Ta-Nehisi Coates.
“The Case for Reparations,” in The
Atlantic (May, 2014) Group 3
Debra Satz.
“Countering the Wrongs of the Past: The Role of Reparations,” Chapter 8 of Reparations: Interdisciplinary Inquiries,
edited by Jon Miller and Rahul Kumar (Oxford University Press 2007). Group 2
Kok-Chor Tan.
“Colonialism, Reparations, and Global Justice,” Chapter 12 of Reparations: Interdisciplinary Inquiries,
edited by Jon Miller and Rahul Kumar (Oxford University Press 2007). Group 1
As reported by Matt Berman in the National Journal, late Monday night, Members of the Congressional Black Caucus took the House floor to speak for about one hour about race in the wake of a grand jury's decision last week not to indict police officer Darren Wilson in the August shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson.
ReplyDeleteIn this context, Representative Charles Rangel, the longtime New York Democrat, address the idea of reparations for slavery, suggesting that it goes beyond money. "Some people may talk about payment for restitution for past crimes committed against human beings," he said. "But that restitution could be the ability to say that we're going to make certain that people of color in this country would be able to have access to the same type of education, live where they want to live, compete against anybody for the job, and not feeling that they're inferior because people have been taught that just because they have a different complexion that they are superior."
With a similar spirit, Congressman Hakeem Jefferies We want a fair, impartial, and color-blind criminal justice system. But if we're honest with ourselves, that doesn't exist for all Americans today. And that undermines the integrity of our democracy," he said. "That's not just a black problem, or a white problem, or a Democrat problem, or a Republican problem. That's an American problem."
These statements highlight the interplay between social and economic justice that Professor Robichaud spoke about in class on Monday. Racism still exists. While that is a largely social issue, racism is manifested economically, legally, and culturally. In my opinion, we must peruse a robust set of policies to level the playing field while we work on a longer term adaptive challenge of uprooting racism altogether. From President Obama’s recently announced programs that would increase the use of police body cameras and clamp down on the transfer of military-grade weapons to local police departments around the country, to Congressman Rangel’s proposal for a Reparations Commission, we need both social and economic policies in place to get anywhere close to justice.