The new Juneteenth federal holiday celebrates the emancipation of enslaved people in our nation. That did not, however, emancipate Black people from the economic impact of their enslavement. Emancipation was followed by a failed Reconstruction, a century of Jim Crow, separate-but-(not)-equal, institutional racism and discrimination — the consequences of which continue to this day.
When it comes to compensating those who are suffering the economic consequences of slavery, many people are put off by the term “reparations.” Many think that slavery is a distant reality and enough time has passed that redressing it is no longer necessary or relevant. Reparations are also thought of as a handout, which is counter to the American pick-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps ethos.
We might better define reparations as a long-delayed investment in communities and people who were systematically denied the chance to accumulate family wealth as other Americans did. This is something that continued long after state-sanctioned slavery ended. According to the Federal Reserve’s 2019 Survey of Consumer Finances, median household wealth for Black families was $24,100 compared with $188,200 for non-Hispanic white families. Moreover, a recent Urban Institute report found that household wealth was more than 200 times greater in some parts of Cook County, Illinois, than in others — demonstrating the vastly different worlds experienced within a single county.
