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When Sorry Isn't Enough: The Controversy Over Apologies and Reparations for Human Injustice
Leading scholars, activists, and political leaders on being victim's of the world's worst atrocities
"How much compensation ought to be paid to a woman who was raped 7,500 times? What would the members of the Commission want for their daughters if their daughters had been raped even once?"―Karen Parker, speaking before the U.N. Commission on Human Rights
Seemingly every week, a new question arises relative to the current worldwide ferment over human injustices. Why does the U.S. offer $20,000 atonement money to Japanese Americans relocated to concentration camps during World War II, while not even apologizing to African Americans for 250 years of human bondage and another century of institutionalized discrimination? How can the U.S. and Canada best grapple with the genocidal campaigns against Native Americans on which their countries were founded? How should Japan make amends to Korean "comfort women" sexually enslaved during World War II? Why does South Africa deem it necessary to grant amnesty to whites who tortured and murdered blacks under apartheid? Is Germany's highly praised redress program, which has paid billions of dollars to Jews worldwide, a success, and, as such, an example for others?More generally, is compensation for a historical wrong dangerous "blood money" that allows a nation to wash its hands forever of its responsibility to those it has injured?
A rich collection of essays from leading scholars, pundits, activists, and political leaders the world over, many written expressly for this volume, When Sorry Isn't Enough also includes the voices of the victims of some of the world's worst atrocities, thereby providing a panoramic perspective on an international controversy often marked more by heat than reason.
"How much compensation ought to be paid to a woman who was raped 7,500 times? What would the members of the Commission want for their daughters if their daughters had been raped even once?"―Karen Parker, speaking before the U.N. Commission on Human Rights
Seemingly every week, a new question arises relative to the current worldwide ferment over human injustices. Why does the U.S. offer $20,000 atonement money to Japanese Americans relocated to concentration camps during World War II, while not even apologizing to African Americans for 250 years of human bondage and another century of institutionalized discrimination? How can the U.S. and Canada best grapple with the genocidal campaigns against Native Americans on which their countries were founded? How should Japan make amends to Korean "comfort women" sexually enslaved during World War II? Why does South Africa deem it necessary to grant amnesty to whites who tortured and murdered blacks under apartheid? Is Germany's highly praised redress program, which has paid billions of dollars to Jews worldwide, a success, and, as such, an example for others?More generally, is compensation for a historical wrong dangerous "blood money" that allows a nation to wash its hands forever of its responsibility to those it has injured?
A rich collection of essays from leading scholars, pundits, activists, and political leaders the world over, many written expressly for this volume, When Sorry Isn't Enough also includes the voices of the victims of some of the world's worst atrocities, thereby providing a panoramic perspective on an international controversy often marked more by heat than reason.
- GenresJusticeNonfiction
536 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 1999
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
November 15, 2008
Awesome collection of essays on reparations covering topics from Native American repatriation, payments to comfort women, reparations for slavery in the U.S., Holocaust reparations. This was my guide for my college senior thesis; I have yet to see as comprehensive and detailed coverage of the ins and outs of reparations.
November 12, 2019
There are cases for and against reparations of all sorts in this piece, though if you can read between the lines, or even think critically about the cases against reparations for *certain* people, you'll understand that those argument fall flat on their faces.
Worth the read so you can "see both sides."
It's not just a book about reparations for slavery--which is certainly what comes to mind for many--but also reparations for genocide, war crimes, sex abuse, and state-sanctioned disenfranchisement. There are a host of explicit ills that warrant "reparative action" and this book looks at most of the key ones, providing historical context, documented government responses, and first-person narratives of those affected by both the vices and justices (or lack thereof).
Worth the read so you can "see both sides."
It's not just a book about reparations for slavery--which is certainly what comes to mind for many--but also reparations for genocide, war crimes, sex abuse, and state-sanctioned disenfranchisement. There are a host of explicit ills that warrant "reparative action" and this book looks at most of the key ones, providing historical context, documented government responses, and first-person narratives of those affected by both the vices and justices (or lack thereof).
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 13, 2021
Eye-opening. Will use this book for research on Social Justice.
December 30, 2021
As we grapple with the unfinished business of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and the death of its Chairperson.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews