A new archival study uncovers details about Lloyds of London’s role in the transatlantic slave trade. Whether historical or political, reparatory justice relies on such historical evidence.
Rebalancing labor relations so that workers are empowered would be an effective way to address racial wealth disparities and atone for the legacy of slavery, a scholar argues.
There are major obstacles in confronting the social movement for reparations for the slave trade. Such reparations are a moral imperative, but politically, successfully obtaining them will be hard.
Anne C. Bailey, Binghamton University, State University of New York
Former enslaved persons never got ‘forty acres and a mule,’ and their descendants have been denied reparations for the legacy of slavery. Will Joe Biden be the president to change that?
History is full of examples of nations paying out to compensate for slavery. But the money never went to those who suffered under the system, only those who profited.
Some calls to resolve racial inequities in the US have raised an idea with roots more than a century old: community land trusts to assemble property for the benefit of Black Americans.
Several presidential hopefuls have offered proposals to close the racial wealth gap, from baby bonds to reparations. A simulation suggests policies short of direct aid to blacks won’t do the trick.
Reparation opponents who oppose truth and reconciliation by insisting that America’s “original sin” of slavery is in the distant past should heed the lessons of Canada and South Africa.
Director of Christiansborg Archaeological Heritage Project, Associate Professor at Africa Institute Sharjah & Associate Graduate Faculty, Rutgers University