Published: 12/27/2022 3:21:03 PM
Modified: 12/27/2022 3:18:06 PM
As a white Northampton resident, I understand guest columnist Marc Warner’s feelings about reparations but would like to offer a different perspective (“Reparations in Northampton would demean us,” Gazette, Dec. 26). To use an example from parenting, household chores aren’t a punishment, they’re a way of taking care of each other as a family and the home we share. Similarly, when we all contribute to “cleaning up” the legacy of racism and slavery, we are showing that we care about the other members of our American “family” and want everyone to thrive. Who made the biggest mess — that’s the wrong question. Better to ask, who has the privilege of not thinking about it today, and who has to live with the fallout from centuries of slavery and discrimination? When it’s framed this way, it seems clearer that relatively well-off white communities like ours should contribute to closing that unfair gap. We’re all in this together.
JendiReiter
Northampton