African American Reparations Research Articles

Standing against racial capitalism: Reconsidering psychology's role in dismantling systemic racism.

The American Psychological Association's resolutions on dismantling systemic racism represent a watershed moment in our discipline, yet confusion remains as to what it means to "dismantle" racism given psychology's emphasis on changing individual beliefs. This submission will review the tension between "idealist" interpretations of critical race theory emphasizing individual beliefs and "realist" perspectives contextualizing racism within political economic arrangements. Psychology's adoption of an "idealist" framework will be shown to privilege a neoliberal project emphasizing individual change and symbolic performances of racial justice instead of structural changes benefitting people of color's material existence. Drawing on a decolonial critique of racial capitalism, we propose an alternative framework to challenge our discipline to broaden its political imagination by supporting evidence-based policies to dismantle racism as a structural and political force. This includes universal policies to reduce racial and economic inequality and population-specific policies such as reparations for African Americans predicted to stimulate economic growth. Urgently, the decolonial lens challenges psychology to theorize racism not as a primarily individual phenomenon but a political force that divides and conquers while enriching white economic elites. To fulfill the promises of the American Psychological Association's resolutions, we must directly challenge the political economic interests that benefit from racism and contribute to the common good as a form of "loving care." (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

The Unsettled Debt: Assessing the UK's Historical Contributions to African American Reparations

The Unsettled Debt: Assessing the UK's Historical Contributions to African American Reparations

A CONTENT ANALYSIS OF NATIONAL AFRICAN AMERICAN REPARATION COMMISSION’S REPARATIONS PLAN FOR OLDER BLACK AMERICANS

Abstract This policy content analysis critically examined the National African American Reparations Commission’s (NAARC) 10-Point Plan for Reparations. As the first comprehensive plan for reparations, the latest revision has gained attention for its potential to rectify socioeconomic inequality. However, the degree to which the plan addresses the nuanced challenges faced by older Black Americans (e.g., higher rates of poverty) is unclear. Therefore, the objectives of this analysis were to: a.) assess the plan’s potential to reduce inequality among older Black Americans, and b.) evaluate its capacity to address inequality over the life course and subsequent generations. Before the qualitative analysis began, a coding scheme was developed surrounding cumulative disadvantage theory. For example, codes addressing economic disparities, healthcare barriers, and intergenerational wealth transfer were developed. From there, the 12-page document was deductively coded by the author using this scheme. The findings suggest that the NAARC’s 2023 revision is considerably comprehensive, providing strategies to address socioeconomic inequality on structural levels (e.g., funds for entrepreneurial development, criminal justice reform). Even so, the plan needs work to fully address the needs of today’s older Black adults. To maximize the plan’s impact on older Black Americans, the NAARC could incorporate long-term care provisions, family-centered support systems, and long-term services and supports. This analysis has significant implications for the NAARC’s plan and continued fight for reparations. To maximize its impact on older Black Americans and promote intergenerational equity, policymakers should consider inclusive provisions for a demographic most directly haunted by the legacies of slavery and Jim Crow.

Black life beyond injury: Relational repair and the reparative conjuncture

In our political present, shaped by the insurgent recognition of the consequences of antiblackness following the murder of George Floyd, but whose influence is quickly expiring, this article examines what the possibilities are for African American reparations. Thinking from this reparative conjuncture, the article examines the societal and ethical limitations of what kind of reparations this moment can produce. Identifying that the harms against African Americans and Black life in the Americas more generally are harms against Black relations, the article engages with the possibility of the relational discipline of Black ecologies to offer a framework for conceptualizing a full sense of reparation. However, in recognizing that Blackness as conceived within Black studies, and thus Black ecologies, is still largely limited to a commitment to the study of antiblack violence and its related practices of resistance, the article advances novel pathways for pursuing a formula for repair outside the terms of Black injury, which might produce relational repair.

Stephen E. Young. Our Brother Beloved: Purpose and Community in Paul’s Letter to Philemon

Stephen E. Young. <i>Our Brother Beloved: Purpose and Community in Paul’s Letter to Philemon</i>

American Legal Realism and the Revitalization of Literary Realist History

American Legal Realism and the Revitalization of Literary Realist History

Contra Horowitz

Horowitz rejects reparations for African Americans. We demonstrate that their heirs are entitled to the property illegitimately obtained by the slave owners. When we operate under the libertarian homesteading principle, the land should be redistributed back to the people who worked and tilled it first. That is, the black slaves. Horowitz’s claims against reparations serve as a poor refutation towards the reparations argument. African Americans are entitled to the “40 acres and a mule” that was promised, yet never fulfilled. We rely upon libertarian theory to clearly understand the case for reparations.

Forty Acres for the Modern Day: The Economic Implications of Reparations for African Americans

As part of the national racial reckoning in the United States, reparations for African Americans have been proposed to correct the injustices of slavery and discrimination. The main economic goal of reparations is to close the racial wealth gap. While the gap is substantial, uncertainties remain about the program’s scope, magnitude, method, financing, effectiveness, and equity. Potential methods include lump sum or monthly cash payments, targeted investment in the Black working class, college scholarships, health care subsidies, favorable home loans, a trust fund for borrowing, and institutions to promote community building. Design of the reparations program is crucial to ensure recipients do not transfer the benefit back to payers when spending the benefit on goods and services. For this reason, reparations must invest in African American workers’ productive capacity, job skills, and training. Despite the potential economic benefits, concerns remain regarding equity and political feasibility. Policymakers should carefully weigh the benefits and costs of a reparations program and pay attention to how the design impacts its effectiveness and equity.

Fighting to Preserve a Nation's Soul: America's Ecumenical War on Poverty

Fighting to Preserve a Nation's Soul: America's Ecumenical War on Poverty

Editor's Introduction

Editor's Introduction

Social workers’ attitudes toward reparations for African American descendants

Summary Reparations for African Americans in its most basic form amounts to a concerted effort to repair damages from hundreds of years of exploitation and mistreatment toward people of African ancestry. The legacy of chattel slavery manifests in ongoing racial injustices, including gross disparities in health and wealth. The injustices resultant from the system of chattel slavery and its sequela have not been formally addressed by the U.S. government. As a profession, social work is dedicated to the empowerment of marginalized communities and upholds a mandate to advocate for social justice. As such, this study examines social workers’ attitudes toward reparations for African American descendants. Descriptive analyses and analyses of association were used to interpret survey data. Findings A convenience sample of 186 social work professionals and students participated in this exploratory study. Findings of the study suggest that a majority of social workers agree with reparations (73%) as a strategy to redress present-day disparities. Additionally, a majority of the participants agree that reparations can begin to repair racial inequality. Applications This groundbreaking study lays the foundation for future research about social workers’ perceptions and support of reparations. Furthermore, results of this study should encourage social work organizations to infuse scientific research in formulating position statements and advocacy on the issue of reparations.

The Political Economy of Land and Reparations: The Case of Reparations for African Americans in the 21st Century

AbstractThe global interest in research on the political economy of reparations has been rekindled by recent developments in the United States of America, but much of this renewed investigation is misinformed, distorted, or limited to recycling what is already known. Recent work by Darity and Mullen is an exception. They have contributed eloquently to age‐old debates on reparations for emancipated enslaved Africans. This essay examines their work in the context of historical movements against economic apartheid in the United States, its origins, and how it can be overcome. The focus of this essay is on how reparations should be considered as a response to the entire history of racism‐cum‐discrimination, which has consistently blocked economic opportunities for African Americans. Reparations , if adhered to, will either directly or indirectly modify the economic injustices that continue to face African Americans in their adopted nation (America). Central to any new case for reparations is the power of land, which offers to breathe new life into the broken, old promise of “forty acres and a mule” as a means of addressing long‐term social stratification in modern America.

Marketing Reparations for African American Slavery: Building an Ethical Foundation and Consensus among Millennials during a Pandemic

African American Citizenry is challenging the moral latitude of America for forced, uncompensated, free labor since the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863. The African Slaves became captives to Europeans destined for both South and North America and the Caribbean. Even more devastating than the horrors awaiting them on American shores, the enslaved had to face horrendous circumstances of survival subsequent to the treacherous journey itself. Twelve-million enslaved Africans—some were soon to become Americans—lost their lives during the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Wooden vessels sailed the Atlantic Ocean transporting human cargo that was destined to become chattel at auction to the highest bidder. The newly acquired African Slaves would be registered and transported to nearby plantations. Here they would earn their keep by sweltering the coffers of the Slave Owner’s production of spoils destined for the markets. Over the course of several generations, the enslaved African American production yielded several times their worth. The acquisition of wealth permeated industries of vast magnitude well beyond the plantation itself. The African American Slaves labored to meet the debt of manufacturers, retailers, industrial, commercial and the Slave Master’s demand for many years. The invisible hand has yielded a surplus of profits that has grown and it has manifested itself in wealth holdings several times over in the portfolios of the progeny of their own sons and daughters at the exclusion of the enslaved. The ethics of America comes into question as the moral indignation and inhumanity of slavery comes into question. Although America branded itself as the land of the free and the home of the brave, it has been far less than that to the enslaved African American. The research is a qualitative and descriptive study addressing Reparations for enslaved African Americans. Ninety-three surveys, N = 93 were completed by a cross section of respondents. This action was supplemented with several focus group sessions addressing Reparations, Racism, Discrimination, Compensation and certain Development Issues. Least Square Regression Statistics applied to analyze the assumptions showed that there are distinct differences in Millennial’s beliefs about Reparations. However, those differences could be reconciled because entitlement can be documented and proven. This study is unique because contrary to popular beliefs, there is considerable disagreement among Millennials themselves about support for Reparations of enslaved African Americans. African American Millennials overwhelmingly support Reparations, while White Millennials do not. Hence, the research investigates the source of disagreement, and it focuses on bridging the Reparations Cognitive Gap (RCG) existing between White and African American Millennials. The study also challenges the COVZY Kids to further advance the claim for Reparations for the African Americans.

The Case for Reparations for the Color of COVID

This essay first, surveys the data showing the many ways COVID generates starkly skewed adverse outcomes for vulnerable communities of color in the US, Brazil, and India. These discriminatory outcomes reflect long-standing socio-economic vulnerabilities and are in all likelihood replicated globally. Second, it argues that current plans to reform the global health regime in response to COVID do not as yet embrace changes to address the outcomes documented in the first part, namely, the ‘color of COVID,’ and explains why such reforms remain colorblind. Third, the essay connects the dots between arguments for and against reparations for African-Americans within the US, for the victims of slavery, colonialism and its legacies, and for generally for COVID’s victims. It concludes that the arguments for reparations on behalf of the victims of the color of COVID made by persons against their own governments are on the most solid ground politically and under international law.

Reparations for Native American Tribes?

The article reviews the political arguments for and against reparations for African Americans and Native Americans and concludes that certain arguments against reparations for African Americans do not apply to the issue of reparations for Native Americans. Because Native nations are "domestic dependent nations" under US and international law, they have unique legal standing to request reparations from the US and state governments. And, because a bureaucratic structure already exists within the federal government to negotiate with Native nations and tribes, and the nations and tribes have their own governments, certain logistical problems for paying reparations are reduced. Ethical arguments for paying reparations are described in light of the history of genocidal actions against indigenous peoples, and legal holdings and Congressional acts relevant to the issue of reparations are reviewed, most notably the "American Rescue Plan for Native Tribes". Finally, "community development" is compared to reparations as a way to make progress toward fulfilling the US's ethical obligation to Native Americans.

Coming Home

Coming Home

Do Black Lives Matter? A Psychoanalytic Exploration of Racism and American Resistance to Reparations

Psychoanalysts assert that when wrongs have been done to others the impulse to apologize and forgive is natural, although in reality efforts toward interpersonal and social repair are often frustrated. This article assesses current debates on reparations for African Americans, applying psychoanalytic ideas to account for American resistance to engage in a process of reconciliation. Contemporary authors claim that racial repair requires a moral and ethical acknowledgment of and responsibility for harms committed to African Americans. This article demonstrates, in addition, reparations as a psychological necessity. Racism, however, emphasizing the reality of racial difference, continues, as always, to serve as a powerful defense thwarting the reparative impulse. The result has been the securing of physical separation between Whites and Blacks and the persistence of psychic enmeshment. Absent the implementation of a politics of reparations, African Americans will never achieve externality, or independence, from the White mind.

“Get Your Asphalt Off My Ancestors!”: Reclaiming Richmond’s African Burial Ground

By treating spatial conflict as one way communities wrestle with the memory and legacy of slavery, this article unites critical landscape analysis, a tool of legal geography, with legal and cultural analysis and recent scholarship on African American reparations. A slave cemetery lay beneath a parking lot in Shockoe Bottom, a neighborhood of downtown Richmond that was once a major slave-trading hub. In recent years, controversy arose over the site’s use, generating racially charged local debate and two failed lawsuits seeking to preserve the site. This article examines the significance of the African Burial Ground controversy by analyzing its symbolic, discursive, spatial, and legal dimensions. Although the law ostensibly protects ancestral graves from desecration, it demands that a plaintiff demonstrate biological descent from the interred in order to make a claim; as this case demonstrates, standing is denied to those whose family histories were obliterated by slavery. I argue that the plaintiff’s lack of standing before the law, which is rooted in slavery, cannot be separated from other, social and political forms of illegitimacy historically inscribed upon African Americans. Here, claims of desecration were relegated to the political arena, where redress was possible but subject to the vagaries of local, state, and national racial politics. Community activists, unable to protect the Burial Ground through the force of the law, instead mobilized the spectacle of the law, and achieved a surprising out-of-court resolution to the conflict.

The Politics of Reparations: The Academic Epistemic Communities and the Implications of Reparation Debate on African-American and Africa’s Quest for Reparations

The discourse on reparation for African Americans has gained impulse and will continue to gain significance in the future. The reparation scholarship reached new levels since the 1980s due to the impetus from the legislative precedent set by the US Congress in passing the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 which provided the basis for compensation to Japanese Americans interned during the Second World War. As for reparations for Africa and other nations that suffered under the transatlantic slave trade and the European colonialism, there is an absence of political will to articulate demands for reparations for and present them at international forums. This paper examines the existing scholarship on reparation for African America. To understand the key arguments, the paper identified three main broad academic epistemic communities and other subdivisions on reparations for African Americans and Africa. It is hoped that this paper will provide some insights to policy makers and scholars.

Call for Papers: “Ten Point Program for Reparations for African Americans in the United States”

Call for Papers: “Ten Point Program for Reparations for African Americans in the United States”