I want to say this with zero snark: of course Mitch McConnell thinks today’s Congressional hearings on reparations are unnecessary. I used to think so too! Because if you ask the question, “What do today’s white Americans owe to the descendants of slaves for things that happened centuries ago?”, it’s pretty easy to think that’s a silly question. I didn’t own slaves, my family wasn’t even here then, and that person over there wasn’t a slave, so I personally don’t owe them anything!

But here’s what I’ve been learning. A better question is, what damage did our government do, through its laws and policies and systems over centuries, to enslaved people, that is still affecting the lives of our citizens today? What damage did our government do, through its laws and policies and systems, to Americans of color during a century of Jim Crow (which btw wasn’t just in the South), that is still affecting the lives of our citizens today?

And if we look at all the evidence about that, and we start to see that yes, there was damage done, and we know it was never repaired because we can still see the accumulated impact on people’s lives… then why wouldn’t we, as a nation, want to have a conversation about, “Hey, what could we do to repair this damage that is still hurting our citizens today?” That’s why we call it reparations. It’s about repairing what our country did, that is still causing harm today.

For a lot of reasons, I personally don’t think just cutting checks is the right answer. Right now, I’m curious about professor john powell’s framework of Targeted Universalism, which opens an inclusive path to helping everyone in our country thrive. I’ve spent a lot of time over the past couple of years trying to learn more about these questions and how we might answer them together. I really wish Mitch McConnell would, too.

And by the way – happy Juneteenth!