New Research Shows That Reparation Payments Could Increase Life Expectancy Of Black Americans

Black Americans continue to endure a plethora of negative outcomes as a result of chattel slavery. In addition to the?generational trauma?that has been passed down, racism is baked in the fabric of every American system including?housing,?education,?healthcare?and the?workplace. Though there is nothing that can be done to erase the past harms that Black people in the U.S. have endured,?reparations?may be a great step to assist in the restoration process. In the last few years, there have been some positive strides when it comes to reparations.?Georgetown University?students voted to raise tuition to provide reparations to the 272 decedents of enslaved people that the university owned and sold in the 1800s. In California, the Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans was?established?and in Evanston, Illinois, the city will make history as one of the first U.S. locations to start issuing?reparations?to its Black residents.

Some reparation critics?argue?that cash payments won’t produce meaningful changes for Black Americans, but a new?study?may disprove this claim. In the study, researchers analyzed data from 33,501 U.S. adults age 50 and older between April 1992 and July 2019. The researchers found that reparation payments of $828,055 per household would eliminate the current wealth gap, thus increasing the life span of Black middle-aged and older adults and decreasing the Black-white survivor gap from 4 years to 1.4 years. An interesting question to ponder is the role that money and wealth plays within society. “Wealth may improve health through stable access to health care, housing, food, and education, while offering protection from chronic stress associated with economic uncertainty,” the researchers in the aforementioned study note.

When thinking about how a reparation payment of $828,055 could impact Black Americans, Living Corporate founder?Zachary Nunn?shared “That money would certainly create room to breathe for myself, [my] wife and children. With that money, I would pay off my mortgage, put aside enough cash to cover two years of living expenses, save another portion for my daughters, take a family trip, and invest the remaining in?Living Corporate...not only would that much money help us in the here and now, but also help us build generational wealth.” Prior to the?Fair Housing Act of 1968, it was legal for Black people to be discriminated against when renting or buying a home. Discriminatory practices like?racial steering,?redlining, and?exclusionary zoning laws?kept Black people concentrated in lower-income neighborhoods and made Black homeownership more difficult. With homeownership being the?primary source?of wealth for U.S. families, racist housing practices heavily contributed to the Black-white wealth gap.

As the research indicates, cash reparation payments would have a powerful impact on Black families. “A reparation payment of $828,055 would immediately improve the quality of life and generational outlook for my family,” shared?Johnny Bailey?who is the founder of?ShineHard Family. “It would be the jump start to a 100-year plan for the Bailey bloodline...it would relieve a six-figure mortgage burden that I inherited from my father. It would guarantee a quality education for my two daughters, which I now realize begins long before college. My wife and I have four degrees, and student debt forced us to delay retirement savings into our early 30s. A reparation payment would put us back on track for retirement at a decent age. At this point, generational wealth isn’t just money, it’s ancestral preservation. It’s survival,” Bailey notes.

Structural racism is a contributing factor in Black-white?life expectancy gap. As poignantly stated by?New York Times?writer?Roni Caryn Rabin, “there is no device, no drug powerful enough to counter the effects of poverty, pollution, stress, a broken food system, cities that are hard to navigate on foot and inequitable access to health care, particularly in minority communities.” Black Americans were the primary targets for?predatory mortgage loans, are more likely to deal with?food insecurity, and have?higher student loan debt?than other groups. Allocating money to repair these issues is critical and necessary. “A reparation payment would be a tremendous help, specifically around eliminating education debt and investing in ways that would benefit me and my future generation. My great-grandfather's farm with oil on it was taken through a threat to the lives of my great-grandfather, great-grandmother, and their eleven children, by a group of white men with guns,” shared workplace culture and leadership consultant?Kim Crowder. “My family gets checks of $91 and change each month. That is nothing compared to what the ancestors of those who robbed my family receive today. I aim to navigate what it means to build for my family and help others. That amount would be a significant support in making that a reality. Part of Black liberation is having access to resources. This would be a major step in that direction.”

As noted in the aforementioned reparation?study, the effect of a lump sum reparation payment would positively impact the life expectancy of Black Americans but reparations by themselves will?not?fix the oppressive systems that continue to harm Black people. Reparations provide a much-needed Band-Aid for the wound but do not get at the root cause of the issue. Though it won’t be easy to determine who would be eligible for reparations, what form reparations should take and how reparations will be funded, we must still begin to consider how to make amends. We cannot be afraid to reimagine a new tomorrow simply because we don’t have all the answers today. Chattel slavery impacted Black Americans in far too many ways to count. Steps must to be taken to provide restitution in order for the country to heal from its past transgressions.

This article was originally published in Forbes in November 2022.

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