If reparations aren’t politically viable, what’s the next best thing?

A bill in the California Legislature would create a first-of-its-kind agency to administer economic reparations for slavery, if lawmakers were to approve reparations. State Sen. Steven Bradford introduced the bill to create the agency last summer, with a vote possible in the legislature this year. But reparations efforts have had a hard time winning approval in state and local governments. Only a handful of local efforts have managed to become law. And only 3 in 10 adults say descendants of people enslaved in the U.S. should get repaid one way or another, according to a 2021 Pew study. And so in addition to reparations proposals, there are other forms of redress gaining momentum. While California lawmakers are gearing up to debate reparations following recommendations from a task force, author Richard Rothstein has been touring the country to promote a different solution. He’s co-authored a new book called “Just Action” with his daughter Leah Rothstein. “We have an apartheid society today,” Richard Rothstein said. “The reforms to undo it are not only federal, but they’re also very heavily local, because local policies reinforce and sustain the segregation that the federal government created.” Though Rothstein does not believe a reparations bill can...