Reparations for Black Communities: Education as a Platform

Introduction

The concept that we all have an equal chance to earn the kind of riches that gives meaning to the Declaration of Independences bold phrase liberty, life, and the pursuit of happiness is the core of the American Dream. The American Dream implies that a person can be a homeowner, create a business, and build a savings account for future generations. However, the U.S. governments decisions to deny Black Americans the opportunity to earn wealth have consistently nullified this concept (Ray & Perry, 2020). In the United States today, stark race-related inequities exist across the whole spectrum of the human condition. African Americans have shorter life spans, lower earnings, and less access to high-quality healthcare than whites. However, when it comes to education, the differences are more obvious. Because education is the key to addressing the variety of other issues confronting the African American community today (Klinenberg, 2019; Longo, 2007), identifying chances to address this issue directly is critical. As a result, this paper examines educational reform in the United States through an anti-racist and anti-oppression perspective, focusing on reparations to address racism and oppression.

Case for reparations

The atrocities carried out during the Transatlantic Slave Trade, the era ofslavery, segregation throughJim Crow laws, and ongoing discrimination against African Americans have caused many historians, educators, civil rights activists, legislators, and common citizensto argue that slave descendants are entitled to reparations (Feagin & Ducey, 2018). These reparations are intended to restore, to the extent possible, the immeasurable harm caused by segregation, slavery,and discrimination, which continues to contribute to African American inequality and injustice (Franke, 2019). Property (promised but never delivered after the Civil War ended in 1865), cash transfers, and government initiatives to eradicate poverty, education, and health care are all rights that African Americans have long been denied.

Simultaneously, vocal opponents of reparations argue that they promote victimization, aggravate racial tensions, deny the incredible socioeconomic progress made in the African-American community since 1964, establish a moral hazard by forcing Americans to pay for their forefathers sins, and pose serious practical and logisticalissues (Steele, 2015; Williams, 2019). Furthermore, according to critics, reparations supporters misunderstand historical facts and minimize the role of Africans and their governments in the slave trade. At the same time, the emphasis on group identity portrays all blacks as victims and all whites as oppressors (Williams, 2019).

Educational reparations and their sufficiency

Proposed reparations programs for African-American descendants of enslaved people include formal apologies, public recognition of historical injustice and current manifestations, direct individual payments over time, trust funds for youths, community-wide programs to invest in education, infrastructure, affordable homes,and access to trauma counseling and therapy (Corlett, 2016). In this context, reparations targeted at the education sector are educational reparations. There is a clear case of inequality between black and white schools, which is a clear disparity attributed to racism. These financing inequities date back to the so-called separate but equal era, codified in the United States laws by the Supreme Courts Plessy v. Ferguson ruling in 1896.

Educational reparations are an important part of reparations initiatives, but they are not sufficient in and of themselves. It is important to recognize that the harm caused by slavery and the lifestyle associated with slavery is a substantial drawback that cannot be remedied with a single reparations program, such as an educational one. Experts say that reparations programs help establish and maintain national awareness of Americas racial history through education (Ewing, 2018; McKeown, 2021). Minoritization and dehumanization of Black Americans, which devalues their identity, social condition, and memoryincreases poor identity development, stress, low self-esteem,and sufferingincluding a lack of awareness of previous trauma and ongoing discrimination.

Reparations can help perpetrators and victims show regret and foster a constructive, respectful relationship based on equal citizenship, recognition, social standing, and civic and social trust (McGary, 2010). When genuine expressive reparations are paired with monetary contributions, reparations programs can give victims, and perpetrators hope and help them work together constructively to achieve mutual goals.

Possible strategies for educational reparations

Reparations are needed because Black schools are given less money even though Black homeowners pay more property taxes than White homeowners. They can be paid by altering how Black homeowners are taxed and how Black communities schools are funded. This argument is based on research findings from school finance and education law specialists who have spent decades studying racial disparities in education (Green III et al., 2021). To redres racial inequities in education, a four-part reparations scheme is proposed. It covers; local property taxes, school revenues, prioritizing financing to bridge inequities in student performance, and federal monitoring.

i. Local property taxes

Housing segregation is a major factor in racial funding discrepancies. This division has resulted in significant disparities in housing values and wealth amassed by families. This impacts how much money may be raised for local public schools through property taxes. Because Black housing values are lower on average, higher tax rates are frequently used to increase municipal tax income. This takes the shape of a Black Tax, as referred to herein (Green III & Baker, 2021). Even with higher tax rates, Black communities in the same state or metropolitan region do not earn the same property tax income to pay for public schools. The tax rates needed to bridge these gaps would be far too high.

Black homeowners in formerly redlined or otherwise segregated neighborhoods will get direct reimbursements in the amount determined to cover the Black Tax. These rebates might place money in the hands of Black homeowners, allowing them to either boost...…instead of the transactions through which it develops. Through the Entitlement Theory of justice in acquisition, Nozick believes that any distribution of holdings, as he refers to them, is just if (and only if) it is the result of a reasonable distribution through lawful means (Nozick, 2004). One permissible method is appropriating unowned property in circumstances where the acquisition would not be detrimental to others. The voluntary transfer of holdings to another person is a second option. Correction of past injustices in the acquisition or transfer of holdings is the third option. According to Nozick, anyone who has obtained what he has through these ways has a moral right. As a result, according to the entitlement view of justice, the distribution of holdings in a community is just if (and only if) everyone in that society is entitled to what he has.

Similarly, Sandel (2010) argues that there are three approaches to justice; the general welfare of the community, individual rights, and the value of good citizenship. Based on these approaches, the need for reparations should thus seek to satisfy the welfare of the African American Community, the individual rights of the victims or descendants of enslaved people, and foster the feeling of African Americans as being full, complete, and justified American Citizens.

Based on these two philosophical arguments by Nozick (2004) and Sandel (2010), it is argued that the future of reparations, if the issue of the injustice suffered by African Americans is to be settled, then the best programs are those that are built on common good policies. Morality, judgmental standards, and personal ideals of a moral existence all play a role in the issue of reparations. It would be hard to develop a single, universal restitution program because there are always different viewpoints on how to live ethically in a pluralistic, democratic society. The solution is to build a policy of the common good from which the entire American community can benefit from a richer intellectual, moral, and spiritual existence. It needs to make efforts to help citizens better understand the commitment to the common good; it needs to protect social practices like teaching, learning, and immigration; it needs to keep financial inequality in check; and, finally, it needs to shift the publics attention to difficult ethical questions and debate them in an informed and objective manner.