The conversation about reparations for slavery entered a new stage earlier in 2021, with the U.S. House Judiciary Committee voting for the creation of a commission to address the matter.

The bill, H.R. 40, has been introduced every Congress since 1989 by U.S. Reps. Sheila Jackson Lee and John Conyers, until his death in 2019. But this year marks the first time that its request to study and develop reparation proposals for African Americans has cleared the committee stage.

Calls to redress the lasting impact of slavery and racial discrimination have been amplified recently because of further evidence of the impact of systemic racism—both through the disproportionate effect of COVID-19 on the Black community and the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and others at the hands of U.S. police.

Disruption of Labor Relations

To many, the question is not so much whether or not reparations are in order, but what kinds of reparations might be appropriate.

Most of the conversation to date has focused on reparations in terms of payouts of some form. Prominent author Ta-Nehisi Coates, in a powerful argument for reparations, said payments must be made by White America to Black America—much as Germany started paying Israel in 1952 to compensate for the persecution of Jews by the Nazis.

As a scholar who has written on economic justice and the labor movement, I agree that reparations must have economic substance, because the impact of racism is inherently linked with power and money. But my research suggests another model for reparations: If one of the most significant aspects of slavery—even if not the only one—was a massive disruption of labor relations, then a crucial part in the reparations discussion could involve reshaping the labor relationship between employers and employees today.

I believe such a reshaping of the labor relationship would substantially benefit the descendants of enslaved people in the United States. Labor, as my research has argued, has implications for all aspects of life and labor reform would, I believe, address many of the problems of structural racism as well. In addition, reshaping the labor relationship would also benefit all working people, including those who still experience enslavement today.

Read the full article about unionizing workers by Joerg Rieger at YES! Magazine.