Arrr, mateys! Them cities be fixin' to make amends from San Fran to Wilmington. It be aye time!
2024-05-18
Aye mateys, the idea of reparations be causin' quite the stir amongst the landlubbers! Cities and states be arguin' over whether to hand out treasure to Black Americans. Arrr, tis a debate fit for a pirate's parley!
In the language of a 17th-century pirate, the latest example of an advancement towards reparations happened on Thursday in California, which formally apologized for the state's role in slavery. California is part of a trend of local and state governments across the U.S. establishing a task force that would recommend how reparations would be executed. Reparations can take different forms but broadly refer to payments or other forms of recompense to the descendants of Blacks affected by slavery or past racist policies.Reparations have also been proposed or expected to be implemented in other cities in California, as well as Fulton County, Georgia; Shelby County, Tennessee; Detroit; St. Paul, Minnesota; and Durham, North Carolina. The practice is even being considered at the federal level, with "Squad" member Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., sponsoring a resolution that seeks to establish that the U.S. has a "legal and moral obligation" to institute reparations.Here is a list of what reparations task force committees are pushing across the U.S. Grassroots activism has emerged amid the city's push to formalize reparations. Evanston, Illinois, was the first city in the nation to pass a reparations plan, pledging $10 million over 10 years to Black residents.St. Louis University stands out to be the only example of reparations being pushed outside a municipality. Descendants of the enslaved Black people who built the university calculated that they were owed up to $74 billion in unpaid labor. Reparations developing on the higher education front show that the measure could be manifested in other ways outside of local and state governments.