I can’t breathe. Said over 20 times. For 9 minutes and 29 seconds, a police officer pushed his knee into an unarmed man’s neck. Until he died. George Floyd’s tragic death has reopened old wounds of racism all over the world, but especially in America. In the wake of the murder and the protests, the Mayor of Minneapolis said that the emotion-ridden conflict was the result of anger and sadness of not five minutes but 400 years.
2019 marked 400 years since the first enslaved people from Africa were brought to the United States. The first captured slaves landed on American soil in 1619, becoming the first victims of slavery in America. Nearly 150 years of slavery. Nearly a hundred years of segregation. For some, justice has still not been achieved.
But why now? Surely, it’s too late to hand out compensation to the descendants of former slaves? But one of the strongest arguments is that slavery reparations is not just as an apology to former slaves that suffered. African-Americans are still carrying the burden of slavery, many generations on. According to The New York Times, the median wealth of a black household is $17,600, but for a white household? $171,000. On average, a white family makes nearly 10 times as much. I was shocked to find out that, America, one of the most developed countries in the world, has shocking inequalities when it came to its healthcare system. Black women are four times more likely to die in childbirth than white women. This is just a snapshot of the daily struggle African-Americans face, even years after slavery and the Jim Crow Era. The argument for reparations is that it can at least partially solve the large racial disparities in a highly-divided modern America.
What really happens when descendants of slaves and slave-owners meet? Betty Kilby, a descendant of slaves from Virginia, met up with Phoebe Kilby, a descendant of a slave-owner. For both people, it was hard, but they became very good friends. What do they think of reparations? Betty Kilby believes that because Phoebe never hurt her, she does not need to pay reparations. ‘I don’t look to her to pay for society’ were Betty’s words. But Phoebe disagrees. ‘The harms didn’t end with slavery’ says Phoebe, who believes that reparations should be paid to the descendants of slaves.
But despite widespread support, some are completely against the idea. Many unanswered questions remain. How much should be paid? Estimates range from billions to trillions, money that simply cannot be afforded anyone in the country. Who should pay? People have differing opinions ranging from descendants of slave-owners and private companies that profited a lot from slavery to the US government itself. There seem to be many questions that, although can be answered theoretically, may even prove to be practically impossible. Also, some believe that it could dehumanise African-Americans further, and in the words of Coleman Hughes, who testified at Congress, turn the relationship between black and white Americans ‘from a coalition to a transaction’. Some believe that racial equality cannot be achieved by reparations, and in fact, would make it worse. In a poll conducted by the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, 75% of black participants said the US government should pay reparations to the descendants of enslaved black people whereas 15% of their white counterparts agreed.
In the wake of George Floyd’s murder and the Black Lives Matter protests, people are desperate for equality and reparations may be an option. Amid chants of ‘I can’t breathe’; the tearing down of Confederate statues; Juneteenth celebrations and voices rallying for equality, the reparations debate rages on.
An Insight Into Society 