Last week Juneteenth was designated a federal holiday after decades of effort. While many applaud the long-awaited acknowledgment of the date commemorating the end of slavery, the gesture is largely symbolic as long as systemic racism continues to prevail, from police departments being further militarized and not held accountable and states banning the teaching of critical race theory to the unremitting growth of the racial wealth gap.
The racial wealth gap is the direct result of 400 years of racist policies and practices without repair, from slavery to Jim Crow, from the 1921 Tulsa race massacre to redlining to the so-called “war on drugs”. As of 2019, Black families' wealth was less than 15% of the wealth of white families. While not all white people come from a place of generational wealth, we still have a responsibility to champion wealth redistribution and harm repair due to the privilege and power we carry. The demand for reparations is not only about money, and unlike mutual aid, is not simply about individual wealth redistribution. It is an acknowledgement of systemic harm and a call for a rethinking of racist political and economic structures.
The call for reparations is an old movement which is presently gaining ground. A ten-point plan has been drafted by the National African-American Reparations Commission (NAARC) which involves a holistic approach to reparations. This past May, Bill HR40, which would create a commission to research and recommend how to provide reparations for Black people, was finally passed out of committee thirty-two years after first being introduced. House leadership has committed to getting it to the floor for a vote this year. In New York state, the reparations bill passed the assembly earlier this month. In California, a task force to study reparations--similar to the HR40 federal proposal--was formed in early June.
Now is the time to act in support of reparations at the personal, local, state, and federal level. See below for actions you can take today to support these efforts.
In solidarity,
SURJ NYC
P.S. Don’t forget to vote in the New York City primary today!! Here’s our toolkit for how to be an anti-racist voter this June.