Commentary on Reparations: The Big PayBack Episode 2, The Debt (Show Me the Receipts), $15 a N*gger
Below are my comments on the podcast, “Reparations: The Big Payback.” Each week, I will listen to an episode and provide my comments. Be sure to visit the show’s website.
Defining Reparations 👍🏾
This episode starts off with a good definition of reparations by Robert Fitzgerald Diggs (RZA):
“The making of amends for the wrongs one has done by paying money to or otherwise helping those who have been wronged. It comes from two words repair and action. So, thus, it is the action of repairing the damage that one has caused. It is a noun, and we need it now.”
Whitney’s Big Question 🤔
After the definition, there’s some awkward banter between Erika and Whitney. Erika says Whitney owes her and she speaks of white amnesia. Whitney asks, “What is the thing that I’ve gotten by being white that I need to repay?”
Whitney’s question is a good one, that goes unanswered in the podcast.
In the book “The Abolition of White Democracy,” Joel Olson says, “the foundation of the American racial order is a cross-class alliance between the dominant class and one section of the working class…Members of the alliance are defined as ‘white’ while those excluded from it are relegated to a ‘not white’ status.”
So, Whitney, being white, is a member of a cross-class alliance with the dominant class. That membership is what every person identified as “white” receives. Later in the show, Erika says whites have “the hook up.” The hook up is white privilege.
In his book Racing to Justice, john a. powell says, “So the primary privilege (or disabliity) is racial identity, and membership or lack of membership in the imagined space of society.”
The cross-class alliance that makes white identity is the hook up. The hook up is not something to share because it has been shared in the past and it didn’t work for all.
When tenuous whites became fully white, they got the hook up, but the hook up still excluded people. White identity can expand and continue to exclude. That’s why the hook up must be disconnected and dismantled. Whiteness, which symbolically names and marks the cross-class alliance, must be abolished.
I don’t think Whitney gets that because he brings up Erika’s fame again, almost as a challenge to her claim of reparations. Whitney did this in the first episode too. I don’t know why Whitney does that, but it’s not helpful. Later in the show, Erika says her fame was like winning the lottery.
The Privilege Walk 👎🏾
From the opening, Whitney and Erika play a “game” called the Privilege Walk. During the Privilege Walk, a facilitator reads a number of statements and the participants either take a step forward or back. At the end, the physical distance between participants represents the privilege they’ve experienced in their life.
During the podcast, Whitney is far ahead of Erika. And then at the end, Whitney brings up her fame. Erika takes steps ahead based on her fame and passes Whitney in privilege. This is where Erika says her fame was like winning the lotto.
Unfortunately, the podcast doesn’t discuss how wealthy Black people still suffer from racist disparities. The podcast also doesn’t comment on how much further someone like Erika would be if it weren’t for white racism.
Riverside Church
The two head over to Riverside Church where we learn about James (Jim) Forman and his Black Manifesto. On May 4, 1969, Forman took over the service at Riverside Church and demanded white churches and synagogues pay $500 million in reparations to Black people. The podcast doesn’t share the response to Forman’s demand. According to SNCC Digital, white churches donated a little money and made a few reforms.
I appreciate Forman’s example and his call to hold churches accountable. In the recent HR40 reparations hearing, Kamm Howard of NCOBRA mentioned that churches should be held accountable. And recently, some churches have made commitments to reparations.
The main takeaway the podcast seems to make is that the demand for $500 million would’ve only been $15 a Black person.
Conversation between Erika and Whitney
Erika again drops sentences you want to write down about the N-word. Whitney gives more white perspectives, which is tiresome. A key point from this section of the show is that reparations/the debt is also about lost opportunities —something Whitney should keep in mind before he brings up Erika’s fame.
Sandy Darity
To quantify what is owed, the show turns to Sandy Darity. Darity says the debt owed is $10 to 12 trillion based on the Black-white wealth gap.
Darity uses population numbers, but he doesn’t acknowledge that population numbers are corrupt because whites rigged them. Darity also does not discuss his research on disparities by skin tone—the intragroup disparities and gaps between Black people with dark skin and light skin.
Bobby Johnson
Next the two speak to Bobby Johnson who emphasizes home ownership and wealth appreciation. Johnson says renters, through taxes, subsidize white home ownership because whites who own homes can take deductions. I understand homeownership drives disparities, but I’m not sold on the homeownership aspect of the American Dream. Johnson makes good points about taxes, but I wonder why we are talking about homeownership when we could be talking about bitcoin?
Julianne Malveaux
Malveaux talks about reparations as community repair vs. individual repair. And her point seems to be a preemptive answer to the ADOS movement, which believes reparations should only be for American descendants of slavery.
HR 40 Hearing and Herschel Walker
The show closes with comments about Herschel Walker and the HR 40 hearing. I appreciated that part because I watched the hearing and Walker was ridiculous.
Overall
This episode provided a good definition for reparations and the hosts spoke to a few experts worth hearing. The privilege walk and Whitney’s comments were not helpful.