For more than 200 years, American industries, even universities, used slaves. Over that time, some 300,000 slaves who could be bought, sold, deeded and gifted, were forced into labor. And it wasn’t that long ago, ending in the late 1800s.
As slavery is held as the basis for systemic inequalities that remain in this country — in our criminal justice system, housing and education — a reparations movement is once again gaining steam.
In 2021, Congresswoman Dina Titus and Congressman Steven Horsford signed on as co-sponsors of a bill to study reparations. And in California, a reparations task force just completed a report for state lawmakers.
Of course, there’s disagreement over what to do, or if anything should be done. A 2021 Pew Research survey found 75% of Black Americans support reparations; for Hispanics it was 40%, and 33% for Asians.
In the U.S. as a whole, two-thirds of the population oppose them and only 18% of white people support them.
But, do Nevadan's support reparations? And, how can other states influence what Nevada does here?
TAKING MATTERS INTO YOUR OWN HANDS
Nevada based non-profit, The African American Slave Reparations Team of Nevada, formed in 2018 and they decided to tackle reparations head on—through fundraising. The AASRT's executive director, Dr. Darryl Fortson, is open to government policies that may speed up the reparations process, but he felt he needed to get the ball rolling somehow.
The AASRT's goal is to raise 13.6 trillion dollars for black reparations in America, at least that's the number Dr. Fortson and his colleagues came up with to determine how much the racial wealth gap between blacks and whites is in America. On the surface, the number may sound unrealistic, but Dr. Fortson is confident the AASRT will reach that number one day.
The first question that can come to mind for many is, who will donate? While blacks are welcome to donate, and Dr. Fortson himself says he has donated, the AASRT does recognize that the majority of the money must come from whites, white-owned corporations, and organizations.
"We're asking the question, what is right? And who wants to participate in doing right," said Dr. Fortson. "Some of those people will be white and most of them will have to be white if the fund transfer is going to come into the black community, but you don't have to be white to do what's right. I pay reparations. I've contributed because we're trying to get this gap taken care of, and I don't see much of a future in America if we don't get this thing right."
The AASRT also added that simply handing out money won't boost black wealth entirely. There must be an emphasis on investing in various mediums like education, housing, and healthcare. The AASRT hopes to invest in those mediums to help lessen the racial gap of opportunity for blacks in those areas as well.
"We're trying to get together a group of people to engineer a vehicle that can get us there by raising money, giving some away as reparations, but also using other funds to invest and grow ourselves to the recreational goal. We are not going to raise that kind of money just holding our hands out with a tin cup."
WHY REPARATIONS?
One of the most well known black historians and community members in the Las Vegas valley is director of the Oral Research Center at the University of Nevada Las Vegas, Claytee White. White stresses that when a community has endured centuries of economic and social oppression, the only way to amend this is through reparations and governmental policies.
"We have no equity," said White. "The federal government needs to step in immediately and contribute to this effort in all kinds of ways and all kinds of policies, because this is dire. It needs to happen. It needs to happen in my lifetime."
White also makes the point that reparations are not a new idea, and how other communities have been given reparations in the past already.
"Reparations to Native Americans resulted in millions and millions of acres of land and all kinds of other policies, 1.5 billion dollars that went to Japanese after World War Two," said White. "We are talking about America helping with the Marshall Plan in Europe and some of that money going to Jewish people. Black Americans are the only ones who've never received any kind of reparations, and the federal government is at fault for a lot of this."
WHAT ARE OTHER STATES DOING?
California is perhaps the loudest dog in the barking challenge for reparations. Not only does the state have its own reparations task force, but the city of San Francisco on its own has a reparations commitee. The man behind it all is member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, Shamann Walton, and he's getting 4 million dollars from the city budget to start a reparations office in the city.
Additionally, the city of San Francisco will review a reparations report in September from the city's reparations committee. With over 150 policy recommendations, among them are $5 million for every eligible black person, an afro-centric K-12 school, and homes in the city for just $1 a family. Supervisor Walton and the committee hope that at least some reparations policies are approved.
"I want to be clear, I do believe the federal government owes reparations," said Walton. "But I am in a position to legislate what we can do in the city and county of San Francisco. The goal is to right the wrongs of the past, and address the wealth disparities that we created because of policies and the direct negative effects of slavery. I most certainly think that a lot of these recommendations are realistic. We do so many things to support and fund communities here in San Francisco, and we figured out ways to right the wrongs of a lot of injustices. Homeownership is one piece, free education is another piece. We have to make sure that the people who have benefited from slavery also put some skin in the game."
It is estimated that the 5 million dollar payouts alone could cost more than 100 billion dollars, which would greatly times the annual $14 billion budget of the city.
Guests: Darryl Fortson, executive director, African American Slave Reparations Team Nevada; Shamann Walton, member, San Francisco, California Board of Supervisors, District 10; Claytee White, director, Oral Histories Project, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
