You will recall that we have been foolowing this narrative arc — since early 2019.
It is working well — and is widely supported by the fine people who live here. [Legal pot / sales taxes fund the payments.] Here’s the latest from the Chicago Tribune:
…Evanston’s Reparations Committee announced Feb. 5 it will issue reparation payments to 44 additional descendants this summer, while providing an update on its DNA Roots Program and exploring a potential tax on Delta-8 THC products in an effort to expand funding.
The Reparations Program, established in 2019 and later approved by City Council in 2021, is the first government-funded initiative in the United States aimed at providing reparations for Black Evanston residents who experienced housing discrimination between 1919 and 1969 and to direct descendants of those residents.
Each of the 44 descendants will receive $25,000 in reparation payments intended for housing expenses, Cynthia Vargas, Evanston’s Communications and Community Engagement Manager, stated in an email to the Tribune.
“Over the next few weeks, residents assigned numbers 127 through 171 will be contacted to let them know their payment is on the way,” Tasheik Kerr, assistant to the city manager, said….
[Separately,] LaKisha David, a professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, updated the committee on Evanston’s DNA Roots Pilot Program, which offers free DNA testing for African American descendants of [formerly-enslaved persons] to trace back their ancestry and possibly connect them with living relatives in Africa….
I’m increasingly fascinated by the use of sophisticated DNA testing — to aid people, in re-discovering their “roots information” — a spiritual possession that was stolen from them (when their names were discarded, and they were forced onto ships, across the ocean) centuries ago. Excellent progress — for social good — or at least partially remediating… social harms.
नमस्ते
















