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"The idea of reparations is frightening not simply because we might lack the ability to pay. The idea of reparations threatens something much deeper—America’s heritage, history, and standing in the world." theatlantic.com/magazine/archi…
"Perhaps after a serious discussion and debate—the kind that HR 40 proposes—we may find that the country can never fully repay African Americans. But we stand to discover much about ourselves in such a discussion—and that is perhaps what scares us."
"The early american economy was built on slave labor. The Capitol and the White House were built by slaves. President James K. Polk traded slaves from the Oval Office."
"The laments about 'black pathology,' the criticism of black family structures by pundits and intellectuals, ring hollow in a country whose existence was predicated on the torture of black fathers, on the rape of black mothers, on the sale of black children."
"Reparations—by which I mean the full acceptance of our collective biography and its consequences—is the price we must pay to see ourselves squarely."
"Won’t reparations divide us? Not any more than we are already divided. The wealth gap merely puts a number on something we feel but cannot say—that American prosperity was ill-gotten and selective in its distribution." epi.org/blog/stark-bla…
"The income gap between black and white households is roughly the same today as it was in 1970." theatlantic.com/magazine/archi…
"Black families making $100,000 typically live in the kinds of neighborhoods inhabited by white families making $30,000."
“In 1860, slaves as an 'asset' were worth more than all of America’s manufacturing, all of the railroads, all of the productive capacity of the United States put together."
“Some of the land taken from black families has become a country club in Virginia." theatlantic.com/magazine/archi…
Neither the percentage of black people living there nor their social class mattered. Black people were viewed as a contagion. Redlining went beyond FHA-backed loans and spread to the entire mortgage industry." 
"A government offering such bounty to builders and lenders could have required compliance with a nondiscrimination policy. Instead, the FHA adopted a racial policy that could well have been culled from the Nuremberg laws."
"Wells Fargo mortgage had an ***emerging-markets unit*** that specifically targeted ***black churches***."
"... Aetna (which insured slaves) and Lehman Brothers (whose co-founding partner owned them) ..."
"White households hold roughly 20 times as much wealth as black households, and that whereas only 15% of whites have zero or negative wealth, more than a third of blacks do."
"Effectively, the black family in America is working without a safety net. When financial calamity strikes—a medical emergency, divorce, job loss—the fall is precipitous."
"In a time when telecommunications were primitive and blacks lacked freedom of movement, the parting of black families was a kind of murder. Here we find the roots of American wealth and democracy—in the for-profit destruction of the most important asset—the family."
"As late as 1950, the National Association of Real Estate Boards’ code of ethics warned that 'a realtor should never be instrumental in introducing into a neighborhood … any race or nationality, or any individuals whose presence will clearly be detrimental to property values.'"
"Liberals today mostly view racism not as an active, distinct evil but as a relative of white poverty and inequality. They ignore the long tradition of this country actively punishing black success—and the elevation of that punishment, in the mid-20th century, to federal policy."
"To ignore that one of the oldest republics in the world was erected on a foundation of white supremacy, to pretend the problems of a dual society are the same as the problems of unregulated capitalism, is to cover the sin of national plunder with the sin of national lying."
"Black college graduates still suffer higher unemployment rates than white college graduates, and black job applicants without criminal records enjoy roughly the same chance of getting hired as white applicants with criminal records."
"To celebrate freedom and democracy while forgetting America’s origins in a slavery economy is patriotism à la carte."
"What is needed is an airing of family secrets, a settling with old ghosts. What is needed is a healing of the American psyche and the banishment of white guilt."
"What I’m talking about is more than recompense for past injustices—more than a handout, a payoff, hush money, or a reluctant bribe. What I’m talking about is a national reckoning that would lead to spiritual renewal."
