The Case for Reparations
“Slavery and the continuing pattern of discrimination aren’t only an attempt to steal labor; they are an attempt to cover over a person’s soul, a whole people’s soul.
That injury shows up today as geographic segregation, the gigantic wealth gap, the lack of a financial safety net, but also the lack of the psychological and moral safety net that comes when society has a history of affirming: You belong. You are us. You are equal."
These are the words New York Times' columnist David Brooks wrote in his piece yesterday, The Case for Reparations: A Slow Convert to the Cause.
[photo credit: A detail from a display at the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Ala. Credit: Andrea Morales for The New York Times]
"Reparations are a drastic policy and hard to execute, but the very act of talking about and designing them heals a wound and opens a new story," he says.
Reparations have been talked about forever. I have always supported the idea. Now, even New York Times columnist David Brooks gets it!
Everyone should read this piece (and, of course, Ta-Nehisi Coates' The Case for Reparations).
What do you think?
How could reparations be instituted?
Would it have to be done federally?
What form would reparations take?
Could it be done in local communities? In Evanston?
[NYT columnist David Brooks]
