In magazines, in books and newspa-pers, scholars and intellectuals are taking up the topic of reparations to African Americans for the historical effects of slavery and racial discrimination. Seattle's 1,000-member African American Jewish Coalition for Justice has launched a campaign to educate people about the legal case for reparations. Coalition co-chairs Jerry Saltzman, a practicing psychiatrist, and Thaddeus Spratlen, a University of Washington Business School professor, are the coalition's spokespersons. They told Real Change about their nascent campaign.

Real Change: Tell me a little bit about the concept of reparations. How is it different from affirmative action?

Thaddeus Spratlen: Affirmative action was aimed at creating opportunities for those who had been limited in some way. With reparations, you're asking institutions of society - whether it's government or whether it be business - to redress what has been denied to, or taken from, the descendants of slaves. It's a way of making restitution, rather than just creating opportunities.

Jerry Saltzman: In my own opinion, you have to look at reparations as not a Black issue, but an issue for society. You can not undo what you have done. You can not make up for what you have done, but you can help people heal and rejuvenate themselves. Look at the root meaning of the word reparations: "to repair." In psychological terms, you cannot live well with other people unless you repair the damage you have done to your relationships. People's openness and trust is limited in a society that has developed at the expense of a certain group.

A huge amount of wealth in this country comes from the stolen labor of kidnapped Africans and their descendants - and stolen land from Native inhabitants. When we as a society flourish on the basis of that theft, and have not addressed what has happened to those people, and blame them for their difficulties, we cannot live well. We have to go through a tremendous denial process, because if we really paid attention to what's real, it would be overwhelming. Just talking about reparations is an exercise in spiritual education, and a wonderful way of helping undo racism.

RC: Where would reparations come from?

Spratlen: One way to look at the issue is to think of all the business tax revenue paid to the U.S. government. There was never any payment made for the labor component of slave-owning businesses. When you exclude a large part of the value of the labor component, then government amassed benefits over a long period of time.

RC: What do you think of the counter-arguments - that viewing people as property was morally acceptable back then? Or that this was so long ago that it's impossible to address now?

Saltzman: That's not in line with the principles of justice. Back then, there were people who objected to slavery, even though there were slave holders. Some in the United States during World War II knew what was going on [in German concentration camps], and refused to do anything about it. There's something about capitalism, creed, and racism that makes people shut their eyes and act in complicity with what's wrong.

Spratlen: It is true that Jews and Japanese Americans were compensated relatively quickly after World War II - in time to pay many of the survivors of the camps. We're talking about descendants of victims 400 years back. But the harm did not stop after one generation. There's no statute of limitations on these kinds of injustices. Neither can you say, "Well, we didn't take care of this in 1865; whoops; it's too late now to ever do anything."

RC: How would reparations be distributed?

Spratlen: I don't get into any prescription as to exactly the best way of doing it - except that we need to address inequities in health, in the [criminal justice] system, in business. You will have to have a pretty extended debate about how to execute this.

The broadest way would be by investing in institutions. Or, you could do it on an individual basis, [deciding] what each individual descendant would be entitled to. That has more difficulties associated with it - you're talking maybe upwards of 40 million [potential recipients] now. And if you concentrate on individual payments, you could end up diluting the capacity to make structural change.

RC: Randall Robinson, the author of The Debt, said that when African Americans become middle-class, they are discouraged from talking about reparations. Do they have something to lose by bringing this up?

Spratlen: Some African Americans oppose affirmative action, on the grounds that it undermines and devalues their individual accomplishments. I think people are internalizing racism and disregarding history when they say that. It's a combination of not really being able to approach the pain and the reality of it, and then buying into the notion that this is a divisive subject.

African Americans are the only group that has not received any consideration for redress. The movement for reparations would educate all people about the unjust enrichment, about the privileges that are sustained, and hopefully get everyone to understand. Just think of how society would benefit, if the number of African-American children living in poverty was no greater than that of children [of other races]. What quality of life would exist if we didn't have this situation?

RC: When Robinson spoke in Seattle in December, he said reparations should benefit that portion of the Black community that's been left behind, and that he would also contribute. What does that mean?

Spratlen: He means that the taxpaying public should pay. That's why I shy away from talking about [payments to individuals]. Because then you say, "You mean to tell me the government should cut a check to Magic Johnson?" Even if you were to make a case that Magic should be 10 times richer than he is, that takes the weight off what needs to happen in order to repair. Those Blacks of means, who have the capacity, would be making a contribution too.

Saltzman: Look at a parallel case. Over the last 20 years, survivors of incest and child abuse have come out and spoken. There have been certain cases where there's some restitution, but at least they got to speak their piece and got acknowledgment that their struggle has worth.

Whether every African American gets money or aid for health or not isn't really the issue. Some may not need it. But you know what every African American does need? Just as every Jewish person needs? A recognition that the stuff that was done to us was not because there was something wrong with us - that we were disgusting or obnoxious or something. They need to have people acknowledge their inherent worth and potential. Just as the survivor of incest needs that to go on, so do people who have been blamed for their problems because of racism.

This was especially important, in my opinion, for Jews at the end of the Holocaust. A lot of people said you shouldn't give reparations because it cheapens lives. I disagree. I think the message was, "You have been vilified, and on the basis of that vilification you have almost been exterminated. That vilification is a lie."

To get involved, call the African American Jewish Coalition for Justice at (206)781-6654.

Did you know?

Broken promise: At the end of the Civil War, U.S. Army Special Field Order No. 15 designated a 30-mile strip of the entire southern Atlantic coastline for settlement by ex-slaves. African Americans were allowed 40 acres each. President Andrew Johnson withdrew the order that same year, and 40,000 settlers were forced off.

Cases past: Cornelius J. Jones's 1915 lawsuit sought $68 million in unpaid wages for former slaves. Jones sued the federal Treasury, arguing that the U.S. government had appropriated these millions through a tax on raw cotton. A federal appeals court dismissed the case on the grounds that the government could not be sued without its consent; it never responded to Jones's challenge.

The precedent: The Civil Liberties Act of 1988 acknowledged the government's wrongdoing against Japanese American internees during World War II. The Civil Liberties Act pays compensation to surviving internees and their next of kin.

Black earnings, white wealth: Up until the 1950s, racial discrimination in mortgage lending prevented thousands of Black families from owning their homes. By the time the Federal Housing Authority ended its policy of subsidizing mortgages subject to racially restrictive covenants, thousands of Black families had already missed out on millions of dollars. The current generation of Blacks is missing out on an estimated $82 billion in equity due to these racist policies of the past.

The average Black white-collar worker has zero financial assets compared to their white counterparts, who on average hold nearly $12,000 in net financial assets. Disproportionately dependent on its earnings to maintain its status, an average Black middle-class family could survive an economic crisis, such as losing a job, for a relatively short time.

Sources: Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States; Randall Robinson's The Debt: what America Owes to Blacks; Robert Westley's "Many Billions Gone: Is it Time to Reconsider the Case for Black Reparations?" published in the Boston College Law Review (1998).