Reparations at UChi

After over 3 years of marches, rallies, teach-ins, petitions, and community gatherings, UChicago's administration has finally acknowledged its historical ties to slavery and removed two campus monuments to its founding enslaver. The problem is... chicago.suntimes.com/metro-s…

"We cannot afford to not get a victory here"--@Kamm29207971 on the need to pass H.R. 40 and not get bogged down in trying to make it a perfect bill. The push now is for a Juneteenth floor vote with them working to pressure holdouts within the Democratic party. #reparations

Mikaela urging people to get involved with organizations that are already on the ground doing the work. Also encouraging academics to integrate a #reparations praxis into their work.

When asked what advice the panelists have for students and those new to #reparations David is stressing education and an engagement in the existing political process.

The idea that #reparations as a revolutionary process of healing and repairing harm by meeting the needs of those who have been harmed is one that can be applied to any number of struggles according to @Kamm29207971

Really smart (UChicago question) on how to think and work through #reparations as an intersectional process that can struggle in solidarity with the labor movement, LGBTQ liberation efforts, radical feminism, anticolonialism, etc.

The process isn't over until the repair is complete according to Caine Jordan. Dr. Carruthers is worried that without a fully #reparative process that the 'just-a-check' conceptualization of reparations could lead to a 'new form of slavery' via capitalism.

"We might all be millionaires but still be shot dead in the streets"---Caine on why #reparations must be more than a check and move beyond the current world of capitalism, empire, and antiblackness.

Caine is talking now about restrictive covenants and redlining as examples how structural and institutional transformation must take place to undo the system of racial capitalism. End it in the present and heal the harms in generated in the past and present. #reparations

Dr. Carruthers stressing that #reparations are a healing PROCESS. It's more than a check for her (though checks are no doubt needed). Mikaela pointing out that all remedies must come from the needs and democratic demands of those who have been harmed.

Now @Kamm29207971 stressing human rights as a possible framework and stressing the collective nature of the harm (that international human rights organizations and conceptualizations are often incapable of addressing).

David spelling out how #reparations require that we not see recent events as an aberration but as part of the long history of American racism.

Now @Kamm29207971 talking about coming to reparations (like so many others have)---through revolutionary Black politics. Knowing that small tweeks won't do it, he landed on #reparations as a wholistic framework to undo this world and build a new one based on Black love & healing.

David offering a critique of the TRC and the need to for structural change to accompany the truth telling and reconciliation process. #reparations

Caine telling the origin story of the RAUC and his involvement in the #reparations struggle. David came to the work through his thinking about the international iterations of reparations particularly his time living in South Africa and thinking about the TRC.

Dr. Carruthers remember ALWAYS thinking about reparations as part of her earliest thinking about the Black freedom struggle. Mikaela first got involved in reparations work via the work of the @chitorture.

Now @Kamm29207971 is talking about the role of @NCOBRA40 in designing and advancing H.R. 40 and how to bring a transnational perspective on reparative justice to local and national processes. #reparations

The intergenerational nature of this gathering is a beautiful thing that the elders are reminding of us. Just indispensable to have the youth and the elders working together on the #reparations struggle in this moment.

Iva Carruthers is thinking bout the intersections of Africana based spirituality, environmental justice, wealth redistribution, and reparative justice. #reparations

Mikaela Spruill is also working on evidence based analysis of truth and reconciliation commissions to build best practices for reparative processes. #reparations