Updating the psychological case for reparations to African Americans

Abstract

In 2019, Medria Connolly and I wrote an article that we consider to be the theoretical foundation of our reparations activism. Since that time, a world-wide pandemic and unprecedented protests following the extra-judicial killing of George Floyd dramatically changed the psycho-social landscape surrounding the reparations debate. Evidence of the third spontaneously erupted across the world and was instantaneously televised into the homes of an audience held captive by pandemic restrictions. However, a fierce and sophisticated backlash that historically follows Black advancement also materialized. Group and individual psychological strategies are offered that may help sustain the reparations movement in the face of these powerful counter forces.