It was only a matter of time before Northampton would follow Amherst’s initiative in dealing with the subject of “reparations.”

Anyone interested in the subject should first read Ta-Nehisi Coates’ superb 2014 essay “The Case for Reparations,” published in Atlantic Magazine. He lays out in painful detail the myriad of ways in which racism has brought suffering and perpetuated poverty to people of color in the U.S. Despite the word “reparations” in the essay’s title, his most important conclusion is that our country first needs to look honestly at its history and recognize the damage done to so many of its citizens, and that to accomplish this we need a “Truth and Reconciliation” commission, though he doesn’t use those words.

American “progressives” have a remarkable ability to phrase their goals in a way that offends people who don’t think like they do, motivating them to vote for people like Donald Trump. When most people hear the word “reparations” they think it involves taking money from people who never owned slaves and were therefore not responsible for its evils, and giving it to people who aren’t slaves (though their ancestors might have been) and therefore did not suffer its evils; this idea makes no sense to them. It is impossible to provide justice to those who suffered the horrors of slavery or to punish those responsible for its evils. I recognize that this is a simplistic way to look at the issue, but I believe that a majority of Americans would share this view.

American “conservatives” have a similarly remarkable ability to create phrases that appeal to the general public. Making speeches about teaching “critical race theory” fuels Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ presidential ambitions. The fact that critical race theory isn’t taught in our public schools is irrelevant; Republicans are conveying the simple message that a bunch of blue state intellectuals are trying to teach our innocent children that the their country is evil and that they are guilty of racism. People buy it, and this backlash both makes it more difficult for us to face the troublesome parts of our history, and perpetuates racism.

How to address American racism is a huge and very complicated question. In my lifetime we have come a long way toward ameliorating racism and its toxic legacy. In our town, excellent work by the David Ruggles Center and Historic Northampton have opened our eyes to the importance of African Americans in our own history. If the citizens of Northampton wish to carry on this work, recognizing our part in that legacy, it will help to push our society in a positive direction. Given efforts already being made, it’s not clear to me that an official city commission is necessary. I fear it would mainly serve as something that progressives could point to as an example of their good intentions.

But if such a commission is appointed, Northampton should not follow the town of Amherst in setting aside tax money for the purpose of paying reparations. First of all, we should do the work of exploring the issue before coming to the conclusion that the necessary remedy involves taking tax dollars from other pressing needs. Incidentally, those pressing needs include education and affordable housing, both of which should be considered part of necessary remedial action.

Second, I believe that they would first conclude that in this part of the world injustices done to Native Americans far exceed those done to African Americans.

Third, I would also ask this question: if we found a group of people who the commission felt deserved reparations and found the money to pay them, would the problems of racism and poverty disappear? I don’t think so; and then what, another round of reparations?

Here are three things that government can do to address the problem of historical injustice: “affirmative action” to give extra opportunity to those who have been left behind, voting rights legislation to be sure that historically underrepresented groups have equal access to the franchise, and school curriculum that makes students aware of the dark side of our history and exposes them to African American literature.

Ironically, all three ideas are threatened: The Supreme Court has already drastically weakened voting rights protection, they are about to abolish “affirmative action” and the leaders of the Republican Party are determined to undermine an honest look at our history in the schools in addition to making it more difficult for people to vote.

So the struggle is far from over. Let’s focus on the issue of how to combat racism so that opportunities of the “American dream” can be opened up to those who have been denied them in the past. Let’s not give the Republicans a tool which they will use to obstruct that goal.

Joe Blumenthal lives in Northampton. ]]>