A Missed Opportunity for Real Talk on Reparations

The Williamson campaign regrets that she was not invited to address the 2019 Essence Festival over the weekend in New Orleans. Williamson values African American women’s voices and always welcomes the opportunity to talk and to listen to the audience of Essence Fest.

Had Williamson been there, she would have used the time to talk about the important issue of reparations which she has advocated for since the 1990s.

Marianne Williamson believes the time for examination is over. In her landmark book, Healing the Soul of America, which was first published in 1997, she discussed why reparations made economic sense, was an act of healing systemic racism and was a debt owed.

Reparations was key to her platform when she announced for the presidency in January and she has led the discussion on the idea in the presidential contest.

Williamson has said, “there is an inherent mea culpa, there is an inherent acknowledgment of a wrong that has been done by one people to another and of a debt owed.”

Williamson has proposed a “Reparations Commission” to guide the way. Black leaders in culture, academia, and politics comprising the commission would disperse $200-500 billion over ten years to promote education, infrastructure, and projects dedicated to black communities.

“Yes, we ended slavery. Yes, we passed Civil Rights legislation – including the Voting Rights Act – in the 1960’s. But no, we have not yet fully done all that it is morally incumbent upon us to do in order to heal this ugly wound. The forty acres and a mule promised to every former slave after the Civil War was not a joke; it was a means by which a formerly enslaved population would have had a chance to integrate economically into life as a freed citizen. While a few were, in fact, given their acreage, the vast majority were not – and most who received them would see the land given back to previous owners over time.”

“In life, there are situations where talk without action not only fails to heal a wound, but exacerbates it. Since World War II, Germany paid $89 billion in reparations to Jewish organizations and America should do the same after centuries of racial oppression, in large part stemming from our history with slavery. While nothing can undo the terror of the Holocaust or the slave trade, reparations can push a new frontier in racial reconciliation in America,” said Williamson.

“When it comes to paying reparations for slavery, on an emotional, psychological and spiritual level, we cannot afford not to,” says Williamson. “Until we do this cycle of violence that began in the 1600s and continues to this day will continue to haunt our psyche.”