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Surprise! Rational talk about reparations.

BY DAN KENNEDY

The debate over reparations for slavery in the US is one of those issues too easily reduced to caricatures. In this corner: greedy charlatans looking to cash in. In that: conservative loudmouths arguing that African-Americans should be grateful their ancestors were kidnapped and shipped here in the first place. And with David Horowitz’s anti-reparations ad stirring up controversy on college campuses across the country (see Editorial, page 4), the actual issue tends to get buried beneath a mound of angry rhetoric.

Those interested in making sense of reparations would do well to tune in to WGBH-TV (Channel 2) this Thursday, March 22, at 8:30 p.m., when Basic Black will host a half-hour panel discussion. (The program originally aired on March 1.) The three participants are Harvard Law School professor Charles Ogletree, a leading proponent of reparations; Boston University economics professor Glenn Loury, a conservative-turned-moderate and a skeptic on reparations; and writer Stanley Crouch, another skeptic.

Given that one panelist is pro-reparations and the other two are opposed, the rules of TV talk dictate that they should start yelling at each other. Yet, under prodding by host Darren Duarte, it becomes obvious that the three men aren’t that far apart. Ogletree, for instance, makes it clear that reparations would not take the form of “a check in the mail,” but, rather, a renewed emphasis on solving such urban problems as unemployment, poor health care, and a crumbling education system — all of which disproportionately harm blacks.

Loury questions reparations as a political tactic, given that it could alienate minority groups — including black immigrants — who should be African-Americans’ natural allies. And Crouch warns that reparations for blacks could lead to such unintended consequences as reparations to Mexican-Americans (for the loss of Texas, California, and other states) and anger on the part of whites whose forebears immigrated to the United States after the Civil War. Yet Crouch calls for a “Marshall Plan” in black America that sounds similar to what Ogletree’s looking for; and Loury says the real issue is “what is to be done,” not whether the program is called “reparations.”

There’s a humorous moment as well. At one point, Crouch, noting that black Africans were involved in the slave trade, demands, “Why is Africa getting left out of this discussion? That’s what I want to know.”

Ever the lawyer, Ogletree replies, smiling, “It’s jurisdictional.”

Visit www.wgbh.org/pages/basicblack for clips from the show and for more information about the reparations issue.

Issue Date: March 22 - 29, 2001






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