Reparations were something I briefly heard about growing up in school. It was something that I learned more about after finding what director Spike Lee named his company, “40 Acres and a Mule.” I mean, two hundred fifty years of slavery. Ninety years of Jim Crow. Sixty years of separate but equal. Thirty-five years of racist housing policies, this list goes on. So, it’s only right that something be done in the form of reparations, right?
Yet, as a Black man, I’ll be honest, I never thought I’d see anyone seriously entertain reparations in my lifetime. But one city has done it.
The Asheville City Council has apologized for the North Carolina city’s historic role in slavery, discrimination and denial of basic liberties to Black residents and voted to provide reparations to them and their descendants.
This vote came after the Buncombe County Health Board declared racism a public health crisis and thousands of protesters packed the streets, calling for the Asheville Police Department to be defunded.
The 7-0 vote came the night of July 14, 2020.
How much is Reparations?
Historically, forty acres and a mule is part of Special Field Orders No. 15, a post-Civil War promise proclaimed by Union General William Tecumseh Sherman on January 16, 1865, to allot family units, including freed people, a plot of land no larger than 40 acres.
According to the United States 2010 census, there were 42 million Black Americans living in the States, when you include Multiracial African Americans, making up 14% of the total U.S. population.
Now, translating those numbers into today’s dollars, economists estimate a fair reparation value of anywhere between $1.4 to $4.7 trillion, or roughly $142,000 (equivalent to $153,000 in 2019) for every black American living today.
“Hundreds of years of Black blood spilled that basically fills the cup we drink from today,” said Councilman Keith Young, one of two African American members of the body and the measure’s chief proponent.
“It is simply not enough to remove statutes. Black people in this country are dealing with issues that are systemic in nature.”
The unanimously passed resolution does not mandate direct payments. Instead, it will make investments in areas where Black residents face disparities.
“The resulting budgetary and programmatic priorities may include but not be limited to increasing minority home ownership and access to other affordable housing, increasing minority business ownership and career opportunities, strategies to grow equity and generational wealth, closing the gaps in health care, education, employment and pay, neighborhood safety and fairness within criminal justice,” the resolution reads.
The resolution calls on the city to create the Community Reparations Commission, inviting community groups and other local governments to join. It will be the commission’s job to make concrete recommendations for programs and resources to be used.
According to USA Today, Councilwoman Sheneika Smith, who is Black, said the council had gotten emails from those “asking, ‘Why should we pay for what happened during slavery?’”
“(Slavery) is this institution that serves as the starting point for the building of the strong economic floor for white America, while attempting to keep Blacks subordinate forever to its progress,” Smith said.
Councilman Vijay Kapoor said he supported the measure for moral reasons. He also said skeptics should look to…
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