After the recent first 2018 jobs report there are experts on all sides. There those that claim that the United States job markets are reaching full employment. Depending on where you land on the economic equation it is either good or bad neither prospective address the root causes of wealth and economic stability.
In 2017 I experienced a week of awareness. The first part of the week I attend the 17th Summit of the Social Enterprise Alliance (SEA) in Los Angeles, SEA Summit’17. The second part of the week was with Congressional Black Caucus Legislative Weekend in Washington, DC while the distance spaded the breath of the nation the uniting bridge is the cross-section of scaling social enterprise and antenatal need for reparations for descents of United States Slavery The recent publication of Ana Lucia Araujo’s Reparations for Slavery and the Slave Trade: A Transnational and Comparative History affirms the atrocities of American Slavery and continue seething of not having reparations enacted.(1)
In February of 2016 almost two years ago Julia Craven who covers race in America for the Huff Post cited the amount owed to decedents of American Slavery to be upwards of 20 trillion dollars. (2) Considering the results of American slavery on current day decedents the current infusion of 20 trillion would cause less dependency on current services programs and stabilize some of the most at-risk communities in America.
There are those that become preoccupied with whether to give the reparations to the community as whole or to the individuals. In this discussion, there are valid claims that if given to individuals it would be squandered. In my analysis, it doesn’t matter what is done with the reparations just get it to the people who have been affected. That is those who were owed and their decedents are the people that are need of repair. What is left is a reasonable way of distribution to those deserving.
The action of reparations to those offended is not a concept that is unfamiliar to public policy. In the world or in this country. In fact, it is the more commonplace to acknowledging wrongdoing and prevailing impact of previous states actions. As documented by the United States Justice Department in 1999, the 57th anniversary of the Japanese encampment the program of redress had paid $20,000 to Japanese American or their heirs with a final payment of $5,000 to Latin American Japanese. Around the world, As documented by the Wall Street Journal in a 2013 article The Slavery Reparations Calculations By Carl Bialik. (3)
The purpose of reparations is in resolving harm done whether intently or well-meaning public policy went wrong. While there had been an attempt of reparations to former Slaves in America it was stopped and repealed and no substation was proposed. In an article in The Economist on May 27th, 2014 titled Slavery Reparations Cutting through the most common fears out the most popular obstructions and necessities of reparations. (4)
At the core of this matter are the unrefutably particulars of the circumstances: 1. American Slavery did exist. 2. What happens to American slavery from 1619 -1865 (in the interest of full disclosure my earliest relative who was born and put in slavery was in 1822) was inhuman, unwarranted, anti-social and deplorable acts were inflicted upon a people that violated any form decency. 3. There are now descendants of these acts that still suffer the implementations. It is why final resolutions of these circumstances cannot be resolved without initial action and intended to afford.
It has been documented that wealth is something that is transferred from generation to generation. It is only logical to observe oppression, poverty and limitation economic prosperity has been denied to decedents of United States Slavery by of various category based policies and practices. It is only reasonable to look at the approach of resolutions as logical and necessary to stabilize the degrading economic foundation of the American economy. At a recent workshop at the Congressional Black Caucus Legislative Weekend focusing on future workforce, it was documented that the academically highest achieving Black Person will remain at a disparaging economic level of the lowest educated White Person.
The hovering of this implementation of race is evident, but not consistent as a direct impact of American Slavery because American Slavery was not just Black people, nor people of African descent. American Slavery harmed a class of people that also included disenfranchised Native American and what would be considered White people.
In the interest of full disclosure, I am a descendant of American Slavery. My maternal Great Grandmother and Great-grandfather who I knew in my lifetime were both born into slavery and later freed. My Maternal Great-Great Grandmother was placed in slavery by her mother because the law required because her biological father was Native American she had to be placed in slavery on her mother’s plantation.
The purpose of social enterprise is to supported by a mission-driven purposes that exceeds the traditional business models. That foster ideal against traditional money hoarding and disproportion of wage compensation as well as rewarding overt actions that stifle innovation. Placing the America economy based on a fractured basis of capture and destroy only to survive until the next conquer enters the room. It is these principles that can be the bedrock of valuing real worth, diversifying our economy and stabilizing some the most at-risk communities.
The practical forms of reparations implementation an aggressive enactment that will relive public reliance. To define the most direct to those that are in need of repair to those that are impacted as part of the offended group has to be cleared. Two proposed models. One form is a direct payment of a certain amount. For example, $20,000 to $25,000 to each descendant of documented slavery.
It must be noted that this is not a race-based but situationally based. For example, a person who presents as a Black person with no connection or heritage of slavery would not be permitted to repair. However, a person who may present as a White person or a Native American that can document ancestry to the United States Slavery would be entitled to compensation.
The other form of reparation could be that descendants of United States Slavery will receive for a period of time like 10 or 20 years total reimbursement of all taxes paid to federal, state, county and municipal bodies.
What either of these would do is affirm the findings of the United Nations and other (5) and set a path forward. The internal impact will include that current inheritance of poverty active stakeholders in their own destiny thus relieving the public services cost in many urban and rural poverty of descendants of slaves. Thus, provide a mission-driven direction for empowerment and self-determination.
The models will impact the currently assisted food subsidy programming and subsidized housing. In addition to providing direct service to those in need these programs subsidize the agriculture industry and real estate as well as affirming a quality of life that is stabilizing to those situated in need. This is a welcoming cross-section that will scale social enterprise and strengthen the base of the United States economic economy and economic stability.
Recently I visited Sid Row in Los Angeles. This was an impactful experience. While I have seen much and not shaken easily. The thought of despair falling on those in need overriding reason and irrational action are thoughts that I could not leave me. If we do not actively resolve reparations for descendants of slavery the impact and lack of equity will burden that real stability of our United States economy.
Economist have long belief that bridging economic disparity will further economic growth. reparations to American Slave Descendants would infusion upwards of 20 trillion dollars of resources and decrease public reliant dependency.
It is becoming imperative to relieve the risk of the precariousness of the American economy. A way forward toward stability of life will begin to enact reoperations to Decedents of American Slavery. The question of where does this leadership begin. Last year the New York state legislature has begun anew with a study on the impact of American Slavery on the state of New York, according to the reports of the Daly Freeman News. (6)