Why are reparations for Black Americans so hard?

The topic of restitution for Black Americans is highly contested. Now that the conversation has entered the mainstream, what is the solution? 

Over time, the movement for reparations has persisted, grown louder, and pushed the argument forward, but critics insist these efforts lack real weight and don’t answer the most pressing question: Where’s the cash? 

Filmmaker Yoruba Richen discovered this debate firsthand while making her documentary “The Cost of Inheritance” in 2023. Part of the film investigates the history of Georgetown University’s reparations. 

In 2014, the university admitted that it had sold 272 enslaved people in 1838. In response, the university created The Reconciliation Fund in collaboration with some of the descendants. However, not all descendants are on the same page due to the lack of cash payments. 

“There is another group of descendants who are fighting for cash payments,” said Richen, surprised by the lack of agreement. “They are not interested in a foundation.” 

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Those who call for cash payments for descendants of enslaved Black Americans point to historical examples. A century ago, the Pueblo Lands Act of 1924 forced the government to pay $1.3 million to the Pueblo for the land they lost. More recently, Natives in Alaska received $1 billion and 44 million acres of land in 1971 to make up for destroying their claims to the land. In 1988, victims of Japanese internment camps received $20,000 per person. 

These examples show that the government has a long history of paying when there’s a mistake made on their part. Critics wonder why there is a hold-up for Black Americans. Even journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones, who created the 1619 Project, commented, “Why is there such an aversion to doing something similar for descendants of slavery and the living victims of U.S. apartheid?” 

In 2020, California became the first state to create a task force to examine the possibility of reparations for Black Californians affected by the ravages of slavery and discrimination. The only other state that has followed suit is New York, which created a committee in 2023. Some cities have followed suit, with Evanston, Ill., offering up to $400,000 in 2021 to purchase or repair property because of the history of housing discrimination. 

Despite this momentum, many Black Americans feel that these gestures toward repair don’t go far enough. Those like  AL D., who goes by @Colorfullstory on social media, want money. 

“I was frustrated by many who say we should just get over how our country [treated us],” said AL D, a former American history teacher. 

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The U.S. government first attempted to compensate those formerly enslaved nearly a century ago through Special Order 15, better known colloquially as “40 acres and a mule.” On January 15, 1865, Union General William T. Sherman issued the order, which promised 400,000 acres of newly gained land, from the coastline of South Carolina down to Florida, to freed Black people in 40-acre increments. 

The order never came to pass because President Andrew Jackson rescinded it by the fall and returned the land to the former owners. 

The answer lies less with the government and more with American attitudes. A Berkeley poll in 2023 found that 60 percent of Californians were not in favor of cash payouts for descendants of chattel slavery. Katherine M. Franke, a Columbia University law professor and the author of the book “Repair: Redeeming the Promise of Abolition,” believes the opposition is twofold. 

First, not being able to see, meet, or hear from people who were enslaved seems to make the damage seem long ago and easier to ignore. “There [were] still plenty of people around who had been encamped during the Holocaust, and the same with Japanese Americans who received reparations,” said Franke. “That campaign was undertaken by people who had been interned.” 

She added another piece: “Racism is the answer. Repairing the injuries of white people may be more compelling for white people than repairing the injuries of enslaved Black people.” 

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This story was originally published by New York Amsterdam News and has been reprinted with permission.

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