By Ann Brown
May 9, 2022
As more and more cities and institutions start to address the issue of reparations or repair to the Black community for the legacy of slavery and systemic racist policies, the overwhelming call tends to be for federal reparations.
Reparations scholars and activists argue that the only true way to close the racial wealth gap is through monetary reparations from the federal government to Black Americans who can trace slave ancestry.
But how much would reparations recipients get?
“Financial reparations will close the wealth gap. The idea is to provide reparations recipients an amount sufficient to close the wealth gap. We estimate this will cost about $14 trillion, on the low side. The premise is the federal government would spend a sufficient amount to close the wealth gap,” economist William Darity, professor of public policy at Duke University, told Finurah’s Money Talk series. Darity has studied the concept of reparations for more than 30 years. He co-authored the book “From Here to Equality: Reparations for Black Americans in the Twenty-First Century” with folklorist A. Kirsten Mullen.
