I would like insight into one thing. Government reparations are one thing - do you think the public response is also an indication of whites not wanting to lose their privilege? That is the fear for whites in giving up some or most of their privilege? Individually when you think of losing any of the material and other benefits you have from being white, how likely is it that you will do that? What is the difficulty and fear in doing that? Can you imaging say earning $40,000 and beyond basic food and shelter and health giving the rest away each and every year to a marginalized black person/family. Of course, these ideas are likely never going to occur, but I a curious as to the fears underlying them why they wouldn’t occur. I’d like to have your thoughts.
PS. I did see this acted out as a child in my home country when someone would make it out of poverty to the even a more secure lower class and definitely if to the middle class, so humans can and have done this before. I just don’t see whites being able to do that anytime soon. If they’re ever were able to do it, in significant numbers it would be a grassroots revolution, mocking the government and goals of the dominant structures, to an enormous magnitude. BUTTERFLYIRIS
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I tend to think that there's room and need for larger, group initiatives and smaller, personal decisions. Collectively we're here for encouragement and organizing in the larger movement for reparations. I think that this community has many practical suggestions on how to make that possible.
On the other hand, we also have daily choices that are "micro-reparations." As the parent of white children in Montgomery Co, MD I am aware that the public school system is set up to preserve white privilege in the institution. It does this in a number of different ways, but one of the most obvious and difficult to change is throught the "gifted and talented" and magnet programs. In second grade, the county does a global screening process that identifies G/T students. When the G/T movement began years ago, it was intended to identify kids who were so unusually gifted that they were likely to drop out of school without special intervention. In most schools systems nationally, maybe 4-8% of students are identified as G/T. In this county, upwards of 35-40% of students are identified in second grade as G/T. It also happens that most of the identified children are white (in a school system where whites are a minority). So, accelerated instruction begins for these G/T groups in third grades and then increases the likelihood that in middle and high school these children will be accepted into special magnet programs with special instruction that the county offers - again populated primarily by white students. Without getting further into the reasons why this happens, my point is that I have a choice about how to respond. First, I'm trying to abolish the system entirely with other stakeholders interested in equity in education. Second, I have a personal choice to make about whether my children participate in this system. And, to be honest, it's been a hard decision to make given all the pressure to get your kids into the "best" school. Third, I discuss with other parents the dangers of this kind of exclusive culture for the development of children's souls. Some folks get it and we need to support each other.
So, I think that we need both - the daily micro-reparations (which is sometimes just called good white ally behavior) and the macro-reparations which take organizing, conversation, and awareness. Thanks for the very real question.