Maybe We Should All Discuss Reparations, and Then Act on Making Amends

The first time I realized that I, and most other Americans, were living on and enjoying land that we had stolen from other people was in 5th grade. A classmate’s father had accidentally uncovered a Native American village replete with pottery and arrowheads. He had invited our class to help uncover them. Holding an arrowhead, it dawned on me that the land had been stolen by the simple expedient of killing any who resisted, and it had happened not that long ago. This entailed the realization that it was no accident and we were all capable of the same crime.

Later I learned Native Americans had only two choices: To sign a treaty or die-and die they did, whether they signed or not. We therefore enjoyed this land by not only stealing it but fertilizing it with their blood and bones. It included the blood and bones of those they had displaced, whose survivors were herded like cattle onto reservations, or enslaved, or simply all killed. What’s more, those killed were the ones who couldn’t defend themselves. Our ancestors exterminated entire tribes of Indians-every man, woman and child, and then tried to dismiss it.

Voices of Genocide and Slavery
The voice of genocide against Native Americans that runs like a bloody thread throughout the tapestry of our history is only half the story. The other is slavery, which became a legal institution for some 250 years. This was then followed by a century of segregation, lynchings and massacres, and even more years of being denied the rights to vote and full citizenship. Even now, institutional discrimination runs deep in employment, housing, education, and our judicial system. It’s America’s gravest threat-the maximum of hatred for a minimum of reason.

In their last debate, Democrats may therefore have been correct to have discussed reparations-the making of amends for a wrong one has done. They may have also been right to discuss paying or helping those who were wronged. Although the concept of compensation for war damage wasn’t addressed, black slaves who resisted or rebelled, to say the least, had suffered a state of armed conflict at the hands their oppressors. The same is true of Native Americans, whom still sit in judgement of how our ancestors not only responded to genocide but how we respond.

Reparations According to Sen. McConnell
Senator Mitch McConnell is one example of many Americans who’ve benefitted from slavery. Especially through the accumulation of generational wealth and white privilege directly tied to the dehumanization of others. Along with building wealth on the backs and off the sweat of black slaves, his family gained access-political power-to the White House and Congress. What this means is that a major (perhaps the only?) reason McConnell is the Majority Leader of the Senate is because of the labor from his ancestors’ slaves. This includes his net worth of $10.4 million.

Despite all of this, McConnell thinks reparations aren’t a good idea. He maintains that not only was slavery “something which happened 150 years ago, for whom none of us currently living are responsible,” but believes electing Barack Obama president could be considered a form of compensation. He moreover said the original sin of slavery was forgiven by fighting a Civil War and by passing landmark civil rights legislation. Neither did he think anyone should be trying to figure out how to compensate for slavery since it would be too difficult.

Reparations According to Democratic Contender O-Rourke
Faced with a past like McConnell’s, Beto O’Rourke, a Democratic contender, sees his family history differently. He admits the wealth and political power his family generated from slavery was passed through the generations to himself. On the contrary, the misfortune of slavery was passed through the generations of slaves his great-great grandfather owned to their descendants who are alive today. It’s a clear example of existing inequalities between “black America” and “white America,” including disparities in wealth, rates of incarceration and infant mortality.

Some in McConnell’s hometown would also disagree with the Senator, since his forebears built their wealth with free slave labor and cheap land like many Southern white-owned corporations and families. As a child during segregation, he moreover lived on the white side of Athens, where black residents were only allowed to visit for work and were typically paid very low wages. Consequently, McConnell had access to much better infrastructure, schools, medical facilities, employment, and a lot more money. All of this by far led to divergent fortunes and destinies.

A Tragic Inheritance
Whether one is for or against reparations, in “Violence: Reflections on A National Epidemic,” James Gilligan makes a compelling argument. Calling it a “tragic inheritance,” he reminds us that we have what we have not because it was given to us, but because we stole it and killed for it. And even if we can’t be held morally responsible for what our ancestors did, we are still morally responsible, and thus criminally responsible, for continuing to live on and enjoy the advantages which were obtained through armed robbery, mass murder, and the work millions of slaves did.

Another thing he brings to our attention is the moral complexity of our history, which includes our tendency to be self-righteous, ignorant and punitive. For instance, slaves from Africa were brought here against their will. Their extended families then faced permanent separation. As for Native Americans, they were the first to settle the continent, meaning, they could not have forcibly removed others or committed genocide. Native Americans therefore carry a sense of historical innocence, a moral right, to be the true heirs of this land. It may include governing.

Who Do We Have to Forgive Us?
For now, some claim we have no one to forgive us. Or do we? To be sure, the very same offspring of ancestors who were wronged are still alive today. They have also had to make their way in a country where some lives matter and others do not. As a result, a spirit of forgiveness towards them is not enough. As former President Barack Obama tried to remind us about reparations: “When it comes to whether it’s a Native American or African-American issue, the most important thing for the U.S. government to do is not just offer words, but offer deeds.”

Deeds in the form of reparations grow more needful when we realize that the same day President Abraham Lincoln signed a bill emancipating slaves, the District of Columbia’s Emancipation Act subsidized slave owners’ by paying those loyal to the Union up to $300 for every enslaved person. In other words, while slave owners got reparations enslaved African-Americans got nothing for their generations of stolen bodies, kidnapped children, and expropriated labor. This trend of compensating white slave owners continued, and it continues today in more hidden forms.

The Only Right Thing to Do
Not only has the Democratic Party opted to publicly debate reparations for the descendants of enslaved men and women, but they’ve moved the debates to Congress. In fact, the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties will hold its first congressional hearing today on reparations in more than a decade. The hearing, which occurs on the same holiday commemorating the day black men and women in Texas were informed of the end of slavery, is seen as a potential step toward a vote for a formal study of reparations.

The hearing couldn’t come at a more crucial time, since the history of slavery and discrimination have fueled disparities like the racial wealth gap, which shows the median white household is 10 times wealthier than the median black one. Considering payment by an offender to the victim is required today in most criminal courts, it may be the only right thing to do. But again, will it entail payments, bonds, investments, or land? Will it address institutionalized racism? And will it be some sort of power sharing arrangement in Congress, the White House or Supreme Court?

Who Can Still Forgive?
Others want to revive Native American reparations as well. Centuries of theft and discriminatory policies have, to be sure, prevented their social, economic and political mobility too. This entails an America that was not only built through the wealth of their land and know how, but a modern America which largely excludes them and creates an inherited disadvantage for their future generations. In fact, the economic disparity between Native Americans and white households are much worse than that of even black households. So is substance abuse and crime.

Something else to consider is that just like black families, Native Americans remain handicapped by a lack of wealth and restricted choice of neighborhoods. It includes the quality of schools, medical facilities, employment, infrastructure, even the environment. Though the damages to the large-scale dehumanization of slavery and genocide of Native Americans can ever be enough for their collective well-being, it can begin to heal the wounds of a bloody thread and the original sin of a nation. It can also begin the process of: “Who do we have to forgive us.”

Dallas Darling is the author of Politics 501: An A-Z Reading on Conscientious Political Thought and Action, Some Nations Above God: 52 Weekly Reflections On Modern-Day Imperialism, Militarism, And Consumerism in the Context of John’s Apocalyptic Vision, and The Other Side Of Christianity: Reflections on Faith, Politics, Spirituality, History, and Peace. He is a correspondent for www.WN.com. You can read more of Dallas’ writings at www.beverlydarling.com and www.WN.com/dallasdarling.