FAQ
Q: What are reparations anyway?
A. Great question! Reparations have taken many forms in various times and places, but is broadly defined as acknowledgement, atonement, and compensation for wrongs committed by one party against another (see United Nations Framework for what constitutes reparations here). In our case, we are concerned with the reparations owed by the United States government to African Americans for four centuries of mistreatment and abuse, including enslavement, redlining, Jim Crow laws, and many, many others.
Q. What happens to the money contributed here? Are you going to just hand out checks to people?
A. NNo. The Fund for Reparations NOW! exists to pilot what reparations could look like once granted by the federal government, guided by the 10-Point Plan of the National African American Reparations Commission (NAARC). Instead of giving checks to individuals, the 10-Point Plan focuses on societal change and community projects within the national African American community. Please see our Projects tab for more information!
Q. Reparations seems so complicated! Who should be paid? Who shouldn’t? And how much? Doesn’t all this complication make this issue a non-starter?
A. We agree that reparations, like the rest of our history with race in this country, is a deeply complicated issue. However, as white Americans who are unwilling to live with the realities of inequality and racism in our country, we see reparations as a rare chance at redemption and healing that outweighs the complications associated with them. We also believe that the job of deciding what those reparations should look like and where the money goes belongs to leaders from African American communities nationwide. We are committed to following their leadership both now and in the future. NAARC’s 10-Point Plan and the Five Pillars of Repair outline a communal and tangible vision of reparations that we are proud to support, and we fully believe in the possibilities for transformation that they will create if implemented at the federal level of government.
Q. I didn’t own any enslaved peoples, and neither did anyone in my family. Why should I have to pay reparations?
A. We’re going to let Ta-Nehisi Coates, author of The Case for Reparations address this one, since he explains it more eloquently than we could:
The only thing we would add is that even beyond enslavement, it’s hard to know all the ways in which our ancestors actively participated in supporting and perpetuating White Supremacy. Whether it simply didn’t seem like a problem at the time, or was a shameful act that was intentionally buried (like some of us have personally discovered), much of our families’ histories were often sanitized in the interest of protecting our sense of “innocence.” Unfortunately, no matter what our ancestors did, or what part of the country we’re from, it would have been impossible to live as a white person in the U.S. without benefitting from the legacy of enslavement and ongoing racism. That’s why it’s clear to us: Reparations are past due.
Q. Black Americans aren’t the only ones that have been harmed by the U.S. government. What about reparations for Native Americans and other impacted people?
A. We absolutely could not agree more! Reparations for African Americans is part of a larger reckoning that we believe the federal government and white Americans specifically are going to have to deeply grapple with if we ever hope to move forward as an authentically United States. While The Fund for Reparations NOW! is focused on long overdue reparations for African Americans, we invite you to use this model to advance reparations for other groups as well. Who knows, we may even be able to collaborate!