SDSU Professor Makes The Case For Reparations

Speaker 1: 00:00 For African-Americans America has bad credit as the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr said in his, I have a dream speech nearly 50 years ago. The country has defaulted on its promise of 40 acres and a mule along with Liberty and justice for all. Now, the state of California has started a commission to study reparations. A DISA LK belong is a professor of Africana studies at SDSU, and he makes the case for reparations in an opinion piece. He wrote for the San Diego union Tribune. I spoke with him recently, here's that interview California is talking about reparation secretary of state, Shirley Weber, who was previously a state assembly member for the 79th district authored assembly, bill 31 21 to study and develop reparations proposals for African-Americans. What do you think California? And this country needs to study as it pertains to reparations at this point? I mean, what's left to look into, Speaker 2: 00:58 Well, honestly, I don't think there's a whole lot, uh, to study. I mean, certainly the data already exists that let us know about, uh, you know, educational advancement, uh, economics, um, incarceration rates, uh, birth rates. I mean, there are just a number of metrics that we could look at to see that African-Americans are still, uh, in a state of oppression in this country. So, you know, I don't know that we necessarily have to study it, uh, but perhaps from a political standpoint, uh, that is considered a necessary step on the path to, uh, truly dealing with reparations. But I am proud of the work that our secretary of state did, Dr. Shirley Weber. Uh, I hope that the state of California, you know, kind of do right by its African-American citizens, uh, but also serve as a model for the rest of the country, you know, for what, for what can happen. Speaker 1: 02:10 You have this conversation about reparations, many people think it's just about slavery, but you point out that reparations would need to address contemporary forms of oppression and everything in between. Can you explain that a bit? Yeah. Speaker 2: 02:23 Oh, absolutely. I mean, of course enslavement, uh, is the original sin of this nation. And, you know, the situation that African-Americans find ourselves in today is a result of that, uh, troubled traumatic history, but subsequent to enslavement, I mean, we had years of Jim Crow, segregation, uh, racialized violence in, uh, you know, terror, terrorism really directed towards African-Americans with lynching and, uh, sexual assaults were also something that was a pandemic in African-American communities or, or racialized sexual assaults. Uh, so there were, there are a number of forms of oppression and discrimination, uh, since enslavement, that is also a part of the reparations debate. And in fact, that's most significant to the re reparations conversation than enslavement itself. Speaker 1: 03:26 What do you think reparations should be for African-Americans? Speaker 2: 03:30 Well, I think it can be a number of things. I think it should be a number of things, whether we're talking about housing grants, uh, free public education or free post-secondary education, free healthcare. And, uh, of course, you know, healthcare is something that is a right, that all Americans should have. Uh, but that's definitely one of them. I think that a targeted affirmative action program, uh, should certainly be implemented. Of course we have affirmative action nationwide course, but the primary beneficiaries, even of affirmative action are white women. So I think that, you know, reparations can take and should take, uh, a number of forms and really not just one. Speaker 1: 04:16 And does social justice play in reparations? And why is it so important? Speaker 2: 04:20 I don't think that this country could really move forward and truly be what it has always said. It was, uh, without actually living up to these ideals of social justice. I mean the United States government and its citizens since its birth have always gone about the world promoting itself in such a way that doesn't really reflect the reality of the people that actually live here or LA, or at least in this context. Uh African-Americans so, so social justice is very much a part of reparations, but to add to that when, and if reparations are awarded to African-Americans, there must also be put in place preventative measure so that these kinds of things do not happen again. So it's really not enough to provide reparations without truly creating a just and good multicultural society. So social justice is very much a part of reparations it's reparations itself, but it's also instituting preventative measures to ensure that we live in a society that we think we should live in a just society Speaker 1: 05:36 And reparations. Aren't a new concept for America. Can you talk a bit about that? Speaker 2: 05:42 Well, it's not, you know, this conversation of reparations for African African-Americans, you know, or reparations for African-Americans is not as pioneering, you know, revolutionary strategy or tactic to address past wrongs. Uh, but it's one in a line of reparations. I mean, you know, when we talk about reparations for Japanese Americans, for their unconscionable internment in concentration camps during world war two, there has been reparations given to indigenous people of this country, not nearly enough, but that, that happened even, you know, to, to an extent, uh, Jewish Americans have received, you know, reparations for something that the, the type of antisemitism that didn't actually take place here in the United States. So there is a, there is a blueprint for reparations, uh, in, in this country and there's no justifiable excuse to support reparations, uh, for other groups and then deny reparations for, uh African-Americans. Speaker 1: 06:51 Why do you think it's taken so long for America to just now begin to talk about reparations? Speaker 2: 06:57 Well, I think the protests of the 2020, uh, put the plight of African-Americans, uh, front and center in this country, I think that if the pandemic and the protest never happened, we wouldn't be having this conversation today. So I think that's the reason why we are having the conversation, uh, but hopefully, uh, unlike some of the conversations that we have had, which have been very much cosmetic, uh, just kind of scratching the surface, but hopefully this discussion of reparations, you know, we'll eventually have much more traction. Speaker 1: 07:34 I've been speaking with SDSU professor of Africana studies at decent LK blond professor. Okay. Balon, thank you so much for joining us. Speaker 2: 07:43 You're welcome. And thank you so much for inviting me.