History department event explores and uplifts reparations

On Wednesday, Sept. 25, the Macalester history department held a panel in the Weyerhaeuser Boardroom, commemorating the final year of the United Nations’ “International Decade for People of African Descent (2015-2024).” The event brought together a group of five speakers, who discussed the history of systemic racism in their individual communities while speculating on the potential for reparatory justice. Jennifer Branche, a Senior Legal Officer in the Administrative Law Division of the United Nations (U.N.), acted as the panel’s moderator. She reminded students that, according to the U.N., over two hundred million people of African descent currently live in the Americas. As such, the issue of reparations had “everything to do with all of us.” She spoke of the contemporary African diaspora as a diverse group, united by a shared identity of “descendants of ancestors, whom I would like to think of as overcomers.” Verene Shepherd, Professor Emerita at the University of the West Indies, told the audience that the International Decade for People of African Descent was initially conceived as an event focused on reparatory justice. But that plan was abandoned after it faced opposition from U.N. member states. Despite its rocky beginnings, Shepherd described the Decade as a...