Reparations Daily (ish) Vol. 76
To What Do We Owe Those Without Houses?
Happy Thursday!
Yesterday morning I witnessed the NYPD deploy over 30 cops to arrest unhoused New Yorkers a few blocks away from my apartment. This is the third time in the past week that the NYPD has attacked and destroyed those just trying to make it in one of the most inequitable cities in the country.
At 7:00 am, there were already three vans circling the block to intimidate our neighbors.
Tracy Jeanne Rosenthal, a co-founder of the LA Tenants Union, got an up-close shot of them forcibly destroying their belongings. It was disgusting to witness. Reshare this video.
It got me thinking about how we talk about poverty, those experiencing houselessness, the carceral state we live in, and of course, reparations.
I give some of my thoughts about the intersection of housing and reparations in today’s Hot Takes section.
Please follow and turn your alerts on for NYC Sleep Alerts (@SweepAlertNYC) on Twitter — they alert encampment residents and neighbors to sweeps in NYC.
Please follow my former colleague Isabelle Levya (isabelle_levya), an organizer and cop watcher working at the ACLU of NY, who has been organizing against the NYPD’s Strategic Response Group.
Please send money to the Washington Square Park Mutual Aid Group — they are organizing donations to replace the items our neighbors lost at the hands of the NYPD. (Venmo and Cashapp @wspmutualaid or to their wishlist). We should not accept living in a country where this happens.
Some reparations-related news you might want to check out today:
The city of Providence is exploring what form reparations payments might take, as reported in The Providence Journal.
KTLA explores how California residents might trace their lineage to receive reparations from the state.
A Black-led construction company is leading the charge to take down racist Confederate monuments — but at a cost.
Apparently, the Atlanta episode was satire (fooled me). Tiffany Cross had some guests on to dissect the episode.
The City of Berkeley recently passed the first phase of its reparations plan. The city will hire a consultant to provide “community members with education on American slavery and the concept of reparations.” (shouldn’t our taxpayer dollars already be doing this through our public schools?)
The New York Times has a fascinating essay on how some of the major German companies (Porshe, Mercedes, BMW) can trace their success back to the Nazis.
With radical love,
Trevor
National News
New York Times: For a Black Man Hired to Undo a Confederate Legacy, It Has Not Been Easy
Nonprofit Quarterly: Constructing Solidarity: An Interview with Olúfemi O. Táíwò
NPR: Montpelier says it's open to parity with slave descendants. Descendants call foul
The Atlantic: The Danger More Republicans Should Be Talking About
NPR: Social justice groups' monuments are a counternarrative to Confederate memorials
MSNBC: 'Atlanta' episode highlights debate over reparations
McKinsey: Closing the racial wealth gap by investing in Black consumers
Marketplace: “Canceling student debt is the quickest way to narrow the racial wealth gap.”
Regional News
Gothamist: Homeless activists arrested again in Adams' encampment crackdown
The Providence Journal: New Providence board weighs how to offer reparations, from housing to education
KTLA: For reparations, descendants of slaves will have to prove their lineage. But how?
Yahoo News: ‘Take Us Beyond Reaction’: City of Berkeley Approves Reparations Initiative for Black Americans
NPR: Florida rejects 54 math books, claiming critical race theory appeared in some
Cap Radio: California’s reparations task force explained
ABC 6: Discussions on reparations for Black and Indigenous residents begin in Providence
Sacramento Bee: Black Californians still suffer historic injustices. Reparations can right those wrongs
WXYZ: 'Black people in this country have suffered.' Detroiters weigh in on Reparations debate
Fox 23: Hearing set for Tulsa Race Massacre reparations case
The Black Wall Street Times: HENRY LOUIS GATES JR. TO TRACE FAMILY LINEAGE OF TULSA MASSACRE SURVIVORS
Desert Sun: Leader of Section 14 group urges Palm Springs to provide direct reparations payments
Cal Matters: California task force: Reparations for direct descendants of enslaved people only
WSMV: Forest Hills petitions to rename confederate streets
Lohud: NY mothers dying during childbirth due to 'structural racism, discrimination': Report
International News
Slate: Give Seized Russian Assets to Ukraine as Reparations
New York Times: They Are the Heirs of Nazi Fortunes, and They Aren’t Apologizing
Caribbean National Weekly: United States and CARICOM Reparation leaders to meet on Friday
Hot Takes
The concept of ownership over land is central to the narrative of the United States.
In 1607, colonists stole and settled land by force — killing tens of thousands of Indigenous people in the process.
In 1619, 20 Africans were stolen from their land in West Africa and brought to the English settlement at Jamestown — marking the beginning of the destructive trans-Atlantic slave trade.
In 1734, the first “poor house” was created in New York City, where Wall Street now stands.
In 1804, the Louisana Purchase doubled the size of the United States — further encroaching on Native land.
In 1830, President Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act — the first federal legislation that created mass homelessness.
In 1862, President Lincoln signed Homestead Act was passed — giving millions of acres of Indigenous land primarily to white households between the years 1868 and 1934.
In 1865, after the Emancipation Proclamation, General Sherman issued Special Field Order No. 15 to provide “not more than 40 acres of tillable ground designated for the settlement of the negroes now made free by the acts of war and the proclamation of the President of the United States.” The order was unfulfilled after the assassination of President Lincoln and the election of Andrew Johnson — and the land promised to the formerly enslaved largely went back to former slaveholders.
Dr. William Darity and Kirsten Mullen state that had such an effort taken place, “it is easy to envision that the vast current differences in wealth between Blacks and nonblacks would exist.”
How would this country’s housing landscape look if the promise of 40 acres and a mule was fulfilled? Would Black people still overwhelmingly make up the houseless population?
While Black people make up about 13 percent of the U.S. population, they account for 39 percent of people experiencing houselessness and more than 50 percent of houseless families with children.
Given that poverty is one of the strongest predictors of houselessness — this stat is not surprising. In 2019, the median Black household earned 61 cents for every dollar of income the median white household earned, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
We cannot talk about homelessness without talking about poverty, and we cannot talk about poverty without talking about capitalism, and we cannot talk about capitalism without talking about the long history of land theft and slavery in the United States.
This means we cannot talk about any of these things without having an honest conversation about what is owed and to whom — what I, and many others, would call reparations.