CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Reparations continues to be a highly controversial topic in our country.
A survey from the Pew Research Center found 77% of Black Americans support some form of reparations to descendants of people enslaved, but only 18% of white Americans support those actions.
Benjamin Boswell is senior minister for Myers Park Baptist Church, which he describes as being on the cutting edge of social justice.
“For 80 years, that’s who we’ve been,” Boswell said.
He will be the emcee for the Confronting Whiteness Conference.
Boswell says the gathering is an opportunity for white people, working to be anti-racist, to work with people of color on ways to create a just and equitable world for all.
The motto for the event is “Make it Right,” referring to the case for reparations.
The NAACP defines reparations as a first step toward repairing the devastation inflicted by slavery and racial discrimination, listing different forms of reparations like financial payment and land grants to every descendant of an enslaved African American and for Black descendants of those living in the United States.
Church member/volunteer Joni Emry and Deacon Allen Davis met with Boswell days ahead of the conference to talk about reparations.
“The 40 acres and a mule,” Davis said. “What are the relevant and timely ways we can support the gap that is happening for communities of color not being funded, not being resourced and supported. What does that look like in various circles or systems like health care and education? I don’t think it’s a one-package deal, I think we’ve all got to look at various places [to address it].
“That’s why it’s important for us to look at what’s working in the states that have already started reparations,” Emry said. “Not only what they’re doing but why is it working and monitor and do those things here. Will it work for Charlotte and what makes sense for us to start with here?”
Boswell says it’s time for more people to have these discussions together and learn how reparations could right many wrongs.
Reparations is a topic Boswell says he’s not going to shy away from.
“I’m supposed to do it because I’m a person who’s been racialized as white and given tremendous power and privilege just because I’m white and for no other reason. Therefore, I have a responsibility to do something with the power and the privilege I have,” he said.
One of Boswell’s motivations for being a social justice leader hits close to home.
“My daughter Lucy, who is 13, is Black. She’s adopted,” Boswell said. “I knew I had this tremendous responsibility of trying to figure out as a white man how to raise a Black daughter in the country. That was going to take an incredible amount of effort.”
Boswell is hoping more white people will do the work so atonement can be made.
“If you don’t make amends for what has happened in the past, then you’re never starting in a place where you can make justice going forward,” he said. “And this country, this is one of our Achilles’ heel, we have never addressed the evil of slavery in a true and full way.”
The Confronting Whiteness Conference is Saturday at Myers Park Baptist in Charlotte.