Yes, I Deserve Reparations!

(original post 17 Apr 2020, updated 31 July 2020)

Often I engage both white and black colleagues regarding many highly inflammatory topics. Virtually always, we have just enough maturity to swim in treacherous waters, with the intention of gaining understanding. Our discussions don’t generally lead to any significant swaying of opinion, but we manage to listen. See, in order to get anywhere you have to be willing to seek to understand vs trying to be understood (shameless plug… please forgive). Nothing is gained by one way conversations.

I’ve been asked why is it I believe I should receive reparations. Judging by the title, I’m sure you can reasonably expect this conversation to center around reparations. My first reaction was “why do you think I don’t deserve reparations?”. This was triggering for me because I did not feel I needed to justify my belief.

The question posed to me made me feel… let’s just say I felt the question was haughty. It felt like “the nerve of you thinking you deserve something”. I will do my best not to be incredibly lengthy, but I plan to take the necessary time to lay out my points.

What Are Reparations

Many among us are not familiar with the term “reparations” but it is quickly becoming a part of our vocabulary. According to Google, a simple search for the definition yields the following:

“the making of amends for a wrong one has done, by paying money to or otherwise helping those who have been wronged”.

More like these can be found at mrasheed.com

Before we go any further, I must make something crystal clear. Reparations are meant as compensation or “to make whole” for damage (← key word here) caused to a group of people. That’s right my fellow reader, America needs to make amends for years of benefitting from unpaid labor and systematic injustices to African-Americans.

African-Americans were brought over to the Americas as chattel slaves. Property. Please do not compare other groups/ethnicities to those of African-Americans being enslaved in the United States of America, as it is not the same thing, and deflects from the topic. Chattel slaves are not the same as indentured servants. Indentured servants are basically “contracting” their labor for a specified period of time, as their labor is not free and they are typically given something after fulfilling their contract.

Again, do not compare the experience of African-Americans to indentured servants or other ethnicities.

Reparations are necessary because

1. there was damage caused by slavery
2. the was a systematic attack to African-American people with lineage rooted in slavery.

Attacks such as discriminatory policies, Jim Crow laws in the south where 58% of African Americans live, and more continue to have generational impacts. Would you not try to make someone whole if they were a victim of a car accident? Typically you ensure their property is repaired or replaced, compensation for missed labor, and compensation for any pain and suffering.

Harmful Actions

After being treated like chattel slaves, African-Americans were subsequently “freed”. However, there were numerous actions taken that have caused harm, causing increased barriers to economic well being, health wellness, and security. Below are just a few of the harmful actions that have negatively affected African-Americans.

Caption by David G. Brown from the Los Angeles Sentinel

1. Vice President Andrew Johnson reversed the Gen William T. Sherman order to provide freed slaves 40 acres and a loaned mule after President Lincoln was assassinated. Andrew Johnson returned the land to the former confederate owners, leaving African-Americans no other choice but to be sharecroppers.
2. National Housing Act of 1934 (aka “Redlining”) which was an informal discriminatory practice which basically led to the decay of minority inner-city neighborhoods due to over population and poor living conditions. Sociologist James McKnight coined “redlining” in the 1960s because lenders would literally draw a red line on a map around those neighborhoods they did not want to invest in based on demographics. Lenders would go as far as to ensure even lower-income whites were capable of receiving loans, but excluded middle- or upper-income African Americans. Those African-Americans denied access to mortgage capital prevented homes ownership, primarily in the suburbs.
3. Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956 was meant to eliminate unsafe roads, traffic jams, and bad emergency routes that prohibited safe travel to name a few. The first instance of this reign of terror originated in Syracyse, NY where they completed highway I-81, which ran through the urban center. African-American communities were decimated, shuffling 15th Ward residents to other parts of the city. Of course this resulted in white flight… white residents fled the city. The 1956 Highway Act resulted in other cities experiencing this same trauma.
4. President Bill Clinton’s Crime Bill of 1994. This bill was a major contributor in the mass incarceration of African-American men, effectively ruining families. This bill was incredibly disgusting, as it created incentives for states to build prisons and increase sentences. The bill targeted poor African-American men, making America the number one incarcerator of black men world-wide.
5. Jim Crow and white supremacy. Enough said.

Impact of Denied Reparations

Of course there has been an impact to African-Americans in this country! Without a level playing field, it makes it much more difficult to transfer wealth and maintain good health. Reparations are not a catchall that will cure the ills of a group of people. Reparations are meant to try to repair the damage to a group of people.

Graphic from BBC article posted 21 March 2019

1. Denying home loans prevented home ownership of African-Americans. They were forced to remain in urban environments where the developments were over populated and decaying. Without the ability to obtain land and homes, there was a barrier to African-Americans being the recipient of wealth transfer like their white counterparts. The few African-Americans who were able to secure homes in low income areas, were unable to see their homes appreciate in value.
2. There was gentrification that lead to discrimminatory practices to exclude poor African-Americans. They renovated property to prices that were not affordable. Gentrification fosters resegregation.
3. Being denied job opportunities or offered only low income jobs leads to inadequate or zero health care. Often times low paying jobs do not offer company sponsored healthcare, and the cost of obtaining coverage on the market is unreasonable. The average cost of healthcare is 20% of household income. Interestingly, the south has a coverage gap which is where 58% of African-Americans reside. By the way, African-American women are more likely to die linked to pregnancy and infant mortality, 2x that of their white counterparts. Many urban communities are lacking in health care facilities. These are just some of the healthcare concerns that are related to low income jobs, or even access to job opportunities.
4. Urban communities are lacking in banking institutions, grocery stores (relates back to the healthcare issue), quality schools…
5. White Americans profited off of slavery. They continue profiting off slavery. They were able to benefit from 250 years of unpaid labor, allowing their families to accumulate wealth. African-Americans did not get the same benefit, thereby not given the opportunity to transfer wealth. For example, Aetna insurance built its brand off insuring slaves. They were able to insure the stolen labor, forced breeding of slaves, and torture. It was a self feeding system. According to courant.com,

“Aetna benefited financially from insuring the lives of enslaved Africans, with slave owners as the beneficiaries, as if the Africans were farm animals or office equipment,” Farmer-Paellmann said in a written statement. “Now the company refuses to pay restitution for that inhumane practice that financed domestic slavery.”

By the way Aetna even publicly acknowledged insuring 24 slaves (that is what they copped to… who knows what the real number is). Does the public apology now make the company have clean hands?

Damn Right I Deserve Reparations

Explain to me why people use the RIDICULOUS argument that slaves are dead and thus reparations are not needed. Last I checked, slave owners are also dead and yet their families continue to profit off of former slave labor. Aetna was purchased by CVS in 2017 for $69 billion.

My family has had land taken from under their noses due to lack of education, financial capital, etc. I did not have the luxury of having inherited wealth.

As an African-American, I am fortunate to have 4 beautiful children. However, all my pregnancies were delivered 4–5 weeks earlier than my white counterparts. No one seems to care why I was at risk. Many African-American women suffer from pre-eclampsia, fibroids, reduced infant mortality, lack of pre-natal care, etc. Also, access to contraception is lacking.

Then there are the intangibles… white Americans have the luxury of tracing their history back. Most of us can fill in some gaps of our history but there is a large chunk of our history that has been erased. An entire history was stolen and not replaced.

Reparations are supposed to make you whole. You have ~13% of the American population that has not been made whole. The psychological affects remain. Financial disparity remains. Educational access/opportunity disparity remain. Homeownership disparity remain. Income inequality remain. Healthcare access… or lack thereof remain.

It’s time for America to make African-Americans whole via reparation distribution to African-Americans because

• Americans can provide COVID-19 relief to Americans and business
• Americans can pay for entitlements
• Americans can pay for wars
• Ensure the Jews have a homeland in Israel

What do reparations look like?

Who knows what reparations look like, as that is definitely up for debate. There would have to be some sort of lineage requirement and date limitation regarding minimal relationship. It would have to be comprehensive. It couldn’t be a one time delivery of minimal funds. Unique interest free or low interest loans would have to be accessible. Land should be part of the equation and post secondary education access. Tax reform. All the above.

If only I had 40 acres and a mule (or in my case, something to till the land)…