Sharon Hall-Smith: Struggle for racial justice, reparations movement growing

Kaboompics.com Kaboompics.com I appreciated the March 1 letter about reparations owed to African-Americans [“Unitarian Universalists advocating for reparations,” Gazette]. I also saw the new documentary film, “The Cost of Inheritance,” that was referenced and was very impressed by it. I raised biracial children in Northampton, so I have seen clearly how much there is still left to do to address racism both in our area and in the nation as a whole. Cities and states across the nation, including Boston, Amherst, and Northampton, are part of a growing grassroots movement to acknowledge and repair the historic harms of enslavement, segregation, lynching, and economic and personal discrimination; and the racism that continues to this day in terms of mass incarceration, police shootings, gun violence, and the huge income and wealth gap between white and Black families. My faith community, the Unitarian Society of Northampton & Florence, is active in the struggle for racial justice, as are other area houses of worship. The Racial Justice Team will be showing “The Cost of Inheritance” on April 26, at 6:30 p.m. The showing is open to the public. Please join us to learn more about the growing movement for reparations in our city, state,...