Does leaving the United States mean giving up your claim to reparations? Halisi Vinson and Ric Crawley of Our Black Utopia, who’ve lived in Lisbon for four years, tackled that exact question head-on, arguing that reparations and moving abroad aren’t remotely in conflict. Their case rests on one core distinction:…
Category: Educational Resources
Reading lists, lesson plans, and other materials for learning and teaching about reparations.
Educational Resources
Dr. Kweku Amoasi on the Mental Health Side of Reparations
Can a check ever be enough if the harm was never acknowledged? Licensed psychologist Dr. Kweku Akyirefi Amoasi, formerly known as Dr. Ramel Smith, joined Dominique DiPrima on Freedmen Fridays to explore reparations and mental health, arguing that psychological repair has to happen alongside, not instead of, material repair. What…
Educational Resources
Lisa E. Davis Blacksplains How Black Genius Was Stolen
Can you actually steal genius? Entertainment attorney Lisa E. Davis thinks so, and she’s got two centuries of receipts. She joined host Michael Harriot on Blacksplained, the weekly interview series from his Contraband Camp platform, to talk through Black intellectual property theft, the throughline connecting patent law in the 1820s…
Educational Resources
Dr. William Darity Explains Reparations Eligibility on The Roots Matter
Dr. William A. Darity Jr., widely regarded as the nation’s foremost scholar on lineage-based reparations, sat down with Cynthia McDonald on The Roots Matter to break down what reparations eligibility actually requires, and why so much public debate rests on misunderstanding the basics. Darity recently retired from Duke University, where…
Educational Resources
Who’s Asking? A New Study Wants AAPI Views on Black Reparations
A University of Miami political scientist is paying Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) residents of San Francisco, St. Paul, Detroit, and Asheville $75 to sit for anonymous, 45-60 minute Zoom interviews about local reparations initiatives under consideration in their cities. The recruitment flyer, circulated by research assistant Jessica Ma,…
Educational Resources
What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?
On July 5, 1852, Frederick Douglass stood before an abolitionist audience in Rochester, New York, and delivered one of the most searing speeches in American history. Invited to give a Fourth of July oration, Douglass instead used the occasion to confront his audience with an uncomfortable truth: the freedom being…
Books
David McNally Says Atlantic Slavery Was Not Pre-Capitalist. It Was Capitalism.
Was Atlantic slavery a capitalist system or a pre-capitalist one? In a recent conversation, historian David McNally argues that Atlantic slavery was not outside capitalism at all. It was a distinct capitalist system built on enslaved labor, commodity production, and surplus value. McNally’s new book, Slavery and Capitalism: A New…
Educational Resources
Haiti Paid France for Its Own Freedom. That’s Why Haiti Is Poor.
Michael Imhotep is a historian, researcher, and founder of the African History Network. He teaches a 10-week course connecting the Haitian Revolution to the U.S. Civil War, the Louisiana Purchase, and the Black Power Movement. His breakdown of the New York Times 2022 investigative series cuts straight to why Haiti…
Educational Resources
Vic Mensa and The Conscious Lee on the 13th Amendment, the Sugar Land 95, and Why Reparations Can’t Be Real While Slavery Is Still Legal.
Chicago rapper, activist, and Harvard-educated debater Vic Mensa sat down with The Conscious Lee for one of the most intellectually rigorous reparations conversations in this entire series. The central argument is one line that should stop your breath: “Reparations cannot be a serious conversation while slavery is still happening — because under the…