CBA Record July-August 2021

for hundreds of years in America. In fact, since 1989, a bill has been sponsored in the House of Representatives every year asking for a federal commission to study reparations, but until now it hadn’t received enough support to even make it to the floor for a vote. Why are so many White Americans so unwilling to even discuss reparations for Blacks? Because they don’t think Blacks were really done an injustice. They feel that we got what we deserved — abuse. For them, our suffering has been earned. How could they possibly think that? Because thinking that way is the only way to justify their lack of outrage at how Blacks were and still are treated. Black reparations is not just about “slavery.” Slavery, strictly speaking, is forced labor. As bad as slavery was, it’s been over since 1865. Every other ethnic group that came to America has been allowed to assimilate into White American main- stream more than Blacks have. That is not because Blacks were enslaved per se. That is because our slavery was more than just forced labor. The enslavement of Blacks is the only system of slavery that was based solely on the victims’ physical appearance (e.g. skin color, hair texture, shape of nose and lips). In 2021, over 150 years after the aboli- tion of slavery, the stigma of Blackness is still very much alive. So much so that a couple of years ago California and other states found it necessary to enact laws expanding the definition of race to include hair texture and certain hairstyles such as braids, locs, and twists. (see California’s Crown Act, CA Educ.Sec. 212.1 and CA Gov.Sec. 12926). Many ethnic groups have been enslaved throughout history, and they assimilated in a couple of generations, without the benefit of reparations. But no other ethnic group besides Blacks had slavery plus crupel- lechrom. It is not just the theft of Black labor that needs to be compensated, it’s the stigma of Blackness that’s the real injury. By failing to focus on the injury of that linger- ing stigma, we reduce Black demands for reparations to nothing more than a claim for unpaid wages.

Welcome to Blackness Let me share a story with you that explains crupellechrom in a compelling way. In 2018 I had a fascinating conversation with an Uber driver. He appeared to be my age—late 40s/early 50s, my build, my complexion, clean shaven and bald. This was around campaign season, so there were many candidates running for various offices, and many political issues were being discussed in the media. I made a comment to the driver about how some issue affects “us Black folks.” The driver said he agreed with me, but that he wasn’t Black. He was from India, and he came to America when he was a toddler, so he had no foreign accent. He then told me that he grew up with kids of all ethnicities and has friends from all racial backgrounds. He had a six- figure job until a few years ago, when he was laid off. Since getting laid off, he’d been driving for Uber. He said that he had to apologize to his Black friends because of what Uber taught him. Prior to driving for Uber, he would tell his Black friends that they were exaggerating their complaints of racism — surely America couldn’t be as racist as they were claiming. After all, he was a person of color, and he got along just fine with White people. Then after he started driving for Uber, he had a particular experience several times withWhite police officers that opened his eyes to what it’s like to be Black. Here is what he experienced on several occasions from White officers: White Officer (after pulling driver over): Sir, I need to see your license,

insurance, and registration. Driver: Sure, here they are officer. What did I do? White Officer (looking at his driver’s license, struggling to pronounce his Indian name): Sir, I’m not sure how to pronounce this name, how do you say it? Driver pronounces his name. White Officer: What kind of name is that, where are you from? Driver: It’s an Indian name officer, I’m from India. White Officer: Oh, you’re from India? So, you’re not Black? Driver: No sir, I’m not Black, I’m Indian. White Officer: Oh, ok, well, here’s your documents back sir. Sorry to have bothered you, have a nice day. Crupellechrom explains why Blacks have not been able to assimilate the way immigrant groups like the Irish, Italians or Germans have—because we’re not an immigrant group. We’re an imported group. It took constitutional amendments and a bloody civil war to end our enslave- ment and make us citizens. The Supreme Court was brutally honest when it wrote in the Dred Scott case, Scott v. Sanford , 60 US 393 (1856): …And no distinction in this respect was made between the free negro or mulatto and the slave, but this stigma, of the deepest degradation, was fixed upon the whole race …

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