CFP: Reparations, Restitution, Reconciliation?
AAG, Boston, April 5-9, 2017
Ta-Nehisi Coates’s article, “The Case for Reparations” (The Atlantic, June 2014), has reignited demands for restitution for the “multi-century plunder of black people in America,” who have faced economic dispossession not only because of the ongoing legacy of slavery but other legal and extra-legal racist practices such as redlining, block-busting, incarceration, employment insurance, and GI Bill benefits. Since then, Black Lives Matter has also taken up “reparations for past and continuing harms” as one of its core demands, to remedy the poverty gap that they identify as arising from colonialism, slavery, redlining, mass incarceration and surveillance.
The demands for reparations by groups who have been marginalized, oppressed and subject to social, political and economic violence, stands in stark contrast with how money has been disbursed by governments and/or corporations as part of reconciliation proceedings or legal actions. Too often, money is used as a tool to silence dissent, and to sidestep accountability. For example, as part of Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, monies have been allocated to all survivors of Indian Residential Schools, with additional monies for those who suffered the most egregious forms of abuse. But only a paltry $2 million has been allocated for the 31,000 claims already decided. With respect to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010, BP set up a $20 billion trust to make reparations. But payments were so slow, that federal, state and local claimants had to turn to a class action suit to access funds. In neither of these cases has reparations led to the kind of transformative change envisioned by Coates.
This session will explore both the potential and pitfalls of putting a price on dispossession, violence and harm. In particular, papers are encouraged that consider the forms of social justice that are made possible or problematic by different forms of monetary compensation. This might include critiques of compensation practices that have already been enacted, or reflections on future opportunities. Examples from sites around the world are encouraged. Among the questions to be addressed are: What are the political stakes of reparations? What does it mean to put a price on social and political violence? How do monetary payments sit alongside other forms of redress? What kinds of violence are made visible, and what kinds are rendered invisible? What kinds of processes would be required to enact more equitable forms of redistribution? How can reparations be imagined anew? Papers are welcomed on any forms of reparation or compensation, including, but not limited to, colonialism, slavery, environmental damage, war, and terrorism.
Registration for the AAG and the submission of abstracts (of no more than 250 words) will be required by October 20, 2016. But, to better plan for the session, I encourage expressions of interest as soon as possible, and by October 15th at the latest, at [log in to unmask]