Thank you to #netgalley for providing the e-arc. This book was published on April 9th, 2024.

While this book had good information on:

how racism absolutely did NOT end even though "legalized slavery" ended (and on that note: slavery never really ended either, it just took on different forms)
how institutions like banks and universities benefited from slavery and they, along with megarichs, should be the first to foot the cost of reparations, contrary to opponents of reparation claiming that it would be yet another taxpayer burden (like we actual taxpayers got a say in where our taxes go? I WANT my taxes to go towards free school lunches not fucking bombs)
the history of African Americans fighting for their rights and deserved payments + how the US government tried their absolute hardest to weasel out of their obligations
discussions and suggestions of infrastructures that reparations can fund


it wasn't exactly an engaging book and reading it was an frustrating experience. Part of it was due to how technical the language is, though this is not a point of criticism, just something I'd like to point out to new readers.

The book is separated to two parts: part I consists of speeches and documents and part II consists of articles and essays. Part I can be a bit dry due to the nature of those text, but I was also annoyed by the amount of whole lot of nothing languages like thanking the United Nations and the US American president for the progresses made and what an honour it was to have them here and whatever. Those can be easily edited out and nothing of essence would've been lost. Part II was definitely more interesting to read.

I also think part I could benefit from moving Chapter 9 and 10 to the front as those could be good for readers unfamiliar with reparation to go through first (it's me, I'm readers).

Have I mentioned how editing could make this book better? WHY are ISRAEL and REPARATION JUSTICE/SUCCESS mentioned in the same paragraph? TWICE? IN THIS CURRENT CLIMATE? I am not pretending to be a very informed person, since I myself am not educated until after October 2023. But IN TWENTY TWENTY FOUR? I am going to hope that this text is ARC only and the published version does NOT normalize the so-called state of Israel.

Some ableist words have also been used in this book - namely the r-word (as a verb) and "crippling". Yes I know the r-word has other meanings but at this point let's just not. There are other words one can use to mean "going backwards" or "preventing progress". And instead of "crippling", might I suggest "devastating", "undermining", "undercutting", or "defunding"?

**⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ | A Landmark Work on the Urgency of Reparations**

*Reparations and Reparatory Justice: Past, Present, and Future* by Sundiata Keita Cha-Jua, Mary Frances Berry, and V. P. Franklin is a groundbreaking and comprehensive exploration of the long-standing fight for reparations. The authors meticulously trace the history of reparatory justice, providing a deep understanding of its roots and the ongoing struggles for recognition and restitution. Their analysis is both scholarly and accessible, offering powerful arguments for why reparations are essential for addressing historical injustices and shaping a more equitable future. This book is a must-read for anyone committed to understanding and advancing social justice, making it a seminal contribution to the conversation on reparations.

The insight on how the justice system as we now know it was never built for the fair treatment of black and POC is very affirming. It’s one thing to know something to be true and something completely else to have facts to prove it. I think everyone should read this book to gain clarity on what really happening and what has been happening to the minorities in this country.

This is an important collection of voices explaining why reparations are needed, but also how they could work in practice.
It is easily understandable and accessible, and is an excellent grounding in reparatory justice.

Disclaimer: I'm white, which I'm sure will impact every aspect of this review.

Prior to this, I've been vaguely in favor of reparations, but had very little idea how they would work in practice. Some of the texts I've tried to read on the topic have been so dense that I can't follow them, or so abstract as to be meaningless to me. Topics like reparations and landback have been poorly understood in a lot of the social justice spaces I've encountered. I'm going to need to go through this collection slowly... at the time of writing this, I haven't finished reading every essay, but this book has done a lot to shape my understanding of the need for and the practical road to reparations.

Full review to come. I received this book as an ARC from the publisher, and I want to encourage people to pick it up! Five stars so far, and given how much I've already gotten out of it, I can't see that changing.