Rethinking Reparations: Black History Month Debate 2024

Oct 24, 2024 | Parliamentary Work

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I intervened briefly in this year’s Black History Month Debate to reframe the issue of reparations, which has been in the news a lot lately. The dominant framing around the issue is the question of money, with large sums being bandied around. Whilst it is important to quantify the scale of economic damage our country inflicted by enslaving and colonising peoples around the world, it is also important to recognise that no sum of money could recompense such suffering. I pointed out the myriad ways in which campaigners are calling for reparations to be enacted: from the restitution of artefacts to truthful history curriculums, debt cancellation and mitigating environmental damage.