This paper is an exploration of global reparatory justice for the slave trade through scrutinizing the enduring impact on societies in the United States where institutional structures remain predominantly governed by the descendants of historical oppressors. Even after emancipation, a notable absence of independent movements within predominantly white cultures persists, as institutions continue to be steered by white supremacists. In contrast, the Caribbean and African nations have witnessed freedom movements striving for independent nation-states, yet the shadow of colonialism lingers in their midst. The narrative further unfolds through the lens of the California Reparations Task Force impactful work alongside grassroots organizers, catalyzing the state's examination of reparations and consequential action. The intricate process involving the selection of individuals for the Task Force, their two-year deliberations, and the subsequent release of a comprehensive 500-page interim report and a monumental 1000-page final report published in June 2023 come to the forefront. The justification for reparations is explored through an analysis of the 1863 13th Amendment, which ostensibly abolished slavery but left ambiguous loopholes, allowing for unjust perpetuation through the criminal justice system. The paper delves into the nuanced concept of lingering badges and incidents of slavery, identifying 12 major areas disproportionately impacting the descendants of slaves.
Legal scholars, including Minkah Ward of UPenn Law, further contribute valuable perspectives, emphasizing the necessity for Congress to empower itself to eradicate these persisting injustices. The multifaceted and pervasive effects of slavery on every aspect of society are examined, with the Task Force offering a sampling of systemic harm. The historical context of slavery, as laid out by scholars like Prof. Stacy Smith, establishes a foundation for understanding the California-specific lens of the paper, highlighting the State's role in slavery and the rare implications of its fugitive slave law. As the narrative weaves through instances of systemic harm, the urgency for reparatory action is underscored, acknowledging the foundational role of black bodies in America's wealth. Reparations are framed not as a means to instill guilt but as a necessity for the state to rectify its historical injustices, as evidenced by the ongoing struggle at the federal level, encapsulated by initiatives such as HR40 and the compelling insights of activists, such as Corey Bush. The potential magnitude of the reparations' price tag and the shared history between California and the federal government further highlight the interconnected nature of state and federal responsibilities, setting the stage for a comprehensive examination of the subject.
Why do we need reparations? The lingering effects of slavery; not slavery itself, but the ongoing harms that the community still faces, require reparations. The reparations can be estimated by tracing the community’s lost capital over the past century. The Task Force’s job was not to figure out who is going to pay, but the logistical concerns of how it will get paid. The Task Force was charged with recommending compensation, addressing racist backlash, and focusing on ideological differences between reparations for decades of people who experienced settler colonialism.
The Task Force’s proposal attempts to acknowledge the lingering badges and incidents of slavery that include racial terror, unequal education, geographical and political redlining, segregation, violence, pathologizing the black family, inferior health services, stolen labor, housing and legal discrimination, limited career opportunities, and exploitation of artists and artistic representations. Racial terror is a lingering badge of slavery, and violence and terror present similar challenges for black people. The Klu Klux Klan was extremely prevalent in California with many of the first governmental figures being members, such as the first five out of eight of the first LA mayors. Black Americans are the number one victim of hate crimes in the US, including California.
The State of California did not ratify the 14th and 15th Amendments until the 1950s. This prevented black people from acquiring rights. Califionia made many obstacles for black people to vote in 1879. Political disenfranchisement and housing segregation are ligerning badges of slavery. Government actors with private individual activity used redlining to separate black and white neighborhoods. There were many violent incidents of people bombing black peoples’ homes in the 1950s and 60s after restrictive conveyance got passed. On top of the redlining, the California government relegated specific neighborhoods, not necessarily through overt segregation, but dispossessing communities from proper resources. The taking of resources goes hand and hand with the geographic environment and infrastructure. Black people live in poorer quality housing and are exposed to hazardous waste, water and air pollution with no tree canopies, causing warmer climates, which has led to disease and younger mortality rates.
Separate and unequal education, labor, unjust contributions to the arts, and the wealth gap are major lingering badges and incidents of slavery that contribute to the ongoing control of black life. California funds non-white communities to receive twenty-three less billion dollars of education funding. California’s schools are the sixth most segregated for black students. Because the funding is tied to property taxes, the predominantly white and asian schools simply get more funding than black and latino schools. It is difficult to improve property taxes when a lot of black and latino are renters. There is no investment because of historic dispossession, as enslavers thought it was in their best interest to not educate black people, so black communities face obstacles contributing to their schools. Further, stolen labor hindered opportunities in California, which did not hire black people until the 1940s. Nationally, it is projected to take the Federal Government 228 years for the wealth gap to close, and that projection will likely be expanded due to Covid. There are also a countless number of black artists who were innovators, but were taken advantage of and not able to benefit fully from their artistic productions. Governmental policies effectively decimate black arts communities, and California has numerous racist and confederate monuments, as well as museums that keep black art out.
The pathologizing of the black family and life expectancy for black people are two more lingering badges and incidents of slavery. Pathologizing has created associations with stereotypes, like the term Welfare Queens, which has the connotations that black women abuse welfare policies, which is simply not true. Over Covid, the recipients of the first welfare were ninety percent white women. Additionally, Black nuclear families were punished if there was a man in the home by limiting the option of welfare. The nation's government policies have destroyed black families. Moreover, life expectancy for black people is shorter by six years, a greater percentage of babies die at birth, and mothers die during childbirth at a much higher rate. The origins of medicine and drug testing also have implicit biases that are deeply rooted in racism.
Disposition of resources is an essential fact to the systemic ways that black people are intentionally discriminated against. Gentrification is a direct result of the extraction of Africans from the transatlantic slave trade. This extraction is ongoing as the result of the profitability from the injuries of slavery. Looking at this concept from a holistic and the honest need to promote when looking at black peoples extraction from this country. The challenge is serious. Reparations are the quantitative form of apology, whereas restitution and repair is a sense of satisfaction. To repair, the state must listen to the need and address it by purely understanding the importance and urgency of the needs. Non black communities do not need to be convinced that these topics are historically ingrained and presently felt, as falling into counterfactual thinking of what someone else thinks about these topics consumes them with fear. That temptation is fueled by mental and material resources. “To fight the good fight you must use your resources wisely” (SOURCE) claims Dr. Jovan Scott Lewis, “it's simply about just continuing to do the work.” Lewis then speaks about his experience as a black individual and poses the question “what do we do?” for the entirety of black existence and life. Where is a community member obligated or not to commit to the collective effort? Those are questions that can only be answered by individuals trying to make their existence, and they can not be done in a legal or political context.
The California Reparations Task Force that started in 2020, an initiative that Lewis has applied much of his resources towards, was founded with the mission to investigate wrongs done to generations of black families. (SOURCE) He looks through the various areas of society in which African Americans have been put at a disadvantage. (SOURCE) The Task Force found that slavery has touched every aspect of America, enslavement, racial terror, housing discrimination, education, labor, and the legal system. The Task Force also has been able to pinpoint exact moments in history where descendants and former slaves were truly discriminated against. In the 1920s in California, the Ku Klux Klan had more meetings than many southern states legislators, intentionally barring ownership and redlining of property against black Americans, creating specific laws that promoted segregation in the education system up until the 1970s. The task force is laying out the proper steps to mend some of these wrongs by raising the minimum wage, making college free, granting low interest mortgages for qualified applicants, and creating an office for the purpose of supporting black people with a “variety of issues.” for black folks. (SOURCE) The Task Force and Lewis are making it clear that racist values historically and currently shape the state's formation.
Clearly, African American communities have had specific and direct harm from state sanctioned violence. An exact record has been established outlining the state’s responsibility of intentional harm and redlining. Lewis explains the layers of complexity and intricacy, “which prevented minorities from accessing mortgages and other loans for residing in “hazardous” neighborhoods—considered so for their minority makeup.” (SOURCE) “You get on a highway every day to go to work. You get on public transport, if those two things were developed because the Black community had to be demolished, then you benefit from that.” (Lewis)
The reparations are to fix the trickle down effects that slavery inflicted. “Individuals who pay taxes have to understand that they live in a system of governance, where their taxes fund the state, and their state, historically and continues to have policies and practices that discriminate against African-Americans.” (Lewis) This is a cultural issue, but Lewis makes it clear that this is a record of the harms that the State should be responsible for. (SOURCE) To be clear, this is about a debt owed versus a handout, as true handouts were the governmental policies in the late 19th and early 20th that were for white people in the form of the Homestead Act, which allocated hundreds of millions of acres of land to white families. Forty-six million white people reaped the benefits of the hand out of the federal and California Homestead Act, which African Americans were excluded from. Some of those who benefit caused the handout by the American government and its unjust legal system propagated by the “reactionary, undemocratic, monarchical Supreme Court.” (SOURCE) Police stop, shoot, and kill more African Americans than any other race. Most recently from 2019 to 2020, black people experienced an eighty-eight percent increase in hate crimes. Today black youth face mental health issues, being the number one victims of suicide in California, and they are the greatest number of people incarcerated.
The creation of a new State Agency in SB490 outlines direct repertory justice to the descendants of slavery. A permanent lobbying group is now doing the work that the Task Force was unable to complete. The proposal focuses on increasing funding in schools, and providing tax benefits for those who have been affected by redlining. SB490 uses world human rights laws standards for compensation, restitution, rehabilitations, satisfaction, and guarantees non-repetitions. The proposal, which is not based on slavery, but rather specific instances in five areas that acknowledge where the state is guilty of injustices. An eight-hundred billion dollars figure represents the pure monetary losses of black people from California's actions since its conception. The bill looks to return money via cash payments due to those specific situations. Economists have come up with devaluations of black businesses that include seventy-seven thousand missing black businesses in the state of California, which is greater than in any other part of the country. This is unique anti-blackness in the State that manifests in many ways. (SOURCE)
Looking at this reality from the perspective of geography, specifically, the way land is occupied, and the experience of Black Wall Street in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and its relationship to All-Black town movements is important to consider. The Tulsa Race Massacre, also known as the Tulsa Race Riot, occurred in 1921 in the Greenwood District of Tulsa, Oklahoma, which was a prosperous African American community. The incident involved the destruction of the neighborhood and the loss of many lives. The exact causes of the massacre are complex and multifaceted, involving a combination of racial tensions, economic competition, and false accusations. However, in many ways the entire situation of what happened represented the precious and most intimate moments in the country.
It started in downtown Tulsa, a segregated space, in a white owned mall, in a white operated elevator. A young Black man named Dick Rowland, who worked as a shoe shiner, entered an elevator in the Drexel Building, which was operated by Sarah Page, a young white woman. The details of what transpired in the elevator remain unclear, but it is known that a clerk in a nearby store heard a scream, and Rowland was subsequently accused of assaulting Page. The accusation fueled racial tensions in Tulsa, which were already heightened due to various social, economic, and political factors. The situation escalated on May 31, 1921, when a white mob gathered outside the courthouse demanding Rowland be handed over to them for lynching. In response, a group of Black residents, including World War I veterans, also gathered to protect Rowland. The confrontation between the white mob and the Black residents erupted into violence, leading to the destruction of the Greenwood District. The white mob attacked and looted businesses and homes, and numerous Black residents were killed. The events of the Tulsa Race Massacre resulted in significant loss of life, displacement, and the destruction of what was known as Black Wall Street. Rowland was seen as a threat not only as a body, but as a motive.
The experience of Black Wall Street in Tulsa at the heart is very similar to a representation of America. The land was an allotted Native American territory, the location technically set out of the jurisdiction of the USA. In 1865 when slaves were freed, there was a brief window of reconstruction that lasted only a few years, as the premise of forty acres and a mule had failed. Former slaves who needed freedom were sent to a native peoples’ territory in Oklahoma, where they could build lives for themselves, because the land does not belong to the United States government. Outside of the United States territories, some small communities built towns off of the Greenwood District of Tulsa, OK, similar to Black Wall Street. Tulsa is a representation of the significant problem of the promise of freedom. Tulsa is like any other normal place in the world, but they also have stories that we are not always looking for, claims Lewis.
What is the cause of such atrocity? White complicit silence and actual participation by local authorities happens, because black freedom is a threat to white supremacy. Imagined freedom is becoming increasingly lower over the course of each generation. There are everyday encounters of the race massacre as seen in Tulsa, also known as race riot, which is the language that was used in the press. If language does not accurately represent actions, it is a paradox of partial truths and counter facts. In 1889, the American government used indigenous peoples land that they had sanctioned to that group for newly freed former slaves. Black homesteaders used that to create an alternative notion of freedom, beyond the south.
The All-Black towns were, for the most part, small agricultural centers that gave nearby African American farmers a market for their cotton and other crops. The Depression devastated these towns, and the residents moved west or migrated to metropolises where jobs might be found. (SOURCE.), which was the exodus movement, and Benjamin “Pap” Singleton called himself the “father of the Black Exodus.” Singleton and other grassroots black leaders developed the idea that former slaves should migrate to Kansas and other western homesteading sites, rather than remain in the South to suffer racial and economic oppression (SOURCE.). Black people were trying to use geographic relocation to create an identity of self-autonomy away from the southern states of America. It led to opportunities to establish one’s own terms, modes of existence, and self recognition. “The slave went free; stood a brief moment in the sun; then moved back again toward slavery." W.E.B DuBois (SOURCE) Yet, in Indian territory that moment was a few decades long. In North Tulsa, Lewis sensed something more than just the legacy of the plantation. Because of the historical facts, the lingering effects of the race massacre can be seen as a social shaping of individual and societal norms.
“Social norms are the perceived informal, mostly unwritten, rules that define acceptable and appropriate actions. Within a given group or community, thus guiding humans. Behavior, 1, 2, 3. They consist of what we do, what we believe others do, and what we believe others approve of.” (SOURCE) It goes back to the foundational ethics that produced Black Wall Street and Greenwood. “In all things purely social, (blacks and whites) can be as separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress.” Booker T. Washington (SOURCE) The sentiment of pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps was embedded in Greenwoods societal norms, which helped the community and individuals develop it (themselves) on their own terms. In Greenwood, and in Black Towns all over, there was a moment of reflection that allowed individuals and the community to come to terms with who they are, what they want to be, and have a real opportunity to accomplish that. The race massacre successfully and calculatedly disposed of material goods and imaginative thought that was leading to innovation by black people. Lewis says that his biggest fear for black people in this nation is, “failing (to imagine) who we want to be as black people in this nation, in this state, globally. We have to devote some resources to thinking about that.” (SOURCE)
Legal scholars, including Minkah Ward of UPenn Law, further contribute valuable perspectives, emphasizing the necessity for Congress to empower itself to eradicate these persisting injustices. The multifaceted and pervasive effects of slavery on every aspect of society are examined, with the Task Force offering a sampling of systemic harm. The historical context of slavery, as laid out by scholars like Prof. Stacy Smith, establishes a foundation for understanding the California-specific lens of the paper, highlighting the State's role in slavery and the rare implications of its fugitive slave law. As the narrative weaves through instances of systemic harm, the urgency for reparatory action is underscored, acknowledging the foundational role of black bodies in America's wealth. Reparations are framed not as a means to instill guilt but as a necessity for the state to rectify its historical injustices, as evidenced by the ongoing struggle at the federal level, encapsulated by initiatives such as HR40 and the compelling insights of activists, such as Corey Bush. The potential magnitude of the reparations' price tag and the shared history between California and the federal government further highlight the interconnected nature of state and federal responsibilities, setting the stage for a comprehensive examination of the subject.
Why do we need reparations? The lingering effects of slavery; not slavery itself, but the ongoing harms that the community still faces, require reparations. The reparations can be estimated by tracing the community’s lost capital over the past century. The Task Force’s job was not to figure out who is going to pay, but the logistical concerns of how it will get paid. The Task Force was charged with recommending compensation, addressing racist backlash, and focusing on ideological differences between reparations for decades of people who experienced settler colonialism.
The Task Force’s proposal attempts to acknowledge the lingering badges and incidents of slavery that include racial terror, unequal education, geographical and political redlining, segregation, violence, pathologizing the black family, inferior health services, stolen labor, housing and legal discrimination, limited career opportunities, and exploitation of artists and artistic representations. Racial terror is a lingering badge of slavery, and violence and terror present similar challenges for black people. The Klu Klux Klan was extremely prevalent in California with many of the first governmental figures being members, such as the first five out of eight of the first LA mayors. Black Americans are the number one victim of hate crimes in the US, including California.
The State of California did not ratify the 14th and 15th Amendments until the 1950s. This prevented black people from acquiring rights. Califionia made many obstacles for black people to vote in 1879. Political disenfranchisement and housing segregation are ligerning badges of slavery. Government actors with private individual activity used redlining to separate black and white neighborhoods. There were many violent incidents of people bombing black peoples’ homes in the 1950s and 60s after restrictive conveyance got passed. On top of the redlining, the California government relegated specific neighborhoods, not necessarily through overt segregation, but dispossessing communities from proper resources. The taking of resources goes hand and hand with the geographic environment and infrastructure. Black people live in poorer quality housing and are exposed to hazardous waste, water and air pollution with no tree canopies, causing warmer climates, which has led to disease and younger mortality rates.
Separate and unequal education, labor, unjust contributions to the arts, and the wealth gap are major lingering badges and incidents of slavery that contribute to the ongoing control of black life. California funds non-white communities to receive twenty-three less billion dollars of education funding. California’s schools are the sixth most segregated for black students. Because the funding is tied to property taxes, the predominantly white and asian schools simply get more funding than black and latino schools. It is difficult to improve property taxes when a lot of black and latino are renters. There is no investment because of historic dispossession, as enslavers thought it was in their best interest to not educate black people, so black communities face obstacles contributing to their schools. Further, stolen labor hindered opportunities in California, which did not hire black people until the 1940s. Nationally, it is projected to take the Federal Government 228 years for the wealth gap to close, and that projection will likely be expanded due to Covid. There are also a countless number of black artists who were innovators, but were taken advantage of and not able to benefit fully from their artistic productions. Governmental policies effectively decimate black arts communities, and California has numerous racist and confederate monuments, as well as museums that keep black art out.
The pathologizing of the black family and life expectancy for black people are two more lingering badges and incidents of slavery. Pathologizing has created associations with stereotypes, like the term Welfare Queens, which has the connotations that black women abuse welfare policies, which is simply not true. Over Covid, the recipients of the first welfare were ninety percent white women. Additionally, Black nuclear families were punished if there was a man in the home by limiting the option of welfare. The nation's government policies have destroyed black families. Moreover, life expectancy for black people is shorter by six years, a greater percentage of babies die at birth, and mothers die during childbirth at a much higher rate. The origins of medicine and drug testing also have implicit biases that are deeply rooted in racism.
Disposition of resources is an essential fact to the systemic ways that black people are intentionally discriminated against. Gentrification is a direct result of the extraction of Africans from the transatlantic slave trade. This extraction is ongoing as the result of the profitability from the injuries of slavery. Looking at this concept from a holistic and the honest need to promote when looking at black peoples extraction from this country. The challenge is serious. Reparations are the quantitative form of apology, whereas restitution and repair is a sense of satisfaction. To repair, the state must listen to the need and address it by purely understanding the importance and urgency of the needs. Non black communities do not need to be convinced that these topics are historically ingrained and presently felt, as falling into counterfactual thinking of what someone else thinks about these topics consumes them with fear. That temptation is fueled by mental and material resources. “To fight the good fight you must use your resources wisely” (SOURCE) claims Dr. Jovan Scott Lewis, “it's simply about just continuing to do the work.” Lewis then speaks about his experience as a black individual and poses the question “what do we do?” for the entirety of black existence and life. Where is a community member obligated or not to commit to the collective effort? Those are questions that can only be answered by individuals trying to make their existence, and they can not be done in a legal or political context.
The California Reparations Task Force that started in 2020, an initiative that Lewis has applied much of his resources towards, was founded with the mission to investigate wrongs done to generations of black families. (SOURCE) He looks through the various areas of society in which African Americans have been put at a disadvantage. (SOURCE) The Task Force found that slavery has touched every aspect of America, enslavement, racial terror, housing discrimination, education, labor, and the legal system. The Task Force also has been able to pinpoint exact moments in history where descendants and former slaves were truly discriminated against. In the 1920s in California, the Ku Klux Klan had more meetings than many southern states legislators, intentionally barring ownership and redlining of property against black Americans, creating specific laws that promoted segregation in the education system up until the 1970s. The task force is laying out the proper steps to mend some of these wrongs by raising the minimum wage, making college free, granting low interest mortgages for qualified applicants, and creating an office for the purpose of supporting black people with a “variety of issues.” for black folks. (SOURCE) The Task Force and Lewis are making it clear that racist values historically and currently shape the state's formation.
Clearly, African American communities have had specific and direct harm from state sanctioned violence. An exact record has been established outlining the state’s responsibility of intentional harm and redlining. Lewis explains the layers of complexity and intricacy, “which prevented minorities from accessing mortgages and other loans for residing in “hazardous” neighborhoods—considered so for their minority makeup.” (SOURCE) “You get on a highway every day to go to work. You get on public transport, if those two things were developed because the Black community had to be demolished, then you benefit from that.” (Lewis)
The reparations are to fix the trickle down effects that slavery inflicted. “Individuals who pay taxes have to understand that they live in a system of governance, where their taxes fund the state, and their state, historically and continues to have policies and practices that discriminate against African-Americans.” (Lewis) This is a cultural issue, but Lewis makes it clear that this is a record of the harms that the State should be responsible for. (SOURCE) To be clear, this is about a debt owed versus a handout, as true handouts were the governmental policies in the late 19th and early 20th that were for white people in the form of the Homestead Act, which allocated hundreds of millions of acres of land to white families. Forty-six million white people reaped the benefits of the hand out of the federal and California Homestead Act, which African Americans were excluded from. Some of those who benefit caused the handout by the American government and its unjust legal system propagated by the “reactionary, undemocratic, monarchical Supreme Court.” (SOURCE) Police stop, shoot, and kill more African Americans than any other race. Most recently from 2019 to 2020, black people experienced an eighty-eight percent increase in hate crimes. Today black youth face mental health issues, being the number one victims of suicide in California, and they are the greatest number of people incarcerated.
The creation of a new State Agency in SB490 outlines direct repertory justice to the descendants of slavery. A permanent lobbying group is now doing the work that the Task Force was unable to complete. The proposal focuses on increasing funding in schools, and providing tax benefits for those who have been affected by redlining. SB490 uses world human rights laws standards for compensation, restitution, rehabilitations, satisfaction, and guarantees non-repetitions. The proposal, which is not based on slavery, but rather specific instances in five areas that acknowledge where the state is guilty of injustices. An eight-hundred billion dollars figure represents the pure monetary losses of black people from California's actions since its conception. The bill looks to return money via cash payments due to those specific situations. Economists have come up with devaluations of black businesses that include seventy-seven thousand missing black businesses in the state of California, which is greater than in any other part of the country. This is unique anti-blackness in the State that manifests in many ways. (SOURCE)
Looking at this reality from the perspective of geography, specifically, the way land is occupied, and the experience of Black Wall Street in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and its relationship to All-Black town movements is important to consider. The Tulsa Race Massacre, also known as the Tulsa Race Riot, occurred in 1921 in the Greenwood District of Tulsa, Oklahoma, which was a prosperous African American community. The incident involved the destruction of the neighborhood and the loss of many lives. The exact causes of the massacre are complex and multifaceted, involving a combination of racial tensions, economic competition, and false accusations. However, in many ways the entire situation of what happened represented the precious and most intimate moments in the country.
It started in downtown Tulsa, a segregated space, in a white owned mall, in a white operated elevator. A young Black man named Dick Rowland, who worked as a shoe shiner, entered an elevator in the Drexel Building, which was operated by Sarah Page, a young white woman. The details of what transpired in the elevator remain unclear, but it is known that a clerk in a nearby store heard a scream, and Rowland was subsequently accused of assaulting Page. The accusation fueled racial tensions in Tulsa, which were already heightened due to various social, economic, and political factors. The situation escalated on May 31, 1921, when a white mob gathered outside the courthouse demanding Rowland be handed over to them for lynching. In response, a group of Black residents, including World War I veterans, also gathered to protect Rowland. The confrontation between the white mob and the Black residents erupted into violence, leading to the destruction of the Greenwood District. The white mob attacked and looted businesses and homes, and numerous Black residents were killed. The events of the Tulsa Race Massacre resulted in significant loss of life, displacement, and the destruction of what was known as Black Wall Street. Rowland was seen as a threat not only as a body, but as a motive.
The experience of Black Wall Street in Tulsa at the heart is very similar to a representation of America. The land was an allotted Native American territory, the location technically set out of the jurisdiction of the USA. In 1865 when slaves were freed, there was a brief window of reconstruction that lasted only a few years, as the premise of forty acres and a mule had failed. Former slaves who needed freedom were sent to a native peoples’ territory in Oklahoma, where they could build lives for themselves, because the land does not belong to the United States government. Outside of the United States territories, some small communities built towns off of the Greenwood District of Tulsa, OK, similar to Black Wall Street. Tulsa is a representation of the significant problem of the promise of freedom. Tulsa is like any other normal place in the world, but they also have stories that we are not always looking for, claims Lewis.
What is the cause of such atrocity? White complicit silence and actual participation by local authorities happens, because black freedom is a threat to white supremacy. Imagined freedom is becoming increasingly lower over the course of each generation. There are everyday encounters of the race massacre as seen in Tulsa, also known as race riot, which is the language that was used in the press. If language does not accurately represent actions, it is a paradox of partial truths and counter facts. In 1889, the American government used indigenous peoples land that they had sanctioned to that group for newly freed former slaves. Black homesteaders used that to create an alternative notion of freedom, beyond the south.
The All-Black towns were, for the most part, small agricultural centers that gave nearby African American farmers a market for their cotton and other crops. The Depression devastated these towns, and the residents moved west or migrated to metropolises where jobs might be found. (SOURCE.), which was the exodus movement, and Benjamin “Pap” Singleton called himself the “father of the Black Exodus.” Singleton and other grassroots black leaders developed the idea that former slaves should migrate to Kansas and other western homesteading sites, rather than remain in the South to suffer racial and economic oppression (SOURCE.). Black people were trying to use geographic relocation to create an identity of self-autonomy away from the southern states of America. It led to opportunities to establish one’s own terms, modes of existence, and self recognition. “The slave went free; stood a brief moment in the sun; then moved back again toward slavery." W.E.B DuBois (SOURCE) Yet, in Indian territory that moment was a few decades long. In North Tulsa, Lewis sensed something more than just the legacy of the plantation. Because of the historical facts, the lingering effects of the race massacre can be seen as a social shaping of individual and societal norms.
“Social norms are the perceived informal, mostly unwritten, rules that define acceptable and appropriate actions. Within a given group or community, thus guiding humans. Behavior, 1, 2, 3. They consist of what we do, what we believe others do, and what we believe others approve of.” (SOURCE) It goes back to the foundational ethics that produced Black Wall Street and Greenwood. “In all things purely social, (blacks and whites) can be as separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress.” Booker T. Washington (SOURCE) The sentiment of pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps was embedded in Greenwoods societal norms, which helped the community and individuals develop it (themselves) on their own terms. In Greenwood, and in Black Towns all over, there was a moment of reflection that allowed individuals and the community to come to terms with who they are, what they want to be, and have a real opportunity to accomplish that. The race massacre successfully and calculatedly disposed of material goods and imaginative thought that was leading to innovation by black people. Lewis says that his biggest fear for black people in this nation is, “failing (to imagine) who we want to be as black people in this nation, in this state, globally. We have to devote some resources to thinking about that.” (SOURCE)
“Violent Utopia extends on my ongoing investment in the question of what repair and reparation might be. It examines the condition of Black life in Tulsa, Oklahoma, as oriented around the settlement of Indian Territory, the 1921 Tulsa race massacre, and the massacre’s centenary. The book is concerned with how the freedom achieved in historical Greenwood, colloquially known as Black Wall Street, became curtailed by dispossession violence. Violent Utopia assesses how the equally weighted violent processes that included the 1921 race massacre, urban renewal, and everyday impoverishment resulted in the ultimate dispossession of Greenwood, which today is classed as North Tulsa. In the wake of this dispossession, blackness in North Tulsa is organized and driven by community formation understood as ethics and acts of restoration. Violent Utopia illustrates how the North Tulsa community reconciles the inheritance of violence and freedom that form the very condition of their geography. As such, Violent Utopia argues that the geography of North Tulsa, as a site of sovereign belonging, is the basis on which Black Tulsans will repair the promise of Greenwood.” (SOURCE)
The work today must be done by the people, the youth. Chasing racism and its practices, the liberal idea of right, glimpse view approaches need to be reconsidered to repair blackness. There was an attempt to capture the feeling of the moment, but a lot of us may also feel that the urgency of that moment has largely dissipated, since we no longer have the 2020 appetite in 2023. In 2020, we produced lawn signs and instagram posts. The Task Force collected the data on housing, wealth, and race, which was a requirement to the community at the hands of the State. The impossibility of that task of proposing reparations turns attention to looking at the places and times that black life IS actually flourishing. If we rely upon liberals, then we cannot affirm a social experience, which is why the work must be done by the people. Lewis emphasizes a focus on poverty, within that framework there are going to be other people who are going to benefit. The terminology of reparations must also be changed in a quantitative sense. Black people were promised reparations, and they wanted three things; land, the means to make something on the land, and to be left alone and free. We must ask for everything and get what one can while still in the confines of colonialism. Lewis suggests that we must shift away from the cataloging and that there is an innate black indigenization because of slavery, by the group of people that has to do with the very structure and construction of this country.
The ethics of capitalism is also an important lens to look through for black existence and life. Can land ownership be a thing that is predicated within capitalist society, when the estimate of the land as property is owed to African Americans? Nine hundred thousand dollars is owed to each Black person in California just for mass incarceration alone. No wonder the country is so wealthy when it continues to perpetuate the circumstances that made it wealthy in the first place.
Realities of violence is another concept Lewis also spoke about in black existence. He made it clear that he was not speaking of harm, nor injury, but violence. Different generations would use the word or think that there is no violence and that there were different levels of it. Yet the sense of symbolic violence gives us a representation of what we think of as physical violence. We could dismiss violence, which we do everyday, but we could also recognize violence as a means of maintaining order. Not a disciplinary order, violence helps to reproduce and provide security in the world as we understand it. Violence maintains comfort, and social relations.
What does it mean about society's view of being safe? Jim Crow segregation was a world ordering process that made and secured white people's “safety.” Systemic and structural racism is much more intimate in Tulsa, as it has everything to do with what we feel and the relations we have with a place. It is too simple to just say hatred, this is violence against black people. Greenwood, North Tulsa, was impoverished like much of the country. This community has felt the impact of city disadvancement because of redlining. The relationship between Tulsa now and a century prior can be seen through looking at mechanics of violence and the recovery of social order. How can race massacre make sense? As a result, now that you have dozens of homes burned down, you can grow the city, and eminent domain by state or governmental forces can take property for public use. Most highways were built over destroyed properties in minority neighborhoods. Violence doesn't have to be as sensational as portrayed in the media. In fact, most violence is the quiet form, seemingly small, in some back room that nobody can see. When there is an acute act of violence, we have to think about what makes it possible, Lewis affirms. There must be moral formation in America where black people are hated.
The recent discussion that is happening around Tulsa and Greenwood can be seen through black exceptionalism. The concept of black exceptionalism worries Lewis about the bipolar thought process of thinking that black people are “exceptionally deprived” or “exceptionally brilliant” and says that “both of those forms of exception are equally problematic.” When looking at Greenwood, the commercial district promoted and enforced social economic quantification of peoples status in its society. He emphasizes that it is a class issue that is not mentioned when working with a black exceptionalism discourse. He then pinpoints the current moment with the work that has been happening after the brutalization and murder of George Floyd by a police officer, and the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement. “The official #BlackLivesMatter Global Network builds power to bring justice, healing, and freedom to Black people across the globe.” (SOURCE) Lewis states that there is an “effective defect in them,” that support of everyday blackness is overlooked. Rather the race based initiatives are pigeonholing themselves in the “exceptional, momentary, one off investment in blackness, and what's at the root of that is the working notion of exception.” He highlights reality “what folks want to be is human and want to live and want to go about their lives and pursue their aspirations… Black folks have demonstrated that if left alone,” he exhales a laugh, “we can have anything we want to have because we have had it.” Yet, the only thing preventing it is “violence of interference.”
What is the cost of the experience for black people in the state of California based upon the extensive work that the Task Force has accomplished? In order for this country to progress, the Task Force’s findings must be fundamentally ratified. The Reparations Bill directly affects present black people who can draw back any historical connection to their family being in the United States up until the early 1900s. It is not hard to do. Enslavement was an industry, and every single industry has records. Enslaved African Americans were classified as property. Registers and accounting books provide truthful and real ways of tracing those who were considered property.
The geographical landscape and philanthropic efforts often seemed to prioritize capitalist purposes over addressing essential community needs such as infrastructure, schools, and basic amenities. The call for revolution, emphasized as a pursuit for land, confronts the real and inherent risks associated with using outsized terms like "defund" when police funding continues to grow across the country. In conjunction with the racial reckoning and the COVID-19 pandemic marked a stage of saturation three years after George Floyd's murder, prompting a societal reflection on unfair loss of life and the role of social media in shaping narratives. Stewart Ward's concept of a liminal space, characterized by both possibility and risk, is particularly pertinent to the current moment, defined by a racial reckoning and a heightened awareness of systemic injustices. The paper delves into the intricacies of racial violence, emphasizing the need for a reparative framework that goes beyond addressing immediate injuries to considering the ongoing impact on black lives. In exploring the present liminal space, the discussion extends to policy implications, highlighting how policies, such as urban renewal and racial covenants, have perpetuated systemic injustices and denied equity. The liminal space becomes a metaphor for the uncertainty and fear surrounding societal transformation, challenging individuals to confront the unknown and question the desired trajectory of the country. As the narrative unfolds, it underscores the importance of ongoing reflection and the collective effort to define what this country ought to be in terms of human rights, justice, and societal cooperation. The question of progress and whether it has allowed for a new cooperative vision for the nation remains open, emphasizing the imperative for continued dialogue and intentional efforts to shape a more equitable and just future.
There is work to do and we must get to it. Lewis described the community that surrounds the Task Force “a blessing of a lifetime.” It is inspiring and remarkable, he describes. In The Emancipation Proclamation Lewis quotes Abraham Lincoln on two specific points. “The (American) government should recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons.” and “The government should do no acts to repress such persons in any efforts they make for their actual freedom.” He repeats the second part of the last quote, "The government should do no acts to repress such persons in any efforts they make for their actual freedom.” (SOURCE) Descendants of former slaves' ancestors have been repressed to make effort in such freedoms. Dr. Lewis emphasizes “This document (The California Reparations Task Forces findings) is a testimony to the ways, repeatedly, that the state of California has engaged in repressing African Americans in their attempts to actually make their freedom. This is what this is.” Lewis adds that we must be aware of the fact that the act of repressing is and always has been an active form of taking advantage of productivity for the sheer benefit of the State. Each and every single act of disposition towards black people in the State has been an explicitly intentional opportunity to benefit from their plight.
South Berkeley was the commercial heart in the city that was made up by a community of dependent and former slaves. In 1973, the commercial corridor was demolished to build the Bart train station. He explains what that means, “The everyday commuting of workers to the city and around the Bay Area,” Lewis follows up, “whether working at Twitter, or Facebook, or Google is directly inherited from the disposition of that community.” (SOURCE) The circumstances that caused the destruction of that black community have been incredibly productive toward black loss and state gain. Reparations must be here, and they must be now. It must be here and now because one's reality is predicated on one's current objective material and metaphysical reality in relation to this present moment. Since there is no way of predicting the future, we must mean that the past is inevitable. Meaning, everything we can do will have already been done by the time we do it. Working towards growth that could lead to positivity is the only way that personal beliefs and reality will align. As a society, we have so far deviated from the truth based on the circumstances of reality that it has led to extreme division and mass confusion. Because we are here and we are now, reparations appear to be the only way to right the wrongs of institutional violence. Reparations are here and now because those who have benefited contribute to benefiting from this State sanctioned violence.
The continued enactment of the harms of dispossession for African Americans, who were stolen to America for the single purpose of material profit must end now. “African Americans have done the work of liberating themselves, and every single turn the state has engaged in policies and programs to interrupt that progress.” Professor Lewis follows up. Reparation needs to be put in place to redress the repeated destruction of progress. Reparations do not equal repair, it is monetary compensation for the assault of African Americans and their ancestors. Repair work must also be done. The work must consist of self determination, taking what was promised in reconstruction, and going about the work of who you are and who you want to be. “I want us to think about our generations to come,” claims Lewis. He doesn't want his child or any child to feel the need for repair.
Through conversation with Dr. Lewis, I had the pleasure of learning in great detail about Rhys, Lewis’ son. Dr. Lewis and I shared a connection through his son's name and the story of my own, mine being a misreading of his son’s name, obviously a different Rhys. Jovan Scott Lewis told me his reality and identity in his life is “Rhys’ Dad,'' that is what he is known for in his life, and what I believe he strives to be known for in others. He wants all children to not feel the need for repair. Lewis states, “I will forever be here to work on this.”
https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/video/dr-jovan-scott-lewis-talks-to-br-about-historic-tulsa-reparations/#x
https://oag.ca.gov/ab3121/members
https://www.nbcnews.com/nightly-news/video/the-growing-debate-over-land-reparations-133586501855
https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/california/reparations-report-in-california/2907907/
https://time.com/6279076/california-reparations-program-historic-standard/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJmsssgbqfU
https://hammerandhope.org/article/issue-1-article-5
https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/page/geography
http://plainshumanities.unl.edu/encyclopedia/doc/egp.afam.006#:~:text=The%20all%2Dblack%20towns%20were,where%20jobs%20might%20be%20found
https://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/entries/benjamin-singleton/#:~:text=Benjamin%20%E2%80%9CPap%E2%80%9D%20Singleton%20called%20himself,suffer%20racial%20and%20economic%20oppression
https://www.nps.gov/planyourvisit/event-details.htm?id=C0003931-DA0E-53A1-B8C86AEEC79F526F#:~:text=Historian%20W.E.B.%20DuBois%20described%20Reconstruction,moved%20back%20again%20toward%20slavery.%22
https://www.unicef.org/media/111061/file/Social-norms-definitions-2021.pdf
https://backstoryradio.org/blog/pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps/
https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/video/dr-jovan-scott-lewis-talks-to-br-about-historic-tulsa-reparations/#x
https://www.jovanscottlewis.com/
https://blacklivesmatter.com/
https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/featured-documents/emancipation-proclamation#:~:text=President%20Abraham%20Lincoln%20issued%20the,and%20henceforward%20shall%20be%20free.%22
https://www.jovanscottlewis.com/
The ethics of capitalism is also an important lens to look through for black existence and life. Can land ownership be a thing that is predicated within capitalist society, when the estimate of the land as property is owed to African Americans? Nine hundred thousand dollars is owed to each Black person in California just for mass incarceration alone. No wonder the country is so wealthy when it continues to perpetuate the circumstances that made it wealthy in the first place.
Realities of violence is another concept Lewis also spoke about in black existence. He made it clear that he was not speaking of harm, nor injury, but violence. Different generations would use the word or think that there is no violence and that there were different levels of it. Yet the sense of symbolic violence gives us a representation of what we think of as physical violence. We could dismiss violence, which we do everyday, but we could also recognize violence as a means of maintaining order. Not a disciplinary order, violence helps to reproduce and provide security in the world as we understand it. Violence maintains comfort, and social relations.
What does it mean about society's view of being safe? Jim Crow segregation was a world ordering process that made and secured white people's “safety.” Systemic and structural racism is much more intimate in Tulsa, as it has everything to do with what we feel and the relations we have with a place. It is too simple to just say hatred, this is violence against black people. Greenwood, North Tulsa, was impoverished like much of the country. This community has felt the impact of city disadvancement because of redlining. The relationship between Tulsa now and a century prior can be seen through looking at mechanics of violence and the recovery of social order. How can race massacre make sense? As a result, now that you have dozens of homes burned down, you can grow the city, and eminent domain by state or governmental forces can take property for public use. Most highways were built over destroyed properties in minority neighborhoods. Violence doesn't have to be as sensational as portrayed in the media. In fact, most violence is the quiet form, seemingly small, in some back room that nobody can see. When there is an acute act of violence, we have to think about what makes it possible, Lewis affirms. There must be moral formation in America where black people are hated.
The recent discussion that is happening around Tulsa and Greenwood can be seen through black exceptionalism. The concept of black exceptionalism worries Lewis about the bipolar thought process of thinking that black people are “exceptionally deprived” or “exceptionally brilliant” and says that “both of those forms of exception are equally problematic.” When looking at Greenwood, the commercial district promoted and enforced social economic quantification of peoples status in its society. He emphasizes that it is a class issue that is not mentioned when working with a black exceptionalism discourse. He then pinpoints the current moment with the work that has been happening after the brutalization and murder of George Floyd by a police officer, and the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement. “The official #BlackLivesMatter Global Network builds power to bring justice, healing, and freedom to Black people across the globe.” (SOURCE) Lewis states that there is an “effective defect in them,” that support of everyday blackness is overlooked. Rather the race based initiatives are pigeonholing themselves in the “exceptional, momentary, one off investment in blackness, and what's at the root of that is the working notion of exception.” He highlights reality “what folks want to be is human and want to live and want to go about their lives and pursue their aspirations… Black folks have demonstrated that if left alone,” he exhales a laugh, “we can have anything we want to have because we have had it.” Yet, the only thing preventing it is “violence of interference.”
What is the cost of the experience for black people in the state of California based upon the extensive work that the Task Force has accomplished? In order for this country to progress, the Task Force’s findings must be fundamentally ratified. The Reparations Bill directly affects present black people who can draw back any historical connection to their family being in the United States up until the early 1900s. It is not hard to do. Enslavement was an industry, and every single industry has records. Enslaved African Americans were classified as property. Registers and accounting books provide truthful and real ways of tracing those who were considered property.
The geographical landscape and philanthropic efforts often seemed to prioritize capitalist purposes over addressing essential community needs such as infrastructure, schools, and basic amenities. The call for revolution, emphasized as a pursuit for land, confronts the real and inherent risks associated with using outsized terms like "defund" when police funding continues to grow across the country. In conjunction with the racial reckoning and the COVID-19 pandemic marked a stage of saturation three years after George Floyd's murder, prompting a societal reflection on unfair loss of life and the role of social media in shaping narratives. Stewart Ward's concept of a liminal space, characterized by both possibility and risk, is particularly pertinent to the current moment, defined by a racial reckoning and a heightened awareness of systemic injustices. The paper delves into the intricacies of racial violence, emphasizing the need for a reparative framework that goes beyond addressing immediate injuries to considering the ongoing impact on black lives. In exploring the present liminal space, the discussion extends to policy implications, highlighting how policies, such as urban renewal and racial covenants, have perpetuated systemic injustices and denied equity. The liminal space becomes a metaphor for the uncertainty and fear surrounding societal transformation, challenging individuals to confront the unknown and question the desired trajectory of the country. As the narrative unfolds, it underscores the importance of ongoing reflection and the collective effort to define what this country ought to be in terms of human rights, justice, and societal cooperation. The question of progress and whether it has allowed for a new cooperative vision for the nation remains open, emphasizing the imperative for continued dialogue and intentional efforts to shape a more equitable and just future.
There is work to do and we must get to it. Lewis described the community that surrounds the Task Force “a blessing of a lifetime.” It is inspiring and remarkable, he describes. In The Emancipation Proclamation Lewis quotes Abraham Lincoln on two specific points. “The (American) government should recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons.” and “The government should do no acts to repress such persons in any efforts they make for their actual freedom.” He repeats the second part of the last quote, "The government should do no acts to repress such persons in any efforts they make for their actual freedom.” (SOURCE) Descendants of former slaves' ancestors have been repressed to make effort in such freedoms. Dr. Lewis emphasizes “This document (The California Reparations Task Forces findings) is a testimony to the ways, repeatedly, that the state of California has engaged in repressing African Americans in their attempts to actually make their freedom. This is what this is.” Lewis adds that we must be aware of the fact that the act of repressing is and always has been an active form of taking advantage of productivity for the sheer benefit of the State. Each and every single act of disposition towards black people in the State has been an explicitly intentional opportunity to benefit from their plight.
South Berkeley was the commercial heart in the city that was made up by a community of dependent and former slaves. In 1973, the commercial corridor was demolished to build the Bart train station. He explains what that means, “The everyday commuting of workers to the city and around the Bay Area,” Lewis follows up, “whether working at Twitter, or Facebook, or Google is directly inherited from the disposition of that community.” (SOURCE) The circumstances that caused the destruction of that black community have been incredibly productive toward black loss and state gain. Reparations must be here, and they must be now. It must be here and now because one's reality is predicated on one's current objective material and metaphysical reality in relation to this present moment. Since there is no way of predicting the future, we must mean that the past is inevitable. Meaning, everything we can do will have already been done by the time we do it. Working towards growth that could lead to positivity is the only way that personal beliefs and reality will align. As a society, we have so far deviated from the truth based on the circumstances of reality that it has led to extreme division and mass confusion. Because we are here and we are now, reparations appear to be the only way to right the wrongs of institutional violence. Reparations are here and now because those who have benefited contribute to benefiting from this State sanctioned violence.
The continued enactment of the harms of dispossession for African Americans, who were stolen to America for the single purpose of material profit must end now. “African Americans have done the work of liberating themselves, and every single turn the state has engaged in policies and programs to interrupt that progress.” Professor Lewis follows up. Reparation needs to be put in place to redress the repeated destruction of progress. Reparations do not equal repair, it is monetary compensation for the assault of African Americans and their ancestors. Repair work must also be done. The work must consist of self determination, taking what was promised in reconstruction, and going about the work of who you are and who you want to be. “I want us to think about our generations to come,” claims Lewis. He doesn't want his child or any child to feel the need for repair.
Through conversation with Dr. Lewis, I had the pleasure of learning in great detail about Rhys, Lewis’ son. Dr. Lewis and I shared a connection through his son's name and the story of my own, mine being a misreading of his son’s name, obviously a different Rhys. Jovan Scott Lewis told me his reality and identity in his life is “Rhys’ Dad,'' that is what he is known for in his life, and what I believe he strives to be known for in others. He wants all children to not feel the need for repair. Lewis states, “I will forever be here to work on this.”
