Reparations Daily (ish) Vol. 9
11 Mayors form Reparations Advocacy Org
Happy Monday and shoutout to all of the fathers out there, I hope you all had a lovely Father’s Day.
On Friday, we highlighted the story of Rachelle Zola, who is currently on a hunger strike to bring attention to the fight for reparations for Black Americans. The newsletter somehow made its way to her and she got in touch with a lovely note.
It brought a smile to my face and reminded me how much power there is in building community.
There were some great pieces published between Friday and today:
Sandy Darity and Kirsten Mullen published this piece in Rolling Stone on what we get wrong about reparations.
A new group of mayors has launched a new organization called Mayors Organized for Reparations and Equity. Their goal is to “serve as high-profile demonstrations for how the country can more quickly move from conversation to action on reparations for Black Americans.” I give a Hot Take on this today.
This CNBC article gets into the first question many doubters of reparations for Black Americans ask, which is, ‘how much would it cost?’ I recommend looking into the various papers that it cites throughout the article.
Here’s Vol 9 of Reparations Daily (ish)!
With radical love,
Trevor
National News
Rolling Stone: 10 Things We Get Wrong About Reparations
NPR: 11 U.S. Mayors Commit To Developing Pilot Projects For Reparations’
CNBC: 5 Black business leaders talk reparations and corporate America’s role in closing the wealth gap
Yes! Magazine: Juneteenth Reminds Us That Reparations Are Due
Axios: Juneteenth forces U.S. to confront lasting impact of slavery economy
CBS: Are reparations the answer to America's historic racial wealth gap?
Fox News: Brown University economist says reparations will be 'disastrous' for future of United States
CNBC: The debate over slavery reparations: Where things stand to how much it could cost
U Conn Magazine: The New Reparations Math (June 2020)
Forbes: Congress Made Juneteenth A Holiday In Just 3 Days. Why is Reparations Taking Over 30 Years?
WHYY: Does the U.S. need a truth and reconciliation commission?
MSNBC: Ted Cruz's erroneous definition of critical race theory explains white America
NPR: Understanding The Republican Opposition To Critical Race Theory
Axios: Educators face fines, harassment over critical race theory
The Atlantic: What the Push to Celebrate Juneteenth Conceals
MSNBC: Juneteenth is an opportunity for America to reckon with its racial wealth gap
Regional News
KSHB: KCMO Mayor Quinton Lucas weighs in on commitment to MORE reparations pilot project
WBUR: It's Time For Boston To Pay Reparations
Business Insider: Their ancestors died before they could fully enjoy the reparations they received. Years later, the money 'played a big role' in going to college.
LA Times: L.A. creates advisory commission to study reparations pilot program for some Black Angelenos
WKBN: Man purchases historic Salem home with part in anti-slavery movement
Democrat & Chronicle: Revisiting Rochester's past provides pathway to a better future
Hot Takes
NPR: 11 U.S. Mayors Commit To Developing Pilot Projects For Reparations’
Over the past year universal basic income has gained more popularity among local and federal policy conversations thanks to politicians like Andrew Yang, former Stockon Mayor Michael Tubbs, and groups like Mayors for a Gauranteed Income, which is a network of mayors who collectively advocate for a guaranteed income.
This concept is now being duplicated with a new group called Mayors Organized for Reparations and Equity (MORE). The coalition is founded and co-chaired by Eric Garcetti, mayor of Los Angeles, and Michael Hancock, mayor of Denver, CO.
The coalition believes that “cities can — and should — act as laboratories for bold ideas that can be transformative for racial and economic justice on a larger scale, and demonstrate for the country how to pursue and improve initiatives that take a reparatory approach to confronting and dismantling structural and institutional racism.”
In their announcement tweet, they laid out three goals:
Supporting H.R. 40
Forming a local committee of Black leaders to guide their work
Launch a pilot reparations program
I’m curious to see what a pilot reparations program would look like at the city-level. Darity has long said that reparations must come from the federal government because it is the only entity with enough capital to properly redress past harm. In addition, reparations must redress a specific past action, which looks differently from city to city. How will the mayors choose which city to pilot in? Will it be direct cash payments or a program like the one in Evanston? Will it actually weaken the argument for reparations at the federal level? I hope these are questions that the coalition will explore, but nonetheless it’s exciting to see a new org with such powerful actors be formed. I can’t wait to see how they push the conversation forward.