Dear friends,
The Jesuits, an order of Catholics, have initiated a program that is intended to raise a billion dollars for the purpose of justice and racial reparations. The immediate goal is to raise $100 million by 2026. Together with Canadian Jesuits and the descendants group of the 272 enslaved people who were sold by Georgetown University in 1838 to salvage the institution’s finances, they have formed
the Descendants Truth & Reconciliation Foundation to oversee fundraising and allocate grants. Already, the Jesuits have placed $15 million in a trust that will finance the effort.
The foundation’s acting president is Joe Stewart, one of more than 1,000 descendants of Isaac Hawkins, an enslaved man who was among those sold in 1838.
“We hope what we’ve created here is an offer to join us in a peaceful and loving approach to removing your shame,” Stewart said Tuesday. “There are a lot of people who want to be a part of change — we hope we’re providing the answer to, ‘What do I do?’ “
It is significant that the issue of reparations has moved from the periphery to a more central place in American efforts to address the damage done by centuries of structural racism. When more people understand the necessity of paying reparations, more time and energy can be focused on how best to do it. I think there are many good ways to do it.
Evanston, a suburb of Chicago, is taking steps to make housing grants to Black residents, valued at $10 million, as reparations. The city council is still wrestling over the details, but they are beginning the process with a small block of grants to fund
home repairs, mortgage assistance or down payments toward a new home.
The grants take a different approach from the common view of reparations as cash payments to a wider group of Black Americans who have suffered from discrimination rooted in slavery.
In Evanston, the housing grants are more narrowly targeted to residents who can show that they or their ancestors were victims of redlining and other discriminatory 20th-century housing practices in the city that limited the neighborhoods where Black people could live. Eligible applicants could be descendants of an Evanston resident who lived in the city between 1919 and 1969; or they could have experienced housing discrimination because of city policies after 1969.
Although the scale of the Evanston plan is relatively small, it is important that reparations are linked not only to the original sin of slavery, but to the impact of more recent racist policies.
If you are a white person interested in starting your own process of apology and reparations, start here.
The NYS Legislature passed the HALT bill to end solitary confinement for vulnerable populations and limit it to 15 or fewer days for all other persons. This humane and long-overdue legislation is awaiting the governor’s signature.
Call on the governor to sign the Humane Alternatives to Long-Term Solitary Confinement Act (HALT), S.2836.
Last week, the results of the February 23 special election for Council District 31 in Queens were finalized. Selvena Brooks-Powers was initially leading the pack of nine candidates competing to fill Donovan Richards’s seat. After the ranked choice voting (RCV) process was followed, Brooks-Powers defeated the next closest contender, 59% to 41%. An exit poll that followed the special elections for the first two districts to use RCV found that
more than 95% of voters said they found the new ranked-choice ballot “simple to fill out.” A majority of those surveyed, 61%, said they ranked multiple candidates. For those who did not choose to rank their choices, more than 78% said it was because they preferred one candidate.
Ranked choice voting has some important benefits. In addition to avoiding costly, low-turnout run-off elections, RCV encourages more collegial, respectful campaigning and provides voters with the opportunity to vote for the candidate they like best, without fearing that doing so will result in a win for their least favorite candidate.
Read this if you want answers to your questions about Ranked Choice Voting.
There are some new subscribers, so I want to explain how it came to pass that Tuesdays are dedicated to good news. My meditation group has set aside Tuesdays for loving kindness meditation (sometimes called metta or maitri). It is the only day of the week when someone guides the meditation. Ten months ago, I set out to guide a group of friends and friends of friends to work from home for justice. So much of my writing highlights injustice and the bad news we have to contend with. It seemed to me that if I appointed myself to this job, then I had better look out for your well-being. Thus, good news Tuesdays. This morning’s guided meditation was memorably beautiful, so I thought I would share it, with warmest thanks to Séverine:
May we be well. May we be held in loving kindness and great compassion. May we live with ease and peace in our hearts. May we be safe and protected. May we feel whole and healthy. May we be happy.
with love,
L