George Floyd’s death has become a catalyst for protests across the country. The Black Lives Matter movement has gained international recognition, with more people having conversations about police accountability and reform. Although some people assumed the protests would end after all four officers responsible for Floyd’s murder were arrested and charged, that’s been far from the case. If anything, this tragedy has only increased the focus on injustices that plague the black community. 

Police brutality and corruption aren’t the only issues brought to the table, they are merely symptoms of a larger problem, which is systemic racism. Systemic racism is rooted deep in the very foundation of the United States and continues to be a prevalent force in the subjugation of the black community. 

Systemic racism contributes to the huge wealth gap between black families and white families as a result of limited economic opportunities in the black community. Black people are effectively disadvantaged in multiple areas such as jobs, housing, education, healthcare and business. For generations, there has been minimal government investment in ensuring that black Americans can financially compete with their white counterparts.

This brings me to the main talking point of this blog post. I figured with everything going on regarding discussions around race relations, police brutality, and systemic racism, it would be the perfect opportunity to discuss reparations. 

Reparations has been a widely contentious topic for decades, but before we jump into the logistics behind it, let’s first define it. So what are reparations? Well, according to the Merriam Webster’s dictionary, reparations are, “the act of making amends, offering expiation, or giving satisfaction for a wrong or injury.” That’s the broad, overarching term for it. Germany gave reparations to the Jewish victims of the holocaust and The United States provided reparations to Japanese Americans who were thrown into internment camps during World War II. 

To further break down reparations, we’re going to look at it through the lens of the African American community. After looking up the Wikipedia definition (yes for intents and purposes I used Wikipedia), they define reparations as, “a political justice concept that argues that reparations should be paid to the descendants of slaves from Sub-Saharan Africa who were trafficked to and enslaved in the Americas as a consequence of the Atlantic slave trade.” In other words, African descendants of slaves are owed compensation by the U.S. government in the form of monetary payments and a series of legislative reforms. 

This is not the first time reparations has been brought up. It initially came to the public forefront during the tail end of the Civil War. In 1865 General William T. Sherman made the infamous promise of 40 acres and a mule, meaning a huge tract of the Atlantic coastline would be redistributed to recently freed black slaves. This declaration was approved by President Abraham Lincoln and Congress, but was quickly rescinded by President Andrew Johnson after Lincoln’s assassination. 

Flash forward to the 2020 presidential election and reparations once again became the hot topic among former presidential candidates, with plenty of old democratic presidential hopefuls vocalizing their support. That included senators Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker, Kamala Harris, and Former Housing and Urban Development secretary Julian Castro. Black voters realize how much political sway they have during election season – given that they are one of the largest minority groups – and have become emboldened in their political demands. 

Reparations is a controversial topic in the political sphere considering how it isolates a majority of voters. It is race-specific, therefore solely benefiting African Americans since they were the victims of slavery. When you have such a polarizing topic that also causes historical guilt, you tend to get some pushback. Data for progress, a left-leaning organization, conducted a survey in 2018 and found that only “26 percent of Americans supported some kind of compensation or cash benefits for descendants of slaves.” Meanwhile, a similar Marist survey conducted two years prior reflects the same number, showing that public support for reparations is at a standstill.

The United States has always prided itself on being the land of the free and the epitome of the American Dream. If you work hard, you can rise from the bottom of the wealth hierarchy and reach the top. This has not been the case for black people, who have been economically disadvantaged for over 400 years. According to Powernomics by Dr. Claud Anderson, African Americans control the same amount of wealth as they did at the end of slavery, half of one percent. Comparatively, 87 percent of the country’s wealth is frozen in White America, in the form of an inheritance, stocks and bonds, and assets. 

Interestingly enough, an AP-NORC poll stated 60 percent of people agree that white people do have some advantage of getting ahead in the U.S, but no comprehensive action has been done to amend this, so here’s what reparations would look like.

Disclaimer, this is brief synopsis that only touches the surface of a reparations plan. Reparations is a complex subject that hits many sub points so this should only be taken as the start of a conversation. Some of what will be discussed is conducted through research (sources are embedded in the links), other parts are based on personal opinions and conversations I’ve had with people in my inner circle. If you want more information, I will leave links to detailed reparations plans at the end of this post. If you have happen to have some sources or ideas on reparations you can leave them in the comments!

The value of slave labor was tremendous, coming in at a whopping $3 billion in 1860. The following year, the value of cotton produced by enslaved blacks was estimated at $250 million. Slavery allowed Southern white slave owners and their descendants to capitalize on their return, and kept the U.S. economy afloat for years. If you add interest to the uncompensated labor of black slaves, economists estimate that amount owed would be tens of trillions of dollars. 

People argue that today’s African Americans didn’t experience slavery and shouldn’t be entitled to compensation. This assertion is false because there were plenty of systemic barriers that happened as a result of slavery that prevented blacks from getting ahead. These barriers include but are not limited to – Jim Crow, the War on Drugs, redlining, discriminatory business practices, gentrification, and the 94’ crime bill. These lasting domino effects are the reasons why reparations are so necessary, not just to compensate for lost slave wages, but to close the large racial wealth gap. 

Unfortunately, wealth building opportunities for African Americans continue to remain nonexistent. Studies show that the average white family has 10 times the amount of wealth as the average black family. Pew Research found that in 2014, “the median White family had a net worth of $141,900, while the median Black household’s net worth stood at $11,000.” This is the same case with white and black college graduates. White college graduates are likely to earn seven times more wealth than their black counterparts, despite having the same gpa and qualifications. These disparities can be amended by capital, property, and low interest loans or other assets given to African Americans. Black people can be given housing vouchers to increase homeownership and property value. Home devaluation happens in majority black cities like Detroit, Baltimore and Memphis, totaling $156 billion, which explains why schools in those areas tend to be overcrowded and underfunded. If property value was raised, that would improve the conditions of public schools and also offset gentrification. 

Based on the Pew study, the wealth gap is calculated to be around $130,000. The federal government can provide cash payments to the 42 million African Americans who live in the U.S. This would come to $5.46 trillion. I don’t want to get too technical here with the math and figures (math isn’t really my forte and I’m not an economist) but if you want to discover more of how this is broken down, the source will be below. 

If the repayment plan happened to be done over the course of 50 years, payments would be an estimated $109.2 billion. The federal government spent $4 trillion in 2017 alone so a reparations cash repayment plan would only cost around 2 percent of their annual budget. According to Medium, one-time-only cash payment shouldn’t be distributed because this would tempt people to splurge on depreciating assets. Instead, gradual payments would incentivize people to make investments on things that will build generational wealth. Wealth building can be in the form of a down payment on a house, or capital to start a black-owned business. 

A huge aspect of reparations at least from my perspective is education and job opportunity. I was watching an Instagram video from Jerrie Johnson (@thejerriejohnson, you should check her out, she’s informative and hilarious) and she brought up really good points. She said that white people whose generational wealth is a product of slavery, should be charged an annual 10 percent (or higher) plantation tax, with the money being used to fund programs in the black community. These programs can include job training, employment agencies, rehabilitation centers, internships, community building/leadership projects, recreational centers, after school programs, etc. 

We should also revamp the school curriculum so there’s more courses on slavery. There were many parts of slavery I never learned about from high school. I learned a significant portion in college or from YouTube. I also think African American studies should be offered on a middle to high school level and not just collegiate . Black literature, popular culture, and history should be taught as well, it can even go beyond the Atlantic slave trade to the first African empires. One problem in the black community that I’ve noticed is the disconnect from our roots. Many African Americans have identity issues due to slavery, and are oftentimes ignorant of our contributions to American history. This can give us the opportunity to boost our confidence and self worth. Expanding the curriculum can also educate other races about the black experience and prevent them from being desensitized to our plight. I also believe The Department of Education should allocate some of its budget to better assist HBCUs, that way if black students want to attend, they can do so on partial or full scholarships. 

There should be a reparations committee to ensure these cash payments are happening and are being allocated properly in the African American community. It should be an independent federal agency so there’s more public scrutiny, transparency and accountability. The reparations committee should be actively enforcing the reparations plan and monitoring the wealth gap between black and white families. The committee should also be identifying the property value and assets owned by black people. Black-owned assets that are weighed significantly less than white-owned ones should be improved. These progressive, periodic payments and reforms would help amend many symptoms of systemic racism affecting the black community. There would be more opportunities for generational wealth and business ownership, so less crime due to poverty. There would also be improvements in education, which would increase chances of more young black people enrolling in college or trade school. This could lead to more job opportunities and less people getting caught up in the prison system or relying on government assistance programs. 

In terms of who should get reparations? That’s a tricky subject. There were debates that all black people who reside in the U.S. should get it. That includes African and Carribean people. I know I’ve used the terms black and African American interchangeably throughout this post (I do that sometimes so I don’t sound repetitive). However, I personally feel that African Americans should solely get reparations since our ancestors, grandparents and parents, were systematically affected by the actions of the United States government. Other members of the diaspora (black people who reside in other parts of the world) should seek reparations from the respective governments that colonized and enslaved them. 

There was also a debate on if we should be even more technical and only give reparations to African Americans who directly descended from slaves. My answer is no, it should simply include all African Americans. It would be complicated and time consuming to try to discern who descended from a free black person or not. Plus, people must remember we were either documented as property or not documented at all, which makes the records difficult to comb through. I know I’m adding a lot here but it’s also exclusionary and divisive to keep dividing the pie. In some way, shape or form all African Americans were affected by slavery so we should all be repaid for it. 

One more tidbit with reparations. Jerrie mentioned this and I spoke about it with my family. The government should offer African Americans free ancestry tests so we can know where we’re from. I already took one and they’re not cheap, it cost me a whopping $57 and that was part of a Christmas special! African Americans should also get free trips to Africa in order to rediscover their roots, similar to Ghana’s year of the return. It would be a wonderful experience to be able to immerse yourself in the country (or countries) of your origin and connect with your ancestors. If you’re African American, I would highly encourage that you visit Africa at least once if you have the means to do so. 

I don’t know if African Americans will ever get reparations or not, it’s hard to say with this lukewarm political climate. There seems to be a public (predominately white) resistance towards us getting our fair compensation. People in this country always shy away from the topic of slavery and race. Until now, no one wanted to mention the horrific past that the United States was founded on, or the legacy that it continues to leave today. Some people hate to admit that their privilege affords them certain opportunities in life. To admit this would be to challenge the very idea of the American Dream. 

Here is the link to the article that has the facts and figures for the repayment plan, some numbers were adjusted and don’t precisely match the payment numbers I mentioned earlier (it’s a detailed breakdown): 

https://medium.com/@marcushjohnson/heres-what-a-reparations-plan-could-look-like-b48e940a67b5

Here are additional links to repayment plan options:

https://www.racialequitytools.org/plan/issues/reparations

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nytimes.com/2019/05/23/business/economy/reparations-slavery.amp.html

https://www.google.com/amp/s/qz.com/1012692/this-is-what-reparations-could-actually-look-like-in-america/amp/