In this time of fascism: Reparations are a meaningful promise

Makini Chisolm-Straker

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In such times as now, survival is fore of mind, but the promise of communal abundance is not just aspirational. The actions we take to move beyond fascism can also transcend the extractive systems that undergird authoritarian regimes. In this federated, (semi) democracy, U.S. states must lead with a commitment to reparative action. Non-federal actors must engage in reparations work to build the surging tide of justice and joy.

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According to the United Nations, there are five forms of reparations: restitution, compensation, rehabilitation, satisfaction, and guarantees of non-repetition. Restitution should restore those harmed to their original condition. Realistically speaking, this is nearly impossible in cases of gross violations of human rights. Given the centuries of human rights abuses the U.S. has committed against Native and Black peoples—state-sanctioned or led acts of cultural and physical genocide, including desecration of sacred lands and spaces, rape and forced sterilization, language theft, family separation, physical torture, murder, property theft, and enslavement—restitution in its truest sense isn’t achievable. And yet, the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) does not absolve the state of its obligation to try.

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Compensation is due for financially quantifiable damages (and sometimes for loss of future gains or symbolic purposes). Among many scholars, Sandy Darity and A. Kirsten Mullen provide precise evidence of how much financial compensation, from the U.S. government, is due to Black descendants of enslavement; compensation is also due to Black survivors and descendants of the badges of slavery. The 1946 Indian Claims Commission provided $1.3 billion in compensation to 176 tribes for stolen land; this amounted to about $1,000 per person paid. That same year, the U.S. claimed more than $250 billion in debt. But national “debt,” is simply money in the hands of U.S. taxpayers. And, as it is now, in 1946, that wealth was mostly held by White relatives. White wealth was accrued on and because of stolen land (as well as stolen labor). A mere thousand dollars per person to less than half the 974 Native nations is not meaningful compensation. Per U.N. principles and guidelines, compensation to both Native nations and U.S. Blacks is owed.

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Rehabilitation is meant to provide healing and recovery from the harms, and specifically centers medical and psychological care, and legal and social services. Appropriately, the ICJ does not allow that the obligation for rehabilitation is limited to the resources of the state; rehabilitation is based upon each survivor’s self-identified need. The badges of slavery, for example, have generated a “gulf” of a Black-White wealth gap; the Native-White wealth gap may be even more massive. In a capitalist nation, wealth predicts wellbeing, so it is unsurprising that the racial disparity of excess morbidity and mortality persists in the absence of meaningful reparative action.

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Sources: Four Bands Community Fund, Survey of Consumer Finances, Federal Reserve Economic Data, authors’ calculations

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Satisfaction is a form of significant structural repair. Beyond cessation of the harm, truth-seeking and disclosure, public apology, and accurate historical education are required according to the U.N. These acts of satisfaction are the foundation of the fifth form of reparation: guarantees of non-repetition. But U.S. history proves satisfaction is not sufficient for the guarantee.

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Three categories of the badges of slavery (residential segregation, criminal legal system, and tax law), with policy examples that must be changed to cease the ongoing anti-Black harm.

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In 1988 President Ronald Reagan signed the “Reparations Bill” for Japanese Americans who were held in “internment” (read: concentration) camps during World War II. According to U.S. intelligence, no Japanese American was ever found to be disloyal to the U.S. ?White supremacy was the basis for internment: SCOTUS Justice Earl Warren said, “We believe that when we are dealing with the Caucasian race we have methods that will test the loyalty of them, and we believe that we can, in dealing with Germans and Italians, arrive at some fairly sound conclusions…But when we deal with the Japanese, we are in an entirely different field…Their method of living, their language, make for this difficulty.”

“Mother and baby, internees at the Minidoka Internment Camp in South Central Idaho, ca. 1942-1945. The Service Flag hung in the window indicates that a family member is serving in the armed forces. About 25,000 Nisei served in the military while their families lived behind barbed wire.” Photographer Bill Kunitsugu

Postcard from the Collection of the Wing Luke Museum

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The camps were closed with the ending of the War; the Commission formed for Japanese American reparations documented a strong body of evidence of wrongdoing; the U.S. government apologized and paid each survivor $20,000. Still, after 2001’s 9/11, the Patriot Act was authorized. Again under the pretext of “national security,” Muslim and Muslim “suspected” people were detained, and Guantanamo Bay functioned as a detention center. Most of those detained were released without being charged but are still categorized as “enemy combatants.”

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Guarantees of non-repetition require: civilian control of military and security forces; an independent judiciary; protection of legal, medical, media, and human rights professionals; human rights and humanitarian law education for all, especially law enforcement, military, and security actors; and revision of laws that allowed for the harm, among other actions. Barring this form of reparation, all the other forms of reparation serve a time-bound group: those before the harm is repeated. Without the structural promise of non-repetition, the guise of "national security” continues to thinly, if at all, veil the face of xenophobia and ethnocentrism (see the newly passed Laken Riley Act that allows the accusation of a minor, non-violent crime to justify deportation).

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And yet, the rising tide is in favor of reparations. ?As organizations do the work of accurately educating people on U.S. history and wealth accrual/obstruction, the narrative about reparations shifts. In response, we see a groundswell of local and state jurisdictions exploring how they can get in right relationship and move toward communal abundance. They do this even knowing that until the federal government engages in reparations actions, local and state actions will be incomplete reparations. Only the federal government is truly capacitated to make evidence-based, large sum financial reparations. States are currency users and rely upon tax dollars and federal funding. As such, more than symbolic compensation is largely out of states’ reach. Moreover, within and over generations, people eligible for reparations have moved localities and states, even countries; the federal government is best positioned to make compensatory reparations.

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Guarantees of non-repetition are possible for states to a limited degree. For example, states can require civilian control of law enforcement and an independent judiciary; educate on human rights and humanitarian law; but can only protect professionals within their political borders. And federal law supersedes state law; states are sovereign only where the federal government is silent.

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Rehabilitation may also offer opportunity for state intervention, but in a capitalist nation medical and psychological care, and legal and social services require significant fiscal backing. States are financially limited in what they can achieve toward rehabilitation.

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Satisfaction is a multifaceted form of reparation where states may have the most capacity. States can eliminate state-level policies that amount to badges of slavery; and they may adopt policies to mitigate federal badges of slavery. States can (and are) embark(ing) on truth and disclosure expeditions, aka “Reparations Commissions.” States can make public apologies, build monuments, and educate their populace on harms committed. These actions are not sufficient, but education is powerful. An accurately educated populace is so powerful, a fascist government seeks to eliminate comprehensive history-telling in schools.

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With limited capacity, states cannot achieve or near the United Nation’s definition of restitution. But, as the ICJ instructs, the responsibility remains and especially now, we must show the federal government the right path. Localities and states beginning reparations work will not absolve the U.S. government of its reparative duty but their work shows we are ready: More and more states are engaging in reparations work, demonstrating that despite a slim majority choosing fascism, a growing number of us seek the wisdom of communal abundance. Fascism’s days are numbered; may this administration be its last gasp. Reparations are nonviolent revolution actions with the promise of communal abundance.

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Title photo: “pinky promise” by Robynnx

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Please subscribe to “Rx Reparations.” In coming editions, I explore the role of private corporations, philanthropy, and families; and individual reparative actions. Connect with and message me if your organization is due for a reparations workshop. Register for an upcoming free, in-person workshop here. Together, let’s strategize, create, and experience liberatory joy.

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