Transitional Justice

Due Date: Sunday, March 7, 2021, 11:59 PM EST

Type of Assignment: Individual

Background/context about this activity:

“Transitional justice” is a term used to describe the variety of actions society can take as it emerges from a period of war, injustice, and/or mass violence and tries to move toward a better future.

Understanding the root of inequities and how people have attempted to mitigate racism and racial inequality in the past is critical to understanding how to construct a contemporary proposal to do the same.

Task: Using Ta-Nehisi Coates’ “The Case for Reparations,” this assignment will ask you to think critically about the ways in which racism and racial discrimination have historically operated to the detriment of Black Americans, and how policies of transitional justice have attempted to improve conditions for Black Americans and make amends for past injustices.

Instructions

Step 1: Read

Read Ta-Nehisi Coates, “The Case for Reparations,” The Atlantic (June 2014). (Available online through the NU library and in your Source Material module page, under the section, “How have people sought to mitigate racial inequalities through organizing and legal reform? What strategies have been successful and what strategies have not? Part II”).

Step 2: Analyze

The case that Ta-Nehisi Coates makes for reparations is similar in many ways to the kind of issues you will raise in your group proposal about eliminating racism and racial inequality. He makes a case for reparations by connecting historical events, practices, and policies to the catastrophic impacts they have had on Black Americans.

Consider your team’s Section 1 draft you recently put together and how the issues raised by Coates, both the history of discrimination and weighing the potential benefits of reparations, could be applied to your group’s proposal.

Write a one-page (single-spaced, 12 pt. Times New Roman font) response based on the following:

- What are some of the racist policies and practices described in the article?
- What form of reparations could help address these inequalities?
- In your opinion, what are some of the potential benefits and challenges of creating a reparations program?

*If possible, try and construct your response by focusing on an issue or issues that your team could use in their proposal, such as the wage gap, redlining, etc.