Opinion: Reparations are needed for Black Americans and California is leading the way. Here’s how. – The San Diego Union-Tribune

Alkebulan, Ph.D., is Chair & Associate Professor in the Department of Africana Studies at San Diego State University. He lives in El Cajon.

In 2020, the African American experience was situated at the center of national conversations about race and the historic systematic discrimination and oppression that help define that experience. From the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on Black communities to unprecedented racial justice protests across the county, cosmetic changes abound.

Assemblymember Shirley Weber, who was recently appointed to be Californias next secretary of state, authored Assembly Bill 3121 to study and develop reparation proposals for African Americans. AB 3121 was the only substantive policy or legislative change as a result of the renewed focus on racial justice. The unprecedented bill was signed into law on Sept. 30 and authorized the creation of a commission to explore ways the state of California might provide reparations. Because of Dr. Webers vision and leadership, California stands as a pioneer for the entire nation.

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But does America have the moral integrity to not only right the wrongs of the past but also the political courage or inclination to address the contemporary forms of oppression facing African Americans? Reparations are not just about enslavement. Reparations are about subsequent Jim Crow and other forms of oppression that exist today.

There needs to be a public acknowledgment of the historic and contemporary injustices committed against African Americans. There also has to be an apology to the tens of millions of African Americans for these historic and contemporary wrongs, followed by a sincere commitment to embrace reparative justice. After 155 years, were now in the early stages of having conversations about reparations that extend beyond the African American community. America has a moral imperative to make amends for her crimes against African Americans.

But first we must ascertain the negative impact of enslavement, Jim Crow and other contemporary forms of oppression. What is the physical, psychological, economic, and educational impact on African Americans today? We must first understand the nature of the loss to African Americans: forced migration, forced deprivation of culture, forced labor, forced deprivation of wealth by segregation and racism, lynching, educational deficit, economic instability, poor health conditions, overpolicing, police brutality, mass incarceration, and on and on and on. The contemporary lifestyles of African Americans, collectively, have been negatively impacted by enslavement, subsequent Jim Crow, and other forms of oppression.

Maulana Karenga, chair of Africana Studies at California State University at Long Beach, offers five fundamental aspects of reparations that should be preceded by a national conversation about enslavement: public admission, public apology, public recognition (via monuments, media and education), compensation (via money, land, free health care and free education from kindergarten through college) and preventive measures (such as creating a just and good multicultural society.)

Preventive measures are particularly important. They speak to the intersection of reparations and social justice. If, as a society, we dont eliminate persistent injustices and pervasive systemic racism in this county, reparations can only go but so far. It would be tantamount to putting a Band-Aid on a gunshot wound. Reparations must be paired with social justice. We must address mass incarceration and the racist drug war, overpolicing, the school to prison pipeline, environmental racism, housing discrimination, and explicit and implicit bias in hiring practices and in education. There must be a priority placed on creating a just and good multicultural society.

Who has the responsibility of addressing these wrongs? Those who reject reparations are seemingly content with African Americans remaining in a perpetual cycle of oppression. They say there should be no accountability. Ever. The reality is that the system of White supremacy that negatively impacts African Americans is the same system that affords privileges to White Americans. They are the beneficiaries of past and present discrimination of African Americans.

Most of us are not responsible for Japanese internment during World War II, Jewish internment in Europe or the genocide and oppression of Indigenous people. But the U.S. government still paid reparations. Direct involvement in historic oppression has never been a criterion for paying reparations.

We must also understand that White Americans have always had access to employment opportunities, wealth, educational opportunities and health care at the expense of African Americans. The second-class status of African Americans afforded White America the kind of lifestyle that makes White Americans complicit or, at the very least, beneficiaries of African American oppression. That White Americans benefited, and continue to benefit, from enslavement is undeniable.

Reparations are not just about past wrongs. We currently live in a society that not only necessitates the need to create a Black Lives Matter movement but also has to even implore the nation that Black lives, in fact, matter. Its not just about history. Its also about the ways in which historic discrimination and oppression are still manifesting today. Its time.

Read more about reparations for African Americans:

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Opinion: Reparations are needed for Black Americans and California is leading the way. Here's how. - The San Diego Union-Tribune