Right, But reparations is about restorative justice. It is a way for us to address the inequities in all facets of our lives as opposed to just trying to work on things one by one. And if the country is unwilling to address the race-wealth gap, then their efforts to provide equitable educational, housing, employment, voting rights will not be an effective remedy. Studies have shown that providing housing and investing Black businesses were not sufficient to close the wealth gap. The average Black family makes one-tenth of what the average white family makes and if they won’t address this through restorative justice, then it is not restorative justice.

They have conditioned Black people to oppose their own restorative justice which is why most people do not agree with monetary compensation. It’s a trap to make it seem like we are bank-robbing America to get justice. However, when the British provided reparations to the former slave owners and their descendants, they spent approximately 40% of their GDP.

They were willing to go for broke to provide restorative economic justice to the slave owners and their descendants but not the slaves and their descendants.

Then there is the case of the Japanese reparations. It’s funny how they got their financial compensation for being held in internment camps but when Black people want that, it is seen as inherently wrong. In many cases the actual Japanese people held in the camps were dead before any reparations were issues so their descendants received it.

Is being held in internment camps the same as hundreds of years of slavery? Absolutely not. However, they did suffer and I believe they deserved their restorative justice. Upon my research, I found that many Japanese people actually opposed their own monetary reparations as well.

They’ve conditioned us to cheapen ourselves and to feel more for the government than the government feels for us.

Really consider that paying reparations to African Americans would actually stimulate the economy. One of their main stereotypes about Black people is that we are lazy, ever since we stopped working for free. Conservatives constantly accost us welfare-hungry hoodrats. It is all part of a scheme to make us feel that we are the true burden on this country when in reality we built it and are entitled to live with dignity.

My mom is a lawyer and my dad is a petroleum engineer yet they make less money than their white counterparts. Giving people houses and jobs is not going to bring about equity. We need to look at it as the human rights violation it truly is. That’s why I support HR 40. It is a study to determine the appropriate course of action. Without addressing the sins of slavery and providing restorative justice across the board, we will still have less wealth than white people.

Money is not everything but when they try to cheapen us for wanting reparations, it is all a part of social conditioning. If we are looking to gain support, consider that the white people who oppose reparations are not going to go for it if you take money off the table because they are racist and don’t want us to live better lives. That is why they oppose the Anti-Lynching Law, The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, The Voting Rights Act, and the new The Anti-Racism in Public Health Act of 2020. There is a fight between people who admit that systemic racism is a problem and those who do not feel we deserve any compensation.

Sorry for the lengthy response but one more thing.

Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnel said that us having a Black president is our reparations. The conservatives are not trying to have a rational conversation about restorative justice with out without compensation. They will not even address systematic racism during this pandemic. The only way we get justice is if we have a strong majority and push the legislation through.

I cannot condone them keeping us poor and calling us money hungry when in the end of the day, we built this country and that’s not hyperbole.

Thanks for reading my rant,

Allison Gaines