The History of Reparations

↓ More info and sources below ↓
In 2014, writer Ta-Nehisi Coates’ article for The Atlantic “The Case for Reparations” went viral. Tracing everything from the racial terror of slavery to the rampant housing discrimination of the 20th century, Coates made the case for financial reparations for the descendants of those who were enslaved in the US. However, the argument for reparations extends back much further than 2014 and also has significance beyond the Black American community. Today Danielle talks about one of the most controversial topics moving through American politics for over 150 years.

Created and Hosted by Danielle Bainbridge
Produced by Complexly for PBS Digital Studios

---
Follow us on...
---
Origin of Everything is a show about the undertold histories and cultural dialogues that make up our collective story. From the food we eat, to the trivia and fun facts we can’t seem to get out of our heads, to the social issues we can’t stop debating, everything around us has a history. Origin of Everything is here to explore it all. We like to think that no topic is too small or too challenging to get started.

Works Cited:

_____

Caste: The Origins of our Discontents Isabel Wilkerson

Torpey, J. (2006). Making whole what has been smashed: on reparation politics. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.

Eric Foner, Reconstruction: America’s Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877

[KyleWyattOnGoogle]

Video after video, Origin of Everything just keeps knocking it out of the park. I’m so glad this project exists.

[prettypic]

I think certain people associate reparations with “cheating”. They’re so blind to the fact that they’re privileged, they see any attempt to equalize things for others as them being given an unfair or unearned advantage. They automatically assume that everyone starts out on a level playing field without considering things like inherited circumstances (like social class and access to resources) and societal prejudice. Any reparations are therefore “discrimination”. This is really similar to the debate around the disabled people and accommodations

[desean]

Has always amazed me how we act as though reparations aren’t a real thing that our country and countries around the world have done. It’s been mythologized to be something that it isn’t.

[centurionguards]

Here in the UK they paid the slave owners for loss of "property" around half the UK's GDP.

[curtisknight]

Reparations is like you loan somebody some money and when it's time to pay up they say they don't have it but you see them wearing new clothes.

[damemelusine]

Thank you Danielle and your team for making history, real history, accessible. I just noted that you sound different in this video, not your usual self as a host. I hope you are ok, please take care.

[gregoryadams]

Danielle Bainbridge is so awesome, always thorough and well-spoken.

[ertfgghhhh]

What i hate about political discussions is that people speak thru emotions rather than intellect

[Bacopa]

There was a pretty cool resettlement program in the Houston area. Never knew this because I'm white, even though I lived between two freedmen's resettlement areas. Yeah, I went to kids school with black kids from Carverdale and west county. I had older black teachers teaching history and social studies who used to teach at Carverdale. We learned about the Civil Rights movement and we never knew that they used to teach in a segregated school located in a resettlement community. I never knew to ask. I had the whole history in the classroom and they could not speak and I did not think to ask.

Here's how badass Carverdale was in its dying days in the 1980s. There was a family from there named "Citizen". Never thought about how that happened. There was just that girl named Citizen. There has to be a badass story behind this.

Despite living among this history, I never learned any of it until my mother mentioned that Helen Kirby used to own the land where Prairie View A&M is located. Found out she operated a boarding school there before the Civil War there, and actually approached the reconstruction board to sell the land and convert it into a college for black people. The area near Prairie View was also a resettlement area and is to this day a locus of black cowboy culture.

All this history where I lived and I never knew it. I never knew about the events in the movie "The Strange Demise of Jim Crow" about a conspiracy of silence that desegregated Houston minimal violence. I guess that means it worked. Seriously, this is an interesting story. Negotiated desegregation coupled with an absolute local media blackout so that no white folks would get riled up.

[bradhuffjr]

Former slaves owned slaves. Look at Liberia's history, for example. The Dahomey Kingdom is another horrific example.

[akutheshapeshifter]

The USA paid slave owners reparations when they lost slaves😐but here we are still to this day without reparations

[jamespaynelethal]

I seriously want to thank everyone responsible for this channel. I value the information presented and everytime I watch I learn something new

[StorybookApothecary]

I don't think we can move forward as a nation until we address the horrors of our past, including slavery, reparations and telling the truths of our history; not what we wish it would be.

[shawntricewashington]

If done right reparations would be cash payments over time, land, along with. Government policy. Yvette Carnell and Antonio Moore are the only ones seriously talking about this right now. #ADOS

[SlytherinShark]

Thank you for this informative and nuanced presentation, Danielle. Great work!

[jojones]

Reparations should cover all those injustices that Black people suffered and still do in some instances. Black Africans were brought to America and forced to work with no pay. Black Africans free labor made this country wealthy that it benefits from today and they should be compensated with money and the resources to help their families and communities . Reparations for Black African Americans is Justice .

[trentstewart]

Reparations can be included in a CLASS ACTION lawsuit.

[maureenjackson]

African Americans are always told to 'get over slavery.

At the same time there are are Confederate Monuments all over the South, and many white Southerners fly the rebel flag.

Posted from Britain

[mylilpc]

The exact content I was looking for. Thank you!

[michaelpcoffee]

For real reparations: they identify an actual victim of the offense in question.
They specify the abuses and damages.
They assign a dollar amount for their compensation.
They pay the victim.
If the victim is deceased; they identify the closest living legal heir and pay them.
What is the name of the victim that you are trying to collect the unpaid reparations for?