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Donations & Dividends: Reparations for African-Americans

*The development of this article was prompted by a discussion in my Howard University course ‘The Economics of Black Community Development’.

*For an interesting media portrayal, I recommend watching the show Atlanta S3E4 ‘The Big Payback’ on Hulu.

For African-Americans (Black people of African descent whose ancestors were enslaved on U.S. soil), the goal in regard to the reparations owed to them by U.S. corporations, individual families, and the U.S. government itself, is to repair the centuries-long economic setback and prolonged oppression of the Black community. This concept of monetary reparations is far from rocket science, yet it has been made to seem complicated simply to deter the conversation. In reality, all types of tax breaks, baby bonds, etc. are organized for other groups of people (non-Black peoples) all the time. However, when the topic of justice for the descendants of kidnapped and enslaved Africans arises, suddenly the concept of reparations becomes inconceivably complex. Furthermore, arguments made in favor of reparations are often countered because they seem unfair to other citizens — citizens who are willfully ignorant to the cruel, brutal history of U.S. slavery/capitalism, and/or people who have taken no conscious part in profiting from the exploitation of Black labor in the U.S. and therefore do not see reparations as their problem.

It may take decades or possibly even another century, but we cannot continue to prolong the discussion of reparations any longer. We must assess and remedy the damages done to African American communities across the United States starting with the most severe and atrocious act, slavery. Historically in this country, white people, their families, communities, and businesses have profited exponentially off of enslaved Africans’ labor. In fact, such exploitation is the rooting cause of the racial wealth gap in the United States today. I’ll have to write a separate article about modern-day slavery tactics that target Black and Brown communities, particularly young Black men, which continues to financially oppress the Black population.

To stay on topic though, I’ll mention a couple examples of when Black wealth and Black excellence have been obliterated by racist, white supremacy hate groups throughout the modern era. For one, Black Wall Street, a thriving African-American community in Tulsa, Oklahoma was burned to the ground in 1921 because white folks there couldn’t stand to see Black people succeed financially. That event is known today as the Tulsa Race Massacre. More recently in U.S. history, The Black Panther Party, a political group founded in 1966 in Northern Californian that advocated for the Black community’s well-being was targeted and brutally attacked by the U.S. government because Black people’s success and independence poses a threat to the country’s efforts to oppress the Black community. However, if history hasn’t proven it to you yet already, Black people are beyond resilient, and we will continue to fight to live independently of our white oppressors despite evil acts committed against us generation after generation.

Thus, one of my ideal reparations programs would mandate that large corporations invest at least 12% of their annual gross income directly into historically Black/African American communities. This mandate could especially benefit predominantly Black cities such as Flint, Michigan because numerous resources could be amassed with just a percentage of what super corporations like Amazon make. (For reference, Amazon grossed $386 billion dollars in 2020 alone). Moreover, tactics like fractional shares could be used to involve more Black investors in the stock market. For example, African Americans who are employees of major money-making corporations, particularly those corporations that were started using forced labor or capital from forced labor, could be compensated with dividends from the company they are employed by, in addition to their normal pay, thereby ensuring that for as long as the business is alive and well, the Black community will benefit from that profit too. Together, these two solutions -donations and dividends- could serve as both individual and community/collective reparations for African Americans.