Reparations Discussion Series Aims to Promote Significant Change
The Department of African American Studies will continue its successful John B. Slaughter Endowed Reparations Series in the 2021–22 academic year, hoping to present in-person components to the events, which were held virtually in the last academic year.
“Reparations certainly is an issue and an idea that’s time has come—and is indeed long overdue,” said Dr. Kameron Van Patterson, director of programs for the Judge Alexander Williams, Jr. Center for Education, Justice and Ethics and an assistant research professor in the Department of African American Studies. “We need to socially engineer effective policy and social pathways to a better and more equitable future.”
Last year’s programming offered insight into the historical, social and psychological, economic, and political consequences and implications of racial slavery, injustice, and structural inequality in America. Co-sponsors from across campus joined in the effort, giving the events valuable, multidisciplinary angles.
These partners include the Critical Race Initiative, the Baha’i Chair for World Peace, and the Judge Williams Center. Among the many topics discussed have been global models of reparations, the physical and mental impacts of racial trauma, and the economic case for reparations.
Each panel was met with high levels of engagement and enthusiasm from the audiences and from the panelists.
“We are getting the sense that people are ready to deal with these issues now—they don’t want to keep passing these problems on, generation after generation,” Van Patterson said. “Our panelists and our audiences have been focused on what we can do in this moment to drive home the policy, and what we can do to understand history and to take some proactive steps in the right direction.”
Van Patterson has been encouraged by political and social developments related to reparations, such as a June 2021 report by the United Nations Human Rights Council citing the need to “reverse cultures of denial, dismantle systemic racism and accelerate the pace of action; end impunity for human rights violations by law enforcement officials and close trust deficits in this area; ensure that the voices of people of African descent and those who stand up against racism are heard and that their concerns are acted upon; and acknowledge and confront legacies, including through accountability and redress.”
At the local level, Van Patterson also points to a recent letter written by Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan to President Joe Biden promoting the establishment of U.S. Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation Commission.
“These responses to the current crises of yawning inequality and racial injustice are encouraging, but in thinking about the historic movement for reparations in the twentieth century, I always return to the words of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. [1929-1968], who in 1967 remarked: 'The Negro was granted freedom from physical slavery, but he was not given land to make that freedom meaningful.'
"Just months prior to his assassination in 1968, Dr. King succinctly articulated the case for reparations. After enumerating the myriad ways in which the U.S. government has redistributed our nation’s wealth to white Americans, Dr. King famously concluded his remarks to an audience of poor, civil-rights supporters in rural Mississippi during the campaign to organize a Poor People’s March on Washington, D.C., with the following words: 'Now, when we come to Washington in this campaign, we’re coming to get our check.'
"Recognizing the inherent hypocrisy of a brokered freedom without the material resources and political rights to realize and protect it, Dr. King ultimately concluded: 'It is a miracle that the Negro has survived,'" Van Patterson said.
Van Patterson also noted that the series was designed to take an honest look at the past, and to take necessary steps to create a stronger, more equitable future.
"In order to achieve America’s promise, we must first atone for her past. In this sense, our potential for achievement in inextricably linked to our capacity to confront, recognize, and, ultimately, transform our history into a profound opportunity for atonement," Van Patterson said.
“According to authors William A. Darity, Jr. and A. Kirsten Mullen, ‘Redress potentially can take two forms, not necessarily mutually exclusive: restitution or atonement.’ Until we atone for our crimes against humanity, we will continue to commit them, and therein, fail not only to achieve our highest ideals, but to produce a society worthy of our children’s most audacious dreams and aspirations,” Van Patterson said. “Put differently, if we aspire to be a post-racial society, we must first become a post-racist one. This will require what Dr. King called a ‘revolution of values.’
"As a nation, we must decide what type of society we want to be. That decision is rooted in our values," Van Patterson said. "Reparations is one way in which we can begin to value racial justice, socioeconomic equity, intentional diversity, political inclusion, and, therein, value the lived experiences, humanity, and lives of Black Americans."
Van Patterson said that recent events have put the need for these discussions into a sharper focus. “More and more people are ready to tell the truth, to take steps toward equity and healing, and are ready to combat the pandemic of white supremacy,” he said.
In addition to continuing the events series in the future, Van Patterson and his colleagues in the Department of African American Studies are in conversation with the School of Public Policy on a possible reparations course for the spring semester that he is developing as a model for critical race praxis.
“While good discussions and some progress is being made, there is a great deal of work yet to do to achieve enduring and effective structural change,” Van Patterson said.
Past Events
Panel 1: “A Discussion on the First United States Commission on Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation”
Panelists: Congresswoman Barbara Lee (Calif. 13); Charles Adams, chair of Behavioral Sciences and Human Services, Bowie State; Distinguished University Professor Mary Helen Washington, UMD Department of English.
Moderator: Professor Rashawn Ray, UMD Department of Sociology.
Panel 2: “Global Models of Reparations”
Panelists: Elizabeth Thomas, a descendant of enslaved people who was one of the first students to be enrolled under Georgetown University’s commitment to provide legacy admissions status to descendants of enslaved people; Everisto Benyera, associate professor of African Politics in the Department of Political Sciences at the University of South Africa in Pretoria, South Africa; and Councilman Keith Young of Asheville, N.C.
Moderator: Professor Hoda Mahmoudi, holder of the Baha’i Chair
Panel 3: “The Psychological Costs of Anti-Blackness: The Consequences and Impact of Racial Trauma”
Panelists: Professor Ekow N. Yankah, Cordozo School of Law; Dr. Nicholas Creary, Moravian College; Dr. Charles Chavis, Jr., George Mason University; Omar A. Eaton-Martinez, Assistant Division Chief, Historical Resources at M-NCPPC
Moderator: Dr. Kameron Van Patterson, Director, Judge Alexander Williams, Jr. Center for Education, Justice and Ethics
Panel 4: “‘The Debt’: The Economic Case for Reparations and the Costs of Anti-Black Racism”
Panelists: A. Kirsten Mullen, Folklorist, Museum Consultant (ARTEFACTUAL); Dedrick Asante-Muhammad, Chief of Race, Wealth, And Community, National Community Reinvestment Coalition; Jhacova Williams, Associate Economist, RAND Corporation; Andre M. Perry, Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution
Moderator: Professor Dawn M. Dow, J.D., Ph.D., Department of Sociology
Panel 5: “The Time is Now: Harnessing the Political Will for Reparations”
Opening Remarks: The Hon. Alexander Williams Jr., the Judge Alexander Williams, Jr. Center for Education, Justice and Ethics
Panelists: Wanika B. Fisher, Esq., Assistant Majority Leader, Maryland House of Delegates; Dr. Antti Pentikainen, Research Professor, George Mason University
Moderator: Dr. Jason Nichols, Senior Lecturer, Department of African American Studies
Published on Sun, Jul 18, 2021 - 7:44PM