Reparations Daily (ish) Vol. 48

Reparations Commissions Coming to Detroit and Greenbelt

Nov 03, 2021

Happy Wednesday! I’m sure, like the rest of the country, you have been consumed with the results of yesterday’s election. Of course, there is the notable loss in the gubernatorial race in Virginia that everyone (at least in my bubble) is focused on. But, there were also some significant wins.

Residents in Boston elected its first-ever woman and Asian mayor in Michelle Wu. Cleveland residents elected a 34-year old Black man (an American University alum!) named Justin Bibb. And for better or worse, New York City also had a historic night with the election of Eric Adams, becoming the city’s second Black mayor ever.

Of course, we were also interested in the various ballot initiatives that would establish local commissions to study reparations.

Over 80 percent of voters in Detroit voted in favor of Proposal R, which, as highlighted in Monday’s edition, would create a commission to study the issue of reparations in the city. As reported in the Detroit News, the city council will “now start a framework to select a task force,” which will lead to “short- and long-term recommendations, such as housing grants.” A Detroit resident, Durrel Douglas, said that “cities like Detroit have to lead the nation in showing that these things are possible and the methods that other cities, other states, and eventually the nation can move when it comes to doing what should have been done a long time ago around reparations.”

In Greenbelt, Maryland, not too far from where I grew up, residents voted to create a commission to study options for paying reparations to both Black and Native American residents, according to the DCist. The referendum passed, with 63 percent of people voting in favor of the referendum. One white councilmember, Silke Pope, voted against the referendum but said she is in favor of reparations, but that it must happen at the federal level, stating that “we simply do not have the financial means or the manpower to do the in-depth research that is necessary to thoroughly investigate this injustice.”

I recommend you read both pieces and consider whether you fall closer to Mr. Douglas’ side or Councilmember Pope.

Some other news you might want to check out include:

This New York Times podcast discussing the differences between Black and white debt.
This Washington Post piece highlighting how a neighborhood in College Park’s Restorative Justice Steering Committee is creating a restorative justice process to understand the best way to compensate the residents harmed by urban renewal.
This Slate podcast on the ongoing trial in Charlottesville
The transcript of this Vox interview with a man named John McWhorter, whose a linguist at Columbia University and a writer for the New York Times. His new book, Woke Racism, argues that antiracism functions more like a religion than an ideology.