Last weekend marked the anniversary of the Tulsa race massacre of 1921 when the thriving Black community in the Greenwood neighborhood was violently attacked by a white mob, killing more than 300 Black residents, as well as destroying many homes and businesses. As of today, neither the two remaining survivors nor anyone else have received compensation for their losses.
On January 17, the US Department of Justice issued a report finding that “white law enforcement and residents coordinated an attack” on Greenwood and that survivors would not have legal redress under any law.
The Trump administration has signaled no intention of addressing the need for justice. Rather than move towards a racial reckoning, the administration has undermined the wider cause of racial justice. In a particularly shocking move, it effectively ended the United States’ longstanding refugee resettlement program and made only one exception— offering to take in white South Africans, a group that benefitted from colonialism and racial apartheid and its legacies for more than 100 years, as refugees. There is no evidence that Afrikaners face systematic persecution of any kind.
The Trump administration could stand to learn from South Africa’s approach to reparations which was rooted in acknowledging past harms and seeking restorative justice for victims of systemic racial oppression through a Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The South African government continues to address the racial injustices of colonialism and apartheid. Though with challenges.
As the US is barraged by the Trump administration’s attacks on DEI, cuts to federal jobs which disproportionately impact Black employees, and deporting mostly immigrants of color without due process, now is the time to strengthen the fight for racial justice. Active federal, state and municipal reparations efforts can be found across the country with documented successes, including a reparations plan at last for the Tulsa survivors and the descendants of the massacre. The call for U.S. reparations is not merely about monetary compensation; it is a demand for justice, recognition, and healing.
