What is owed? podcast explores what reparations could look like in Boston
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- Опубликовано: 15 фев 2024
- #BasicBlackGBH #Reparations #blackhistorymonth
GBH News is out with a new podcast that asks a big question: What Is Owed? On this week’s episode of Basic Black, Host Phillip Martin talks about the podcast, which dives into what reparations might look like in Boston, with GBH News Politics Reporter and Podcast Host Saraya Wintersmith, GBH News Senior Podcast Producer Jerome Campbell, Historian Dr. Kellie Carter Jackson of Wellesley College, and Boston Task Force on Reparations member George “Chip” Greenidge.
The podcast dives into Boston’s history of slavery and discrimination and examines what could come of the city’s Task Force on Reparations.
“The ‘why?’ is looking at the work that the city council put forth in 2022, calling for the task force. It came out of this question of, if reparations is going to happen in Boston, what would it look like?” says Campbell.
The push for reparations is picking up steam across the country, with Illinois, California, and New York launching task forces to study reparations. But it is unpopular among white Americans: a 2022 Pew Research Center study found that 18% of white Americans support reparations for descendants of enslaved people in the U.S., compared to 77% of Black Americans.
Carter Jackson, associate professor and chair of Africana Studies at Wellesley College, attributes that gap to a lack of education.
“Most Americans are grossly uninformed,” she says. “Most Americans are not aware of the history of slavery, the deep, violent history of slavery. They’re not aware of the deep, violent history of segregation, of redlining, of how Black people have been stripped from their wealth, stripped from opportunities to build wealth, blocked from entering schools for decades or centuries on end."
But reparations aren’t only for harms done in the past. “We have to talk about not just the past, but the present. Ongoing structural racism, what does that look like? And how are Black people marginalized or left out?” says Carter Jackson on Basic Black.
Massachusetts was the first colony to legalize slavery, and then one of the first to abolish it. Slavery was common in Boston during the Colonial period. The Royall family enslaved at least sixty people on their plantation in nearby Medford. In the course of reporting What Is Owed?, Wintersmith learned about enslaved people who sued for their freedom-or, once freed, for reparations.
“Black people, even as early as colonial Massachusetts, were utilizing the court system to sue for freedom. Even in Belinda [Sutton]’s case, as she was suing for a pension from her enslaver’s estate, you can read her petition and see that she’s also condemning the entire system,” says Wintersmith.
As someone whose family has lived in the Boston area for four generations, Greenidge hopes that Boston’s work on reparations will bring its local history to the forefront. “Let’s talk about my great-great aunt, who had a house near Berklee where the Christian Science Monitor was, and how that was knocked down in the guise of urban renewal, was actually taken from her at very little cost. Let’s talk about those local stories. Let’s talk about Charles Stuart and the way that he killed his wife and blamed it on a Black man,” says Greenidge. Greenidge was a teenager in Mission Hill during the hunt for Stuart’s killer, and he later received a scholarship from the Carol DiMaiti Stuart Foundation, named after Charles Stuart’s wife and victim.
That was a form of reparations, noted Phillip Martin, who hosted this week’s episode.
The idea of reparations might sound foreign, but victims have received reparations in the past. Carter Jackson brings up Japanese Americans and Holocaust survivors as examples. “We have models that we can build upon. We have the way. I think the problem is we don’t always have the will,” she says.
Listen to What Is Owed? wherever you get your podcasts or on gbh.org.
Podcast Ep. 1 When a city tries to heal itself: studio.ruclips.net/user/videoGi_1...
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Great panel and discussion. Look forward to seeing all seven episodes of What Is Owed.
We need Reggie from ADOS Boston on a panel
Great panel and great discussion #Greatestminds
Reparations for FBAs is real yes the u.s. federal government owe those funds heavily to FBAs.
A great conversation and i am gonna start listening to the podcast
We must get Reparations! As soon as possible! A new Class Action Suit on Section 8 tenants has been put forward recently, who have been discriminated against by 20 management companies. in the City of Boston! The truth is coming to light! My family alone was discriminated against. Redlining and my dad not getting his GI Bill!
Finding the DNA lines might feel intrusive for a while. I wonder if they need special legislation.
Land 40 acres and a cash payment of 5 million dollars to each African American 🌹⚜️🇺🇸
Besides the obvious questions regarding reparations, one that is not discussed thoroughly enough, is what do people expect of reparation and what happens with Black people afterwards? To put it more clearly, can reparations do what so many say it will do - to reduce the wealth gap (I would assume they mean significantly) and "repair" Black descendants of slavery (I say Black descendants because Whites are also descendants of "slavery")? How does one be repaired from an experience, of the nature of enslavement, of the kind our ancestors were subjected to? Will all our problems disappear, after reparations are paid? How will other Americans view us treat us, if much of our problems remain? Does not local and state, in addition to national distribution of reparations complicate the process? Is not double or triple dipping possible if, no adequate measures are in place, to track who has already receive reparations? Reparations must be seen by us, as well as by the whole country, as an investment. The funds for reparations will reduce the amount available, for all that our tax dollars now pay for, therefore; people will expect a return on their investment, even if many of us don't care, one way or the other. Can we as a group, guarantee that all who receive reparations, will make the most out of it? Isn't it likely that those who don't take advantage or full advantage, of the opportunities that exist now, will likely not do so, with reparations? Reparations can and should only pay the unpaid debt. That is all that can reasonably be asked of it. It is counter-productive to make it seem a guarantee, it can/will do any more than that. It can and should do more based on what it amounts to, and what is done with it, by those who receive it, but again, no amount can do what many are saying it will /should do. To speak on this issue and not be clear about these points, IMO is irresponsible.
We don't have to change people minds we will get reparations because we got a just God
Foundational Black Americans , in Americans, United States in this country of the descenants of slaves are owed Reparations package.
How is it fair, for the city of Boston to encourage slurs against blacks and others who disagree with reparations, who want housing because it shelters rather than because it is a financial asset, and who would like to know, at every step, how you arrive at the results you do, so as to build a legacy of more permanent value? Where may one complain, offer suggestions, etc.? WhIch wealthy blacks are single-handedly footing the bill for WGBH series?
Don't settle for less than a check
Damn loans ARE just like giving money out for free, why didnt I think of that before?
Uniformed Reparations package from the federal goverment starting with cash payouts. This sounds sketchy!
Once adequate Reparations starts it does not have a stop date. It continues similar to the Insians/ Native Americans. This is sketchy!
Kevin Peterson our brother is the reason Mayor Wu even considered brother Chip!
All praises are due to Allah🤲🏾
This is somewhat pointless!
There are so many more important things that we should be focused on
Please…yall not getting it so please let’s end this conversation IMMEDIATELY
If they do lots of people are going to 💀
so many people can not afford home ownership. many are not getting breaks on higher ED, hiring advantage etc.
@@changingoftheguard7256 - Jealousy is sicken. Get well.
Well, I can say this much, some of you non believers don't think reparations will exist, anything is possible. Nothing is impossible to The Most High. If reparations is not giving, The Most High has solutions for it.We have nothing to fear, let Him take care of it.They going to regret they never did it. 😊