Slavery, whether resounding at Yale University or in the city of Boston, is once again prominently in the news. In a formal apology for its ties to slavery, Yale University has pledged to address racial disparities.
While the apology by Yale only slightly mentions any financial compensation, the Boston People’s Reparations Commission’s proposal calls for $15 billion to be split three ways, including cash payments and investment in new financial institutions.
It’s no coincidence that our lead story this week is about slavery and reparations, since it’s hard to go very long nowadays without reparations being part of the social and political discourse.
We have framed the issue in both a historical and contemporary context, and the situation at Yale University, and especially in Boston, correlates demonstrably with our aims.
In 2001, a delegation of Americans attended the World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa, with two demands on the agenda: that the U.S. apologize for its complicity in the Transatlantic Slave Trade and enact a plan of reparations for the centuries of enslavement and suppression of civil and human rights during the Jim Crow era.
We hope our story provides additional resonance to the demands. We certainly support the proposals in Boston and applaud the intentions at Yale.
Like Black History Month, reparations should not be a momentary state of mind but a permanent part of the ongoing struggle for total freedom and justice.
Let us know how you feel about our discussion and what more can be done to bolster reparations that, in these latest developments, are signs that restitution and compensation are by no means things of the past.
Keep the beat going in Boston, and all hail Yale!