Atonement and Forgiveness: A New Model for Black Reparations by
Roy L. Brooks reframes one of the most important, controversial, and misunderstood issues of our time in this far-reaching reassessment of the growing debate on black reparation. Atonement and Forgiveness shifts the focus of the issue from the backward-looking question of compensation for victims to a more forward-looking racial reconciliation. Offering a comprehensive discussion of the history of the black redress movement, this book puts forward a powerful new plan for repairing the damaged relationship between the federal government and black Americans in the aftermath of 240 years of slavery and another 100 years of government-sanctioned racial segregation. Key to Brooks's vision is the government's clear signal that it understands the magnitude of the atrocity it committed against an innocent people, that it takes full responsibility, and that it publicly requests forgiveness--in other words, that it apologizes. The government must make that apology believable, Brooks explains, by a tangible act that turns the rhetoric of apology into a meaningful, material reality, that is, by reparation. Apology and reparation together constitute atonement. Atonement, in turn, imposes a reciprocal civic obligation on black Americans to forgive, which allows black Americans to start relinquishing racial resentment and to begin trusting the government's commitment to racial equality. Brooks's bold proposal situates the argument for reparations within a larger, international framework--namely, a post-Holocaust vision of government responsibility for genocide, slavery, apartheid, and similar acts of injustice. Atonement and Forgiveness makes a passionate, convincing case that only with this spirit of heightened morality, identity, egalitarianism, and restorative justice can genuine racial reconciliation take place in America.
The Black Reparations Project by
This groundbreaking resource moves us from theory to action with a practical plan for reparations. A surge in interest in black reparations is taking place in America on a scale not seen since the Reconstruction Era. The Black Reparations Project gathers an accomplished interdisciplinary team of scholars--members of the Reparations Planning Committee--who have considered the issues pertinent to making reparations happen. This book will be an essential resource in the national conversation going forward. The first section of The Black Reparations Project crystallizes the rationale for reparations, cataloguing centuries of racial repression, discrimination, violence, mass incarceration, and the immense black-white wealth gap. Drawing on the contributors' expertise in economics, history, law, public policy, public health, and education, the second section unfurls direct guidance for building and implementing a reparations program, including draft legislation that addresses how the program should be financed and how claimants can be identified and compensated. Rigorous and comprehensive, The Black Reparations Project will motivate, guide, and speed the final leg of the journey for justice.
The Case for Gay Reparations by
A compelling and timely vision for gay reparations in the United StatesIn the last two decades many nations have adopted "gay reparations," or policies intended to make amends for a history of discrimination, stigmatization, and violence on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. Far from being a homogenous or uniform phenomenon, gay reparations encompassa small constellation of approaches including a formal apology to the LGBT community for past wrongdoing, financial compensation for victims of anti-LGBT laws and actions, and the erection of monuments to the memory of those who suffered because of structural homophobia. The United States, however,has been reluctant to embrace gay reparations, making the country something of an outlier among Western democracies.Beyond making the case for gay reparations in the United States, this book explores a wide range of questions provoked by the rise of the gay reparations movement. Among these questions, three stand out for what they reveal about the puzzling and complex nature of this new front in the struggle forLGBT equality. Why, after centuries of attempts to marginalize, dehumanize, and even eradicate LGBT people, are governments coming around to confront this dark and painful historical legacy? How do we make sense of the diversity of gay reparations being implemented by governments around the world?And, finally, what would an American policy of gay reparations look like?Omar G. Encarnacion draws upon the rich history of reparations to confront the legacies of genocide, slavery, and political repression and argue that gay reparations are a moral obligation intended to restore dignity to those whose human rights have been violated because of their sexual orientationand gender identity. Reparations are also necessary to close painful chapters of anti-LGBT discrimination and violence and to remind future generations of past struggles for LGBT equality. To this end, he traces America's dark and painful LGBT history - from colonial-era laws criminalizinghomosexual conduct, to a postwar ban on homosexuals working in the federal bureaucracy, to the government's support of the junk-science underpinning the practice of "gay conversion" therapy promoted by the Christian Right.The book also examines how other Western democracies notorious for their repression of homosexuals - specifically Spain, Britain, and Germany - have implemented gay reparations. These foreign experiences reveal potential pathways for gay reparations in the United States. More importantly, they showthat while there is no universal approach to gay reparations it is never too late for countries to seek to right past wrongs.
Colonialism, Slavery, Reparations and Trade by
Colonialism, Slavery, Reparations and Trade: Remedying the 'Past'? Addresses how reparations might be obtained for the legacy of the Trans Atlantic slave trade. This collection lends weight to the argument that liability is not extinguished on the death of the plaintiffs or perpetrators. Arguing that the impact of the slave trade is continuing and therefore contemporary, it maintains that this trans-generational debt remains, and must be addressed. Bringing together leading scholars, practitioners, diplomats, and activists, Colonialism, Slavery, Reparations and Trade provides a powerful and challenging exploration of the variety of available - legal, relief-type, economic-based and multi-level - strategies, and apparent barriers, to achieving reparations for slavery.
From Here to Equality by
Racism and discrimination have choked economic opportunity for African Americans at nearly every turn. At several historic moments, the trajectory of racial inequality could have been altered dramatically. Perhaps no moment was more opportune than the early days of Reconstruction, when the U.S. government temporarily implemented a major redistribution of land from former slaveholders to the newly emancipated enslaved. But neither Reconstruction nor the New Deal nor the civil rights struggle led to an economically just and fair nation. Today, systematic inequality persists in the form of housing discrimination, unequal education, police brutality, mass incarceration, employment discrimination, and massive wealth and opportunity gaps. Economic data indicates that for every dollar the average white household holds in wealth the average black household possesses a mere ten cents. In From Here to Equality, William Darity Jr. and A. Kirsten Mullen confront these injustices head-on and make the most comprehensive case to date for economic reparations for U.S. descendants of slavery. After opening the book with a stark assessment of the intergenerational effects of white supremacy on black economic well-being, Darity and Mullen look to both the past and the present to measure the inequalities borne of slavery. Using innovative methods that link monetary values to historical wrongs, they next assess the literal and figurative costs of justice denied in the 155 years since the end of the Civil War. Finally, Darity and Mullen offer a detailed roadmap for an effective reparations program, including a substantial payment to each documented U.S. black descendant of slavery. Taken individually, any one of the three eras of injustice outlined by Darity and Mullen--slavery, Jim Crow, and modern-day discrimination--makes a powerful case for black reparations. Taken collectively, they are impossible to ignore.
The Handbook of Reparations by
This handbook is provides a broad range of essential information about past experiences with massive reparations programs as well as normative guidance for future practice. It examines in detail reparations programs in different parts of the world; includes thematic papers on topics thatfrequently come about in the design and implementation of reparations programs; and, finally, reproduces key documents on reparations, including national legislation.In addition to providing a wealth of factual information about a wide range of reparations programs (some of them previously unexamined), the thematic papers break new ground, tackling issues that have not been sufficiently addressed (if at all) in the literature, including the very notion ofjustice in reparations for the massive cases, the relationship between material compensation and other symbolic measures of reparations, and the complicated set of questions around how to provide reparations to victims of sexual violence.Finally, the book makes available fundamental documents on reparations, including national legislation. These documents - which are either difficult to find or have never been translated into English before - are both directly relevant to the case studies and the thematic papers, and illuminating tothose thinking prospectively about the design and implementation of reparations programs.
International Law and Reparations by
This book presents the most thorough analysis to date on the jurisprudence of the Inter-American Human Rights Court (IACtHR) concerning full reparations. This jurisprudence interprets Article 63 of the American Convention on Human Rights. In its interpretation of the Convention, the IACtHR is guided by the important notion that human rights instruments should be interpreted in light of its object and purpose, in accordance with the State members of the Organization of the American States. The Court's jurisprudence ensures that victims of human rights violations are awarded not only monetary compensation in cases, but also a full array of reparations designed to restore their dignity and reaffirm the value of the rule of law. Accordingly, reparation also includes moral compensation, guarantees of non-repetition, and truth as a measure of satisfaction. The impact of the Inter-American jurisprudence in this matter has gone beyond the regional hemispheric systems. The UN Committee Against Torture relied on the Court's jurisprudence in the drafting of General Comment No. 3, while the other regional human rights systems have resorted to the Inter-American jurisprudence in developing their own concepts of reparation. More specifically, the book explores the notions of "fair remedy," "injured party," and the possibility of achieving "restitutio in integrum" for human rights violations through an analysis of decisions issued by the Inter-American. The book urges its reader to consider not only the current status of the law, but also the role played by victims, lawyers, Commissioners, and Judges in its jurisprudential development. As a living instrument, the value of the American Convention depends in great part on their actions and decisions.This book, by presenting the role of the different actors through concrete cases that shaped the system, encourages everyone to think how the System should continue to satisfy the aspirations of justice in cases of human rights violations.
NCRR: The Grassroots Struggle for Japanese American Redress and Reparations by
Literary Nonfiction. Asian & Asian American Studies. Edited by Lane Hirabayshi, Richard Katsuda, Suzy Katsuda, Kathy Masaoka, Kay Ochi, and Janice Iwanaga Yen. The most significant 20th century campaign carried out by Nikkei, or people of Japanese ancestry, was the quest for redress (an apology) and reparations (monetary compensation) for the 1942 mass incarceration of Japanese Americans. The National Coalition for Redress/Reparations (NCRR) was at the forefront of the community's grassroots movement for redress, which culminated in the passage of the Civil Liberties Act of 1988. This book is the first comprehensive account of NCRR's roots, history, and continuing impact over four decades. It is also an innovative ethnobiography written by NCRR's participants that explains why so many people, from all walks of life, gave their time, energy, creative ideas, and moral support to the organization.
Reconsidering Reparations by
Reparations for slavery have become a reinvigorated topic for public debate over the last decade. Most theorizing about reparations treats it as a social justice project - either rooted in reconciliatory justice focused on making amends in the present; or, they focus on the past, emphasizingrestitution for historical wrongs. Olufemi O. Taiwo argues that neither approach is optimal, and advances a different case for reparations - one rooted in a hopeful future that tackles the issue of climate change head on, with distributive justice at its core. This view, which he calls the"constructive" view of reparations, argues that reparations should be seen as a future-oriented project engaged in building a better social order; and that the costs of building a more equitable world should be distributed more to those who have inherited the moral liabilities of past injustices.This approach to reparations, as Taiwo shows, has deep and surprising roots in the thought of Black political thinkers such as James Baldwin, Martin Luther King Jr, and Nkechi Taifa, as well as mainstream political philosophers like John Rawls, Charles Mills, and Elizabeth Anderson. Taiwo's projecthas wide implications for our views of justice, racism, the legacy of colonialism, and climate change policy.
Reparations and Anti-Black Racism by
The Black Lives Matter movement has exposed the state violence and social devaluation that Black populations continue to suffer. Police shootings and incarceration inequalities in the US and UK are just two examples of the legacy of slavery today. This book offers a criminological exploration of the case for slavery and anti-Black racism reparations in the context of the enduring harms and differential treatment of Black citizens. Through critical analysis of legal arguments and reviewing recent court actions, it refutes the policy perspectives that argue against reparations.Highlighting the human rights abuses inherent to and arising from slavery and ongoing racism, this book calls for governments to take responsibility for the impact of ongoing racialized injustice.
Race Rights Reparations: Institutional Racism and the Law by
This book considers institutional racism as a problem that exists within modern societies. Its roots lie with the transatlantic slave trade and slavery and the solution involves ridding society of the problem. It is argued here that, first, there needs to be an acceptance of its existence, then developing the tools needed to deal with it and, finally, to implement those tools so that institutional racism can be permanently removed from society. The book has four themes: the first considers the nature of institutional racism, the second theme looks at instances of institutional racism through matters such as deaths in custody and skin lightening, the third considers the concept of reparations and the final area looks at the development of social movements as a way of pushing institutional racism up the political agenda. The development of a social movement is part of a social discourse which would, for example, push mentoring as a form of reparations. There is a need for more research on the manifestations of institutional racism and this book is part of that discourse. It is argued that the legacy of the slave trade and slavery is continuing and contemporary through the presence of institutional racism in society. This problem has not been addressed through legislation and policies devised to combat racial discrimination. Institutional racism needs to be understood as being located in the processes and procedures of societal institutions.
Reparations for Slavery by
Reparations for Slavery: A Reader is a collection of essays on the topic of reparations for slavery in the United States. Unlike many other readers on such topics, this book includes a substantial number of essays designed to provide the entire discussion with an historical context by giving the reader a vivid sense of the injuries inflicted by slavery, its aftermath, and the continuing history of state-supported discrimination.
Reparations for Slavery and the Slave Trade by
Slavery and the Atlantic slave trade are among the most heinous crimes against humanity committed in the modern era. Yet, to this day no former slave society in the Americas has paid reparations to former slaves or their descendants. European countries have never compensated their former colonies in the Americas, whose wealth relied on slave labor, to a greater or lesser extent. Likewise, no African nation ever obtained any form of reparations for the Atlantic slave trade. Ana Lucia Araujo argues that these calls for reparations are not only not dead, but have a long and persevering history. She persuasively demonstrates that since the 18th century, enslaved and freed individuals started conceptualizing the idea of reparations in petitions, correspondences, pamphlets, public speeches, slave narratives, and judicial claims, written in English, French, Spanish, and Portuguese. In different periods, despite the legality of slavery, slaves and freed people were conscious of having been victims of a great injustice. This is the first book to offer a transnational narrative history of the financial, material, and symbolic reparations for slavery and the Atlantic slave trade. Drawing from the voices of various social actors who identified themselves as the victims of the Atlantic slave trade and slavery, Araujo illuminates the multiple dimensions of the demands of reparations, including the period of slavery, the emancipation era, the post-abolition period, and the present.
Reparations for Victims of Genocide, War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity by 
Stolen Wealth, Hidden Power by
A meticulous and exhaustive accounting of the total economic devastation wreaked on Black communities by mass incarceration with an action guide for vital reparations. Stolen Wealth, Hidden Power is a staggering account of the destruction wrought by mass incarceration. Finding that the economic value of the damages to Black individuals, families, and communities totals $7.16 trillion--roughly 86 percent of the current Black-White wealth gap--this compelling and exhaustive analysis puts unprecedented empirical heft behind an urgent call for reparations. Much of the damage of mass incarceration, Tasseli McKay finds, has been silently absorbed by families and communities of the incarcerated--where it is often compensated for by women's invisible labor. Four decades of state-sponsored violence have destroyed the health, economic potential, and political power of Black Americans across generations. Grounded in principles of transitional justice that have guided other nations in moving past eras of state violence, Stolen Wealth, Hidden Power presents a comprehensive framework for how to begin intensive individual and institutional reparations. The extent of mass incarceration's racialized harms, estimated here with new rigor and scope, points to the urgency of this work and the possibilities that lie beyond it.
Time for Reparations: A Global Perspective by
In this sweeping international perspective on reparations, Time for Reparations makes the case that past state injustice--be it slavery or colonization, forced sterilization or widespread atrocities--has enduring consequences that generate ongoing harm, which needs to be addressed as a matter of justice and equity. Time for Reparations provides a wealth of detailed and diverse examples of state injustice, from enslavement of African Americans in the United States and Roma in Romania to colonial exploitation and brutality in Guatemala, Algeria, Indonesia, Jamaica, and Guadeloupe. From many vantage points, contributing authors discuss different reparative strategies and the impact they would have on the lives of survivor or descent communities. One of the strengths of this book is its interdisciplinary perspective--contributors are historians, anthropologists, human rights lawyers, sociologists, and political scientists. Many of the authors are both scholars and advocates, actively involved in one capacity or another in the struggles for reparations they describe. The book therefore has a broad and inclusive scope, aided by an accessible and cogent writing style. It appeals to scholars, students, advocates and others concerned about addressing some of the most profound and enduring injustices of our time.
Uncivil Wars: The Controversy over Reparations for Slavery by
Uncivil Wars shows what happens when the new racial orthodoxy collides with tolerance and free speech and what the implications of this conflict are for American education and culture.
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