Interpersonal Reparations

Discussions of reparations often focus on matters of legal frameworks and policies, often designed at a national or global level. There are fewer, but growing attempts to discuss reparations through a social, interpersonal lens that often come from the voices of the marginalized themselves. In this blog entry, we look at reparations not only as restitution, but how it should build transformative relationships.

(CGTN, 2020)

Discussions about reparations must begin by briefly mentioning colonialism, labor and slavery. When the various empires of Europe launched their colonial projects in the Americas, Asia and Africa, they all shared a fundamental imperial assumption – that land and resources are theirs for the taking, and people living there could be murdered or dominated to suit the needs of the empire (Goggans, 2019).

Throughout colonial rule, various races and ethnicities were subjugated through genocide. The need to expand empires and generate profit fuelled the demand for labor, and the slave trade sustained this demand. Particularly in the 1600s, racial slavery of the English colonies of North America was tied into an imperialist sense of private property, cementing the notion that the slave was less-than a human being (Blackburn, 1998, p. 237) in (Robinson, 2001). This imperialist notion of private property paved the way for what we now consider as modern society – one that is built on consumerism and capitalism.

“Capitalism requires inequality and racism enshrines it.”

Ruth Wilson Gilmore

The development and expansion of modern capitalist society continues to follow racial directions, which means that social, cultural and political dominance during the rule of colonial rule remains to this day in ‘capitalist form’ (Robinson, 2000 [1983]). Highlighting the United States context, US racial capitalism is a racial hierarchy imposed by war, expropriation by domination, and labor exploitation [1]. At the same time, Blackness is equated with being disposable and expendable (Burden-Stelly, 2020). This racialism goes beyond economic hierarchy that emerged from capitalism, but also permeates social structures (Robinson, 2000 [1983]), which includes social relationships as well as the views and beliefs of Black people about themselves and others.

This history of colonialism and slavery, and modern racial capitalism, have created the hostile environment we come to know in the present. Wherein racial discrimination, mass incarceration, hate crime, and cases of widespread inequity are rampant. And it is against this backdrop that attempts towards reparations are being made. While there are calls for reparations found in both legal and political venues, (such as the CARICOM Plan for Reparatory Justice and Belgium’s mandate to a special commission to examine the colonial occupation of Congo, Rwanda, and Burundi), there are fewer but growing calls to address the relationships that now exist between dominant (often white) people and people of color. This is why, according to Aaron Goggans, attempts for reparations are difficult and tend to be transactional:

“These transactional relationships are typified by a ‘what can I get out of this’ mentality. Transactional relationships are unable to make systemic change or even effective reforms because they are not strong enough to get people to make any sacrifice… They also tend to do more harm than good, as power differentials and resource differences tend to build resentment over time. For instance, Black communities have grown to resent white organizations coming to us with fully planned-out campaigns and asking for our support by telling us how “their” issue affects us.” (Aaron Goggans, 2019)

Goggans says that reciprocal relationships are far more effective as a mode of reparations, because these are typified by a collaborative solidarity informed by honesty, equity, and long-term vision. This means that there are active conversations, and marginalized groups are able to participate in the process of setting their goals. Beyond reciprocal relationships are what Goggans describes as transformative relationships. In this type of relationship, everyone is aware of “each other’s past, current context, and visions for the future” and we work with each other to help acheive freedom, power, and self-determination of all parties (Goggans, 2016).

Reparations should not merely be seen as restoring artifacts or repaying debt. It should be seen as a genuine attempt to repair the existing relationships among individuals and groups of people. It is a process that can potentially begin healing wounds and building something stronger together. It is an attempt to be inclusive, in contrast to what appears as a top-down approach of reparations that play in national and international arenas.

In their research, Elena Butti and Brianne McGonigle Leyh illustrate how national interventions are often not well received by the people they deem to help and do little to change the lives of their intended target groups. As a result, they proposed three suggestions that I found to be helpful not only in creating interventions, but also help initiate reciprocal, even perhaps transformational relationships.

They recommend that initiatives for reparations must (a) be flexible in that they offer more choices; (b) be more inclusive with greater direct and indirect participation; and (c) include ways to address the different layers of marginalisation that may affect the person’s life (Butti & McGonigle Leyh, 2019).

“Our assessment is that state-led reparations, on their own, should not aim at achieving full societal transformation. We do maintain, however, that reparations could aim to provide some degree of transformation of the individual lives of victims.” (Butti & McGonigle Leyh, 2019)

These suggestions highlight the need to establish collaborative solidarity, through inclusivity and honest conversations. It also highlights that there are intersections of marginalization, such as race, gender and class that reparations need to be sensitive about. In summary, true initiatives for reparations aim to build intersectional transformative relationships through inclusivity and participation. This in turn can only strengthen economic and material interventions, that will help transform the individual lives of victims.

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[1] The modern institutionalization of US racial capitalism cannot be fully discussed here, but please see 13th (Ava Duverney) as a great documentary on the subject, available on Netflix.

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References:

Burden-Stelly, Charisse. 2020. “Modern U.S. Racial Capitalism.” In Monthly Review.

Butti, Elena, and Brianne McGonigle Leyh. 2019. “Intersectionality and Transformative Reparations: The Case of Colombian Marginal Youths.” International Criminal Law Review 19: 753-782.

Goggans, Aaron. 2019. “The case for interpersonal reparations.” Fellowship of Reconciliation. 24 February. https://wagingnonviolence.org/forusa/2019/02/case-for-interpersonal-reparations/.

Goggans, Aaron.. 2016. What Black Queer Feminism Has Taught Me: Intersectionality, Nurturance Culture and Transformative Relationships. 15 February. https://medium.com/@aarongoggans/what-black-queer-feminism-has-taught-me-intersectionality-nurturance-culture-and-transformative-c3f86baa86d3.

Robinson, Cedric. 2000 [1983]. Black Marxism. The Making of the Black Radical Tradition. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina.

Robinson, Cedric J. 2001. “The Inventions of the Negro.” Social Identities: Journal for the Study of Race, Nation and Culture 7 (3): 329-361.

Systemic racism: UN rights chief urges reparations for colonialism and slavery. Digital Image. CGTN. June 19, 2020. Accessed January 10, 2021. https://newseu.cgtn.com/news/2020-06-19/-Systemic-racism-UN-rights-chief-urges-reparations-for-slavery-RqBTXaLhoA/index.html