Imagine Reparation Germination

When a tree is planted, establishing the “root ball” correctly is critical to the plant’s long-term growth and thriving. And placement is, too! Will it have enough sun? How will its growth impact the world around it? Most importantly, is the soil appropriate and nutritious? Without a healthy earthen home that gives this amazing organism the water, minerals, and food it needs, the beauty and possibility we witness above ground are irrelevant. Inevitably, the tree will grow incorrectly, shrivel, rot, and die before its promised time.

The United States was planted in bad soil. The foundation was, and is, toxic. Beginning with the genocide of Indigenous peoples and the attendant land and resource theft, along with white supremacist chattel slavery that stole life and labor from many to give inordinate wealth and power to few, the wealth, power, and “growth” of the United States grew out of mass death and suffering, and it has been watered ever since with much of the same.

The leaves and even some branches may bear markers of liberty, equality, or democracy, but the roots will continue to rot as long as we don’t better the land and amend the soil. The proof of this need is in the myriad interconnected injustices that continue to persist today, and to which our still-speaking God urgently calls forth gardeners: our hands, feet, voices, and votes.

This extended metaphor is in service to what many consider an outsized topic—reparations—and more specifically, Reparations Now, a resolution introduced in Congress by Rep. Cori Bush of Missouri last year, which calls for distributing 14 trillion dollars to Black Americans to help close the racial wealth gap, foster sustainable futures, and make restitution for the equity that has been stolen since our founding.

Former UCC Associate General Minister Rev. Traci Blackmon spoke at the announcement of Reparations Now in Washington, DC, acknowledging the price tag that many automatically scoff, balk, or laugh at: “When millions of people have been cheated for centuries, restitution is a costly process. Inferior education, poor housing, unemployment, inadequate health care—each will require billions to correct. Justice so long deferred has accumulated interest, and its cost for this society will be substantial in financial as well as human terms.’”

Before we ourselves scoff, balk, or laugh off the possibility of making this repair real with the proposed costs, consider these two important things for Black History Month and beyond:

1. We know the money is there! Finding and prioritizing 14 trillion dollars for reparations is possible. Our country produces the funds regularly; we just invest them in death, destruction, and waste. For example:

           The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as calamitous as they were pointless, cost US taxpayers four to six trillion dollars.

           Our military budget is currently allotted almost 900 billion dollars annually.

           This past November, the Pentagon failed a comprehensive audit of its assets, expenditures, and liabilities for a sixth straight year.

           In the most recent failed audit, the Pentagon was able to account for only half of its four trillion dollars in assets.

           As of this writing, President Biden has now bypassed Congress twice to funnel hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of weapons to further death and destruction in Gaza, on top of the billions in military funding we provide Israel already.

These trillions used for death, destruction, or personal enrichment—all of it is our money. If budgets are “moral documents,” these expenditures represent our country’s ostensible values. As a Just Peace church, we know this is grotesque and unjust, and we must bring forth life, abundantly.

2. The cost of not manifesting meaningful reparations is so much higher than the cost of doing it. Nationally, financially, and spiritually, collapse will occur (and arguably is already occurring) without proper soil at the roots. A country and world where bodily needs are met and human rights are secured is one where abundance compounds and communities flourish. I think of compost when I remember that the Latin root of reparation means “make ready again.” We are called to embody resurrection, fostering life from decay and death—in our churches and our cities, country and Congress, in Palestine, and beyond. We can’t afford not to. Collective liberation will be ours for doing so. The richest, most rewarding earth of all.

NEXT STEPS:

1. For those in church communities, plug into Sacred Reckonings to grow your reparations journey! Also please sure to check out and share this profound conversation between UCC pastors Rev. Traci Blackmon and Sacred Reckonings trainer Rev. Dr. Rebecca Voelkel from last year – click HERE!
2. Join the Movement further with the UCC!
3. Ask your member of Congress to co-sponsor and work to pass the Reparations Now resolution and H.R. 40, the “Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African-Americans Act.”