Dear Dean Magazine - Issue 2

F E A T U R E D B L O G
As American cities,
industries, and individuals
newly grapple with the
comprehensive effects of
systemic and blatant racism,
many are again surfacing
the question of reparations.
Reparations for Black Americans is not a new
concept: Newly freed former enslaved Black
people sought it immediately after becoming
“free” people.
Free people who were without land, money,
wealth, income, or purchasing power or the right
to vote.
People whose free labor had enriched America
and the western world, were now set adrift with
no means of recouping their wealth from the
country used their free labor to build the
wealthiest country in the world. And no way to
even earn what they could in a so-called free
enterprise country.
They could not even ascertain seed money or
loans to start something building their wealth
like they had built wealth for white people.
It is worth noting the newly freed Black people
did not want free money or land, although they
certainly were entitled to demand compensation
and reparations. They wanted what they worked
for and what had been uncompensated for
generations. And though money was needed and
should have been returned, the biggest ask was
for land.
The freed Black citizens had farmed the land for
hundreds of years and they knew how to work
the land, sell their goods, feed their families, and
take care of one another.
They knew how to build wealth and
communities.
DEAR DEAN MAGAZINE | p.7