Perhaps I should have titled this entry, "Goodbye reparations. Hello Great Society."
That Senator Obama opposes reparations for slavery (and presumably Jim Crow) should come as absolutely no surprise. As I said about his 1994 syllabus on race and law, he was skeptical of them even then. Plus, they have virtually no political traction. (Apologies are somewhat different and we've seen support for them grow--that's worth some serious discussion at some later point.)
But what I think is interesting is that he's talking of past injustice and current inequality as the entry-point for a renewed commitment to social welfare programs that benefit people of all races. Sounds remarkably like the last chapter of this book, doesn't it? It also sounds a lot like his Philadelphia speech on race.
Anyway, I'm off to my old home of Oklahoma City for a CLE presentation on Monday. It'll be exciting to see how that city's changed over the five years since I was last there; more on this once I get back.
Comments