A model for reparations programs around the country
July 20, 2020 12:34 AM   Subscribe

Asheville, North Carolina, approves reparations for Black residents - "In a historic move, the city of Asheville, North Carolina, voted unanimously this past week to approve a reparations resolution for Black residents and formally apologized for the role it played in slavery and implementing racist policies." (via)
The resolution calls for "forming policy and programs that will establish the creation of generational wealth and address reparations due in the black community," as well as asking the state legislature and federal government to do the same.
Dr. King offers a strong lesson in black history in two minutes - "I can tell that he's slightly irritated, but also determined to break it ALL the way down." (via)

We Need to Begin Again - "What we need now is a third American founding. We need an America where 'becoming white' is no longer the price of the ticket. Instead, we should set out to imagine the country in the full light of its diversity and with an honest recognition of our sins." (via)
We have to confront our national trauma honestly if we are to shake loose from the political frame of Reaganism and Trumpism, with its racial dog whistles and foghorns, its greed and selfishness, and its idealized version of America as “the shining city on the hill,” where the country’s sins are transformed into examples of its inherent goodness. This will demand of us a new American story, different symbols, and robust policies to repair what we have done. I don’t yet know what this will look like in its details—and my understanding of our history suggests that we will probably fail trying—but I do know that each element is important to any effort toward beginning again...

[T]he shift in our symbolic landscape must go beyond statues. The value gap is experienced and lived as we move about in this country. It is evident in the spatial organization of towns, villages, and cities. The monuments of ghettos, housing projects, and highways that cut off and isolate communities all reflect an age shaped by the lie. We have to build a different America.

All of this—the stories and the symbols—presuppose the importance of policies. For generations, we have lived according to the lie, and it has had tangible, material consequences for the lives of so many Americans. We have to begin a serious conversation about what form and shape repair will take. That can start with something really basic: passing H.R. 40, which establishes a commission “to study and consider a national apology and proposal for reparations for the institution of slavery, its subsequent de jure and de facto racial and economic discrimination against African-Americans, and the impact of these forces on living African-Americans, to make recommendations to the Congress on appropriate remedies, and for other purposes.” Such a commission could function as our truth and reconciliation commission. We could finally get out in the open all of that gunk that rests in our national cellar. Hearings in open sessions, town-hall meetings across the country, an organized effort to tell a different story about who we are (something along the lines of a Constitution Day that can become a moment of collective reflection about the past), and scholarly study of the policy impacts of repair would position the country to take that bold step toward beginning anew. Then we must take courageous steps to change how we live and govern: What is clear to me is that we have to end, no matter the costs, the policies that breathe life into the lie.
also btw...
San Francisco Mayor London Breed on Defunding the Police, White Activism, and Fighting for Her Community - "The San Francisco mayor spoke to Vogue about white voices overtaking Black Lives Matter protests, the need for change, and fighting for the community that raised her." (via)
posted by kliuless (11 comments total) 37 users marked this as a favorite
 
Last year, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he opposed the idea, arguing "none of us currently living are responsible" for what he called America's "original sin."

Whether or not you are personally responsible for slavery, you sure as hell benefited from it.

And he still does. And that is exactly what he and all the other racists are afraid of giving up.
posted by MexicanYenta at 4:44 AM on July 20, 2020 [25 favorites]


"The days of incremental change, I believe, have left us"

Seeing as how that (non)approach wasn't working, hallelujah!
posted by djeo at 5:22 AM on July 20, 2020 [3 favorites]


This is truly amazing.
It's been an incredible reckoning for white Americans, and it's amazing that it's even being discussed.
Of course, there will be a Backlash, there always is, but this time the numbers favor change for POC.
I'm very hopeful about the changes that have been happening (monument removals) admist a global pandemic, so that's saying something.
posted by honey badger at 7:22 AM on July 20, 2020 [1 favorite]


Confession: At one point I was skeptical -- not opposed to, but not convinced, either -- of the need for reparations.

Then I read Ta-Nehisi Coates' essay on the topic. It's an outstanding piece of writing, but even more, of explanatory reporting. Something I'd have been proud of (and incapable of) doing in my reporting days. It's long but well worth your time if you need convincing. Or facts to bolster your arguments with the in-laws.
posted by martin q blank at 7:51 AM on July 20, 2020 [10 favorites]


I dunno, calling a program to invest in Black parts of town "reparations" seems agonist maliciously intended to provoke a bad reaction.

The investment idea is great, in 100% for it. But the naming seems like an effort to sabotage it.
posted by sotonohito at 8:28 AM on July 20, 2020 [5 favorites]


I work in the IT Department for the City of Asheville, and my boss gave an inspiring speech at our last weekly meeting. He sees this as cover for us to do our work, to do the right thing. Because now, it is policy.

He compared it to a resolution our Council made several years ago regarding open records. Over the years, Council members have come and gone, and sometimes there has been controversy about a decision regarding how open we should be, but all we have to do it is say, "This is Official Asheville Policy."

There is only so much a single city government can do, of course. But if you read the Resolution, you will see that it is a call for State and Federal Governments to act, too. This is a big first step. I am very proud to work here.

Here is more information from our Office of Equity and Inclusion.
posted by bitslayer at 9:20 AM on July 20, 2020 [30 favorites]


Last year, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he opposed the idea, arguing "none of us currently living are responsible" for what he called America's "original sin."

Whether or not you are personally responsible for slavery, you sure as hell benefited from it.

And he still does. And that is exactly what he and all the other racists are afraid of giving up.


Right, it's also not about individuals, it's about the US government, which obviously is alive and responsible for slavery. I've found that to be a helpful point to make to people who feel defensive about reparations, as Nikole Hannah-Jones talked about on Fresh Air.
posted by Corduroy at 9:41 AM on July 20, 2020 [4 favorites]


I dunno, calling a program to invest in Black parts of town "reparations" seems agonist maliciously intended to provoke a bad reaction.

Counterpoint: there is no name that would prevent fragile white racists from yelling about how it's "racist" to invest in Black Americans. So let's take the opportunity to move the Overton window.
posted by solotoro at 9:56 AM on July 20, 2020 [17 favorites]


> Then I read Ta-Nehisi Coates' essay on the topic. It's an outstanding piece of writing, but even more, of explanatory reporting. Something I'd have been proud of (and incapable of) doing in my reporting days. It's long but well worth your time if you need convincing. Or facts to bolster your arguments with the in-laws.

incidentally that essay is not just outstanding but also wildly influential: among other things, it was damon lindelof's initial inspiration for the hbo watchmen series.
posted by Reclusive Novelist Thomas Pynchon at 11:08 AM on July 20, 2020 [1 favorite]


Yeah, I live in Asheville (hi, bitslayer!) and have been fairly tuned into local politics for the last several years. There's a local activist contingent (mostly white) that's very focused on defunding the police. (You may have seen our cops destroying the street medic station on national news.) It's good work they're doing. They are often allied with the local Black Lives Matter group, which is mainly two people who have been disowned by the national Black Lives Matter founders. Local black leaders are asking for lots of different things. But the group that requested this plan is a multiracial alliance that the anarchist activists decry as collaborationist.

Personally I think it's great to have both working in parallel (even if they hate each other). The broad-based group that's willing to work within the system proposes a plan that city council is happy to vote for unanimously (that's a big deal here, even the super-pro-hotel-development guy voted for it), and they brand it as "reparations." Meanwhile the agitators keep pushing for abolition of the police.

Now, whenever the city plans a new budget (and they are rewriting next years numbers right now), they have to do it in the context of reparations. They have to justify the numbers in that context. Yes, it's not great that there are no specific dollars attached to these reparations yet, but it changes the nature of the conversation, and I think it will have a positive impact on what the anti-police folks want to do, maybe a bigger impact than what they are doing.

City politics here are fraught. The Black community here has remained about the same while thousands of white folks move here every year. Gentrification is out of control, and there's never been much effort from whites to even apologize for the punishments doled out during desegregation and urban renewal, much less improve things. There's no one Black point-of-view here, of course, but after listening to a lot of voices, I've heard so many people longing for the way things were before desegregation, when there were Black businesses and good Black schools and Black neighborhoods where people took care of each other. That's hard to hear. So much has been lost and the perception is that nothing of value has replaced it (getting to vote hasn't mattered much in the sea of whiteness that is Western North Carolina).

I hope some good will come of this, but it will take all of us locals continuing to put pressure on City Council. Vote for Nicole Townsend, Keith Young, and Kim Roney!

Bonus very applicable clip from Trevor Noah.
posted by rikschell at 11:15 AM on July 20, 2020 [16 favorites]


Ubereats offers free delivery for black-owned restaurants in Asheville. The Ethiopian place just closed leaving, I think, none. The only black people I know who were making better money because of city council's long misguided infatuation with tourism were cabbies and Uber fixed that for them.

My mom used to bring me through here 1969-75 and there were some bustling black business areas. I couldn't find them when I moved here in 2004. The I-240 routing seems to have paved over that.

You don't have to go back to the civil war.

I think a lot of readers are seeing "Asheville" and thinking about that viral vid of the methy white lady shouting vileness, macing a teenager, etc-she was my neighbor for a while and had a problem with us but even my black housemate thought it was mental illness.

People who were there last Monday say she stepped in front of that firetruck.
posted by Mr. Yuck at 12:28 PM on July 20, 2020 [2 favorites]


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