Transitional Justice has been applied for nearly every extensive human rights abuse in America save for its longest-lasting sin: The Atlantic Slave Trade and racist policies implemented post-Civil War. It's obvious that under the Trump administration a national apology and financial compensation is a non-starter; I wouldn't be shocked if the current administration attempted to rescind the $2.2 billion payout from the USDA to black farmers for the infractions occurring during the agency's farm lending programs.

I can't see this poll being tilted towards crap but I can see the issue of a national discussion being thwarted because it's "never a good time" to discuss the matter.

C/NC

Unequivocally pro-reparations, but like anyone I'm curious to know . . . who pays and how? It was Ta-Nehisi Coates' now infamous essay on reparations that connected the line of discriminatory housing policies extending back to the arrival of slaves in America, for me personally it was a lightbulb moment for the how, a way for something so sweeping to move forward without being shot down by indignant Americans who feel like it's all ancient history at this point.

Re: Trump and the likelihood of anything happening soon . . . wasn't Frederick Douglass' autobiography being banned under the "critical race theory" guise? Bad omen, the worst omen. That is one of 5 books every American should be readily familiar with, full stop.

gotdamn wrote: Sun May 04, 2025 6:08 am Unequivocally pro-reparations, but like anyone I'm curious to know . . . who pays and how?

Tax the wealthy, particularly corporations that have profited from slavery. Tax congress. Trump is floating the possibility of reparations for J6 insurrectionists. If my taxes can go for that then their taxes can fuel reparations for slavery, hundreds of massacres, redlining, lynching, etc. I know that's a pipe dream, but taxpayer dollars go out the window for so much fraud and bullshit. One would hope that the start of a genuine healing for the country would be welcome.

rsmurphy wrote: Sun May 04, 2025 6:40 am

gotdamn wrote: Sun May 04, 2025 6:08 am Unequivocally pro-reparations, but like anyone I'm curious to know . . . who pays and how?

Tax the wealthy, particularly corporations that have profited from slavery. Tax congress.

A steep estate tax seems like part of the equation.

penningtron wrote: Sun May 04, 2025 7:07 am

rsmurphy wrote: Sun May 04, 2025 6:40 am

gotdamn wrote: Sun May 04, 2025 6:08 am Unequivocally pro-reparations, but like anyone I'm curious to know . . . who pays and how?

Tax the wealthy, particularly corporations that have profited from slavery. Tax congress.

A steep estate tax seems like part of the equation.

That's logical. As recently as the GI Bill (late 40's), institutional racism has deprived people of the opportunity for gaining generational wealth. In my family history you can directly point to that bill as when my grandparents moved into the middle class. Taxing an estate is pretty directly leveling that inequality. Seems right.

At that point it doesn't feel like reparations due since abolition but something more recent and with more viscerally observable effects today. But that's all semantic. Then again the semantics are perhaps the political power.

Considering the moves against affirmative action and anything they'd call DEI under the current administration, this feels like pie in the sky. That doesn't change its importance.

NC

It should have happened a LONG time ago and the amount will not make up for wrongs in the past. Regardless, it needs to be done.

losthighway wrote: Sun May 04, 2025 7:46 am At that point it doesn't feel like reparations due since abolition but something more recent and with more viscerally observable effects today. But that's all semantic. Then again the semantics are perhaps the political power.

I understand the perspective, and definitely not implying you share it, but it needs to feel like reparations.

rsmurphy wrote: Sun May 04, 2025 10:33 am

losthighway wrote: Sun May 04, 2025 7:46 am At that point it doesn't feel like reparations due since abolition but something more recent and with more viscerally observable effects today. But that's all semantic. Then again the semantics are perhaps the political power.

I understand the perspective, and definitely not implying you share it, but it needs to feel like reparations.

I definitely hear that. I think there is a pretty clear entitlement to that. The symbolic framing of all this is maybe even stickier than the logistics. How does all of America reckon with its original sin?

You can do this without the need to base it on race. It gets incredibly murky defining someone as “black”. Brazil is a good example of how to do poverty reduction due to past injustice. Just give money to poor people. By demographic you’re going to get black and brown people because they are generally the poorest. Affirmative action in Brazil is also based on family income. That alone massively increased Afro Brazilian university numbers for the same reason. It also means you’re not excluding non black people that need a long history of injustice repairing while giving someone else that’s a millionaire money based on skin colour.

Gramsci wrote: Sun May 04, 2025 1:51 pm You can do this without the need to base it on race. It gets incredibly murky defining someone as “black”. Brazil is a good example of how to do poverty reduction due to past injustice.

"Today’s Bank of Brazil asks Black people for forgiveness. Directly or indirectly, all of Brazilian society should apologize to Black people for that sad moment in our history." - André Machado, an executive manager for institutional relations for Banco do Brasil. Dude doesn't seem to be confused about the race of black descendants of slavery. In America we didn't diminish the race of Japanese-Americans when it came to reparations. It's only when it comes to reparations for black descendents of slavery where things get murky.

Affirmative action in Brazil is also based on family income. That alone massively increased Afro Brazilian university numbers for the same reason. It also means you’re not excluding non black people that need a long history of injustice repairing while giving someone else that’s a millionaire money based on skin colour.

Affirmative action isn't reparations.