The ongoing wounds of enslavement and more than four centuries of entrenched racial oppression continues to impact every part of American society. Systemic disparities and injustices will endure unless proactive steps are taken to acknowledge and eliminate them. One of the clearest ways to address entrenched racial discrimination is through the study and development of reparations proposals.

Urge Congress and the White House to establish a Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans (S. 40/H.R. 40).

Background

Systemic racial oppression against Black Americans began in 1619 when the first enslaved Africans were brought to the colony of Virginia. Black families were ripped apart, Black individuals were subjected to sexual and other forms of violence, and Black children were kept deliberately uneducated and illiterate. Some early Jewish Americans were among slave traders and owners.

Despite the abolition of chattel slavery in the U.S. in 1865, systemic oppression, violence, and racial discrimination against Black Americans continues today. Lynchings, Black Codes, Jim Crow laws, restricted access to the ballot box, a biased criminal justice system, and redlining are just some examples of how racial inequity has been sustained in America.

Examples of how inequality manifests today include:

• Only 42 percent of Black households own their homes compared to 72 percent of white households.
• Black students are expelled from school at disproportionately higher rates than their peers.
• The employment rate for Black men has consistently remained at 11 to 15 percentage points lower than that of other men.
• Black women experience maternal deaths at a rate of three to four times than white women.

Such injustices will endure unless proactive steps are taken to acknowledge and eliminate them. The bicameral Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans Act (S. 40/H.R. 40) was introduced by Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Representative Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX-18). If Congress is unable to pass this bill, then the President of the United States must use the full power of his office to establish a Commission to Study and Develop Reparations for African Americans by executive order.

Once established, this commission would be responsible for identifying the U.S. government’s role in the institution of chattel slavery, the discriminatory laws against formerly enslaved Africans and their descendants, and the vestiges of enslavement in the form of systemic anti-Black racism. The commission would also be tasked with recommending appropriate ways to educate the public and provide remedies.

Jewish Values

In the Talmud, we learn that all people are descended from a single being so that no person can say, “my ancestor is greater than yours.” (Sanhedrin 37a). Systemic racial oppression is a sin that violates the sacred tenet of equality between people. Our Jewish texts are also clear on the importance of restitution for wrongs committed. Maimonides linked the payment of damages to the concept of t’shuvah, noting that repentance must accompany the financial commitment (Mishnah Torah, Hilchot Teshuvah 1.1). Racial healing can only begin to be achieved when this systemic oppression is recognized and accounted for, when t’shuvah is carried out.

At the URJ December 2019 Biennial, the Reform Movement overwhelmingly adopted a Resolution on the Study and Development of Reparations for Slavery and Systemic Racism in the U.S. The resolution recognizes that, “As an institution striving to be antiracist, we seek to address the harms of those who came before us, and the injustices that continue to surround us, so that we do what we can to make our institutions, communities, and nation more just for future generations.”

Join our call by asking your members of Congress and the White House to support the research and development of reparations for enslavement and systemic racism.

More Information:

In addition to sending an email through our form above, you can also call the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121.

For more information on this issue, contact Eisendrath Legislative Assistant Olivia Kogan at okogan@rac.org. 

By submitting this form, you are agreeing to receive emails from the RAC and URJ. You can manage your preferences at any time. 

Most elected officials with online contact forms require a prefix to submit a message, so this requirement is part of the VoterVoice platform. For most offices, you may submit any prefix or title up to 30 characters (including gendered, professional, religious, and non-binary prefixes), but a small number of offices only accept certain prefixes. Learn more about this requirement, which is not controlled by the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism. 

A small number of Capitol Hill offices impose a strict character limit for incoming constituent emails. If you receive an error notification that your message is too long or cannot be sent, please manually shorten the message. This character limit is not controlled by the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism or the VoterVoice platform.