reparations

Cash Reparations to Japanese Internees Helped Rebuild Autonomy and Dignity

by Morgan Ome

Many recent proposals for African American reparations prescribe particular uses for compensation, such as securing housing. But the lesson of the $20,000 payments made to Japanese-American internees and their descendants is that restoring dignity and autonomy means letting recipients decide how to spend any payment for themselves. 

Rachel Swarns Traces the Ties of Slavery and the American Catholic Church

Following up on a blockbuster 2016 Times article, Swarns's book examines the histories of families with ancestors who were sold by Maryland Jesuits to shore up the order's finances (including the fledgling Georgetown University). 

Big Win for Victims of Restrictive Covenants

by James Gregory

Restrictive covenants and other housing policies created a housing market defined by racial segregation and locked generations of Black Americans out of wealth-building. Now courts frown on race-aware remedies for past discrimination. Has the state of Washington figured out a way around that to deliver reparations? 

Black San Franciscans Have Been Leaving—Could Reparations Bring them Back?

A city commission has issued non-binding advisory recommendations for extensive cash reparations to Black residents and their families who were pushed out of now-valuable property through urban renewal. It's not likely that the local government will implement any of them, so activists are trying to help make housing more affordable.

Washington State Law to Offer Low-Interest Home Loans to Redress Decades of Discriminatory Housing

by James Gregory

Specific practices by private lenders and public authorities have created and perpetuated disparities in homeownership and wealth through real estate. Guided by researchers, Washington State is attempting to compensate for that harm.

State Advisory Panel on Reparations Calls for Payments to Black Californians; Legislative Response Unclear

The task force's report has placed a cash value on harms suffered by Black Californians from state policies that excluded them from the Golden State's prosperity, ranging from redlining to the war on drugs and mass imprisonment. 

How Barbados's Reparations Movement Found the International Spotlight

The availability of clear records tying British families – like that of actor Benedict Cumberbatch – to Caribbean slavery has made the movement for reparations in Barbados and other island nations very visible, if not yet successful. 

Evanston, Illinois Passed a Reparations Program. Can its Liberal Present Confront the Segregated Past?

by Kari Lydersen

The Chicago suburb has focused on progams to rectify the harms caused by discrete city actions, specifically generations of housing discrimination that limited Black wealth gains from real estate. Can it make a difference? Will local taxpayers support it? 

Poland Seeking $1.3 Trillion in World War II Reparations from Germany

The Polish government referenced a recently completed report documenting the costs to Poland of war, and argued that reconciliation between the nations could best be served by a payment. 

What Reparations Can Look Like

by Martha S. Jones

Are directed cash grant programs undertaken by churches, cities, or other civic organizations a viable way to deliver reparations as part of those institutions' efforts to acknowlege the harm of their past actions? 

Cambridge Slavery Researcher Quits Citing Pressure to Censor Report

A postdoctoral researcher investigating the involvement of two of Cambridge's colleges in the slave trade reported pressure from senior fellows who objected to focus on the past faults of the institution. 

Reparations Report Details 150 Years of State-Sanctioned Harm to Black Californians

"It finds that the damage to Black communities is extensive and that a variety of intentionally crafted policy, judicial decisions and racism by private actors has created a widespread exclusion of Black people that has not been sufficiently addressed at any level of government."

Harvard President and Dean: Slavery Shaped the University

by Lawrence S. Bacow and Tomiko Brown-Nagin

Harvard's financial, infrastructural and intellectual legacies are unavoidably entangled with slavery. A new report is meant to signal the university's efforts at reckoning and reconciliation. 

A Historic All-Black Oklahoma Town Wants Reparations to Rebuild as a "Safe Haven"

“Oklahoma’s Black communities are overdue,” said Mayor Currin, 38, a fourth-generation Tullahassee resident. “Tullahassee has always been in a fight, always fighting to exist and always fighting to thrive."

Can the Past be Repaired?

by Sophie Gonick

Menachem Kaiser's memoir of attempts to reclaim a Polish building lost by his Jewish grandfather during World War II raises questions about the right to property as parts of historical memory, and the problematic aspects of seeking reparation through restoration of ownership.

Two Boston Council Members Propose Reparations Study Commission

The group would examine the history of racism in Boston and its effects on the city’s Black residents.

The Reparations Fight Must Include Costs of Climate Change

by Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò

The movement for reparations should be informed by the broader politics of anticolonial liberation struggles which sought not just to transfer resources but to raise new questions about the basic organiation of societies on a global scale.

Brookings: What are White Americans' Attitudes Toward Reparations?

"Recent polling data documents Americans’ general opposition to reparations in the form of financial payments to Black Americans as compensation for slavery."

Germany to Dedicate Additional $767M for Holocaust Survivors

Russian Jews who were subjected to the brutal siege of Leningrad, and subjected to Nazi propaganda that encouraged other Russians to blame them for the city's suffering, are among those offered new pensions. 

Latvia Grants Holocaust Restitution, Denies Responsibility

Many Latvians today insist that their nation was a victim of Nazi aggression, rather than complicitous in antisemitic atrocities.