Robert Turner
Westminster John Knox, 150 pages
Published April 23, 2024
My late grandmother, Mary Elizabeth Palmer, was a young girl when the Social Security Act was passed. Intended to provide retirement support security for older adults, it entirely left out agricultural and domestic workers — who were about half the workforce, and disproportionately Black. My grandmother “invested” (i.e. paid taxes) for years, anticipating she would receive benefits. In 2004, retired and sick, she received substandard health care and was expected to live off $800 per month, despite having paid so much more. Her medicines alone were so expensive that our family helped as best we could yet felt we had failed her. I hoped that, someday, her plight would be seen. In Creating a Culture of Repair, “someday” is here.
Pastor and activist Robert Turner creates a framework for reparations that starts with education and moves toward action. First, he lays out categories: Individual reparations, such as acknowledging one’s privilege and opposing White supremacy are a starting point, but do not replace the need for systemic change. Societal reparations describe group efforts to address historical and ongoing impacts on African Americans, encouraging collaboration between communities, businesses and nonprofits to focus on research, redress and restitution. Institutional reparations are the most comprehensive, righting wrongs through public and governmental participation. Finally, spiritual reparations exhort White Christians who historically misused the Bible to justify enslavement and abuse to correct past wrongs. Turner tackles each of these, before turning theory into practice.
Turner’s foundation is religious; the book is not overtly so. Turner’s keen sense of call and response lies in the rhythmic undertones of the ebb and flow of the book through instruction, then inspiration and then to the call of action. It was refreshing to read a book that would be accessible to both pew and community.
Similarly, Turner defines reparations in a way that does not invoke a “knee-jerk” response; those who dismiss the idea of reparations will appreciate his heartfelt and forward-facing approach that does not point fingers, condemn or shame anyone for the failures of their ancestors. He does, however, hold everyone accountable for the global effort to enslave African peoples — no sugarcoating or Blacksplaining here. Turner does the heavy lifting, bringing clarity to issues ranging from mass incarceration and the penal system, senior and veteran care, and environmental racism.
Because Turner is a pastor, I expected the section on spiritual reparations to be more comprehensive, perhaps discussing papal bulls and manifest destiny along with the reminder that “thou shall not steal” implies “thou shall not kidnap.” Similarly, I would have welcomed a discussion of the demonization of African spirituality.
My grandmother gave me the gift of activism. I am honored to have her in my cloud of witnesses, but justice on earth is better. In the 2024 election cycle, Creating a Culture of Repair is a call to learn and act that should be on syllabi and in book clubs. May we all answer.
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