefit from gaining work experience. But those benefits do not require subminimum-wage forced labor. By striking the clause, the compensation earned and skills learned can begin to restore the dignity and status of those serving their sentences.”