Reparations Daily (ish) Vol. 51
The State of HR 40
Happy Friday! Two great pieces came out of this week of action for reparations that I think you should read.
The first, is this piece from NPR that examines the bill that would form a commission to study reparations at the federal level, H.R. 40, currently sits.
I briefly discuss some of the quotes that stood out to me in today’s Hot Takes section below.
The other piece specifically about reparations that you should read is this CNN piece that rounds up many of the local reparations initiatives being created across the country.
Some other articles you might want to check out include:
This New York Times column from one of my favorite writers Jamelle Bouie which revisits the 1948 book, Caste, Class, and Race, to remind himself “that the challenge of racism is primarily structural and material, not cultural and linguistic, and that a disproportionate focus on the latter can too often obscure the former.”
This piece in the Washington Post pushes back on the Democratic talking point of “we’re not teaching critical race theory in schools.” A Virginia parent filed a public record request for a training for teachers taught by the Equity Collaborative titled ‘Introduction to Critical Race Theory.’ Should our primary talking point be, “this isn’t even taught in schools,” which plays into the opponent’s hands, or that they’ve launched an anti-history campaign that seeks to distill further what students are taught in schools?
This Vox piece that examines what happened to all of those anti-racist book clubs that popped up in the wake of George Floyd’s murder.
With radical love,
Trevor
National News
NPR: A bill to study reparations for slavery had momentum in Congress, but still no vote
CNN: A closer look at the ongoing reparations movement in California and beyond
New York Times: What' Structural Racism’ Really Means
Washington Post: Democrats are lying about critical race theory
Vox: The lofty goals and short life of the antiracist book club
Vogue: What Indigenous Land Defenders at COP26 Want
Washington Post: Robert Moses and the saga of the racist parkway bridges
NBC News: Study: Facing racism depletes young adults' mental health
Roosevelt Institute: A New Paradigm for Justice and Democracy: Moving beyond the Twin Failures of Neoliberalism and Racial Liberalism
New York Times: Calls for Climate Reparations Reach Boiling Point in Glasgow Talks
Forbes: Wealth, Inequality, And Taxes In The U.S.
The Guardian: White supremacists declare war on democracy and walk away unscathed
Washington Post: A White police chief placed a KKK note on a Black officer’s coat: ‘It was so demeaning.’
USA Today: How critical race theory went from conservative battle cry to mainstream powder keg
New York Times: Can We Talk About Critical Race Theory?
Regional News
Daily Hemisphere Gazette: Community engagement next for reparations plan in Amherst
LA Times: Colonialism, power and race. Inside California ethnic studies classes
The Daily Princetonian: Economics Professor Ellora Derenoncourt discusses new center on inequality
Independent: Christopher' Crying Nazi’ Cantwell launches critical race theory discussion during Charlottesville trial
S.I. Live: NYC Racial Justice Commission to host virtual public engagement session
International News
Jacobin: No, Germany Shouldn't’t Pay Holocaust Reparations in Military Hardware for Israel
The Nation: Fossil Fuel Companies Owe Reparations to Countries They Are Destroying
Hot Takes
NPR: A bill to study reparations for slavery had momentum in Congress, but still no vote
There were a few quotes reflected in the piece that stood out to me:
Representative Jackson Lee, a Democrat from Texas, is quoted saying that” “America would do well to try to bring healing and repair, in this time and in this century”.”
Representative Burgess Owens, a Republican from Ohio, told NPR that reparations are divisive and that “reparations, where you take people's money that they’ve, earned its’s punishment, it's theft judgment. This is not the American way, we're not racist people. This American country is based on meritocracy.”
Representative Jamaal Bowman, a Democrat from New York, said that” “we haven't taken a moment to stop and pause and reflect and look ourselves in the mirror as a country and really be honest with ourselves about how those harms continue to persist.”
On the Democratic side, there are a few narratives that pop out to me.
The narrative of an unhealed wound — and how the notion of reparations seeks to provide healing.
There is also a narrative present in Bowman’s quote around the concept of reflection. I think this is an important one to think about and expand on as a country. True reflection — would require real truth-telling and a large-scale public accounting of our nation’s history. So much of our history is taught to us in bits and pieces and this, I believe, has hindered the type of reflection needed to put us on the path of true racial justice.
There were two Republicans quoted in the piece, and one provided a negligible quote. The other from Representative Owens, who is Black, relies on a narrative that is widely used across social issues. The false narrative of meritocracy. I plan to dedicate more time and space to debunk this narrative in another edition, but you can watch this Vox video about meritocracy.